resolution, dpi, still picture format for slideshow

[dwegelin]

Love this forum, I've learned a lot and have to give you all a round of applause, although I feel I still have much to learn.

Here's my understanding, some of my test runs and if anyone can point me in a different direction that would be great.

I've been mostly creating slideshows with still images made from either a digital camera (5 megapixel set to best quality) or scanned images. Importing them into the timeline. My goal is to create a NTSC DVD for viewing on 4:3 TV or PC.

I'm using VS9 with the following options:
Frame based
Frame Size "standard 720x480
29.97 FPS
Video data rate: Variable (Max. 8000 kbps)
Two-pass Encode.
Quality Slider to 100.
Perform Non-Square Pixel Rendering.
Image Resampling Option" to "Keep Aspect Ratio" and "Resampling Quality" to "Best" before insertion.

Problem is the pictures never end up with the clearly defined quality as when I view them in Windows picture and fax viewer or in XP Media Center Edition or Photoshop. The output on DVD or MPEG is slightly darker and pretty much downgraded. I've tried dpi settings when scanning the images from 96dpi to 600dpi and the result doesn't have much effect. Neither does saving them to Bitmap or Jpeg.

Am I missing something here? I've seen quite a few different posts on changing the resolution however I view that as if the images are streched or squashed on the final product and need to be corrected (that's what keep aspect ratio is for I'm assuming).

Thanks guys.

[neonbob]

Sd dvd (720x480 7000k) does a terrible injustice to the quality of stills. I have a 9mp slr camera and I was always disgusted at the quality drop...but there is little you can do... 720x480 is quite the reduction and dvd compression levels don't help much either. You can get away with this in video because the pictures are in motion and the eye doesn't get much time to study the image. But if you pause the video and have a careful look, you will see the low quality level. I was always extremely disappointed in my slide show because of this drastic slash in quality.

I now do my slide shows in HD-dvd for playback on the toshiba Hd-dvd player, and it is a night and day difference! The sharpness, the color, depth... it's all there. It's like looking at the real picture, only much bigger.

I have not seen your slide shows (obviously) but with dvd, my guess is that the quality you are seeing is about average and isn't going to get much better.

[Ken Berry]

This won't really help, but when I making slideshow DVDs, I use Ulead's Movie Factory exclusively. I now have MF5+, but it was equally good with all versions going back to MF2 which is the first I bought... While the final quality is not as wonderfully sharp as the original, it is still pretty good, and certainly much much better than the results you seem to be getting. And best of all, MF takes all the hard work out of it.

I would, if I were you, download the trial version of MF 5 or look around for an SE version of it and try it out.

[dwegelin]

I now do my slide shows in HD-dvd for playback on the toshiba Hd-dvd player, and it is a night and day difference!

Thanks neonbob, I wouldn't have thought of that, are you using VideoStudio10 as the program to create the slideshows? I see it has HD support now.

[dwegelin]

I would, if I were you, download the trial version of MF 5 or look around for an SE version of it and try it out.

Ken, your the man! I was hoping I would get a reply from you. And I must have been doing some of my homework since you didn't suggest any changes to settings. I do have a copy of MF4 sitting behind me just never installed it. That's next on the list. You guys rock!!!

[neonbob]

I now do my slide shows in HD-dvd for playback on the toshiba Hd-dvd player, and it is a night and day difference!

Thanks neonbob, I wouldn't have thought of that, are you using VideoStudio10 as the program to create the slideshows? I see it has HD support now.

No... Actually I am using Pinnacle studio 10.7... they have added hd support which seems to work extremely well.

[maddrummer3301]

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[pepegot2]

I make great slide shows, without any clarity problems.Enter your pictures in "IMAGE" mode. In my case they are 1600X1200. Switch to Video if you want to add some video clips to the project. Then author using same as first clip and VS does the rest. No problems!

[blplhp]

pepegot2,

In VS10, what do you mean by "IMAGE" mode?

[Ron P.]

I've tried finding the Image Mode too, and can not..