I never use a native .wmv file so I have no idea the best practice here.
This is for a very good friend in my past. She found out that I could edit video and asked me to help her out.

This is for a Christmas gift and the video clip needs to be used for something.
All I had to do was trim the clip and remove the audio. I am using Adobe Premire Pro but I really think that the software is the issue.

When I render the final file I am getting a very poor image. The file is native 320x240 and I understand this is not a good thing. However, I don't think the drop off should be this much.

The final version does not have to be .mwv it can be others. But I just get a similar image after the trim.

What are your suggestions? What Codec is best for this. I always use a .avi or if I need a good compression I use .mp4. Neither of these are giving me what I need though.

When playing the original file using Windows Media Player, press Alt + F3 to blow up the video to double size - that's about the quality you will get if you export as DV-AVI. It also depends on the bitrate; if the original is some sort of internet video, don't expect much.

Once it's been downsized/compressed, quality is all gone!

If you have Quicktime Pro (on a mac, you'll need flip4mac also) you might try setting your in and out points on the playback window, select export movie to quicktime movie, select Broadband High as your output, select H.264 codec, best quality, multipass encoding, and click off on the sound settings to eliminate the audio if that's what you wanted. I have recently had to recode a 320x240 wmv file in this way and it looked pretty good....Battle Vaughan/miamiherald.com video team