Hi Kevin,
Thanks for your reply, its not a quality issue as I have been using AE for many years and and pretty used to the many quality setting that this wonderful program has.
I had a bit of a play with the settings and have actually solved the problem, its a little un orthodox but if I turn my preview settings from PAL RGB (standard def) to one of the HD options, in this case I am about to start a project using 1080 i footage then the problems disappears and my graphics look great again.
So I imported an SD file which looks awful with the output mode at PAL RGB but once I switch to a HD option the standard definition video file looks great again.
I can not explain it but Im happy with what im seeing on the monitor now and confident enough to show the output to people without fear of them saying ‘why does it look so crap?’ without me being able to explain.
Do you have any ideas?
thanks for your advise..
Best
Neil