Still images are pixelated in Studio 7.

Jungle Explorer · Post by **Jungle Explorer** » Wed Dec 13, 2006 5:57 am

How do I make still images clearer in Video Studio 7. I use high quality 5 megapixel JEPG images, but they come out very pixelated even when I render a maximum quality DVD.

heinz-oz · Post by **heinz-oz** » Wed Dec 13, 2006 6:22 am

The problem is that the TV cannot display high resolution images nor does the DVD standard allow for these. The software needs to "shrink" your images to make them fit the DVD complant frame size and resolution. VS and most other NLE's does a bad job of this task.

You are better off using a good image editor like PhotoImpact to resize your images close to the TV frame size and save them as non compressed bmp images. If you crop your images, make sure you do not forget about the overscan area. Around 10 to 15% of your image, on all 4 sides, will not show on your TV screen.

Jungle Explorer · Post by **Jungle Explorer** » Wed Dec 13, 2006 2:03 pm

Now that answer I can understand. I was pretty certain of what the problem was but I just didn't know what to do about it.

Thank you so much for your help.

Jungle Explorer · Post by **Jungle Explorer** » Wed Dec 13, 2006 2:57 pm

One more thing about this subject. I have produced some nice DVD movies with VS 7.0 and have really been able to accomplish just about anything I have imagined. Aside from the occasional freeze up during rendering of large DVD files and the poor quality of still images in video (which I can now hopefully correct), I have been very satisfied with this product. You seem to be extremely knowledgeable about Ulead products and so I ask you; what are the major improvements in VS 10+ that might encourage me to upgrade. Like for instance, would VS 10 do a better job of re-sampling a high quality jpeg still then VS 7.0? The reason I am asking, is I am about to do a video slide show of the 42 year history of my missionary organization which will incorporate several hundred still images, transitions, animated 3D graphics, background music, voice narration and sound effects. It would be nice if I did not have to re-size and convert every single jpeg image manually as you recommended earlier.

Black Lab · Post by **Black Lab** » Wed Dec 13, 2006 3:16 pm

I don't think VS10+ does any better job at resampling images than v7 does. The major improvements include 6 overlay tracks, Dolby 5.1 support, audio waveform, and HD editing and authoring.
What's New
Comparisons
Best advice is to download the trial and compare for yourself.

Trevor Andrew · Post by **Trevor Andrew** » Wed Dec 13, 2006 6:29 pm

Hi

I found VS 7 terrible at using still images. Pulsating pixels was the worst condition.
The highlights within the image would nearly jump out at you.

Later versions I feel have improved.

The only thing I would say is use images at 4:3 ratio.

VS 10 now uses 6 overlay tracks which can be used quite successfully to create good effects. Allowing you to place several images to one frame.

When you intend to start your slide show download the trial version, give it a go.

Trevor

Post by **Ken Berry** » Wed Dec 13, 2006 9:41 pm

I tend to agree with Trevor. I started out with VS7 and found it difficult to use when wanting to produce a slide-show -- though I managed to produce a couple of videos which included 2 or 3 images which displayed well.

As a result, I used a free SE version of Ulead's other product, Movie Factory (2.0 I think it was) and found that it handled slideshows perfectly, without my really having to think any more about it than selecting and inserting the photos. Since that time, I have never tried using VS very much for slideshows, though again I have experimented recently with VS10+ in this regard, and like Trevor, believe a lot of the kinks in VS7 have now been ironed out.

Bottom line: download a test version of Movie Factory 5+ (or find a free SE version somewhere) and see what it can do. If, as it sounds, your proposed project is going to be huge and relatively complex, you might be better served looking at MF for it rather than VS.

heinz-oz · Post by **heinz-oz** » Wed Dec 13, 2006 10:24 pm

I still have not used VS 10+ because I use MediaStudioPro8. Even this more sophisticatd program does need the images to be reduced in size in order to display well.

If you were to use an image editor like PhotoImpact, you would not need to resize every image manually. You would use a batch task. These tasks are easy to set up and alter your images as required.

I'm also not 100% of which has the greater effect on the image quality, the reduced frame size or the fact that you have an "uncompressed" base format for VS/MSP/MF to work with. Both factors combined certainly deliver but we had the occasional post claiming that images did not need to be reduced in size to display well. I did not run any empirical test on one or the other, just know what works for me.

I also think that Ken is right in stating that MovieFactory does a better job than VS7.

Another poster mentioned pulsing images. That is a common occourance also, especially with images with a lot of detail like leaves, horizontal lines etc. This is caused by the interlacing of two fields per frame. Small detail my display in one field or the other. If it is right on the scan line, it will pulse because alternating fields may have this detail or not. That can be overcome by a slight vertical motion blurr, usually 1 or 2 pixels worth is all that's needed. Some people will tell you to use gaussian blurr but, personally, I think this is to drastic. it has an effect on the whole image and not just on the horizontal lines.

Trevor Andrew · Post by **Trevor Andrew** » Thu Dec 14, 2006 10:20 am

Hi

Pulsing pixels was a problem with VS 7 and 8 but since VS 9 I have had no problems.

As I said the light areas (highlights) of the image suffered, the darker areas being stable.
Using 4:3 image sizes does seem to improve things.

The latest slide show was made using Frame Based rather than a field order. (no video content)
I think Ken recommended this approach, so I gave it a go.

The slide show images are crystal clear.

I may produce another using field order, just to compare.

Trevor

heinz-oz · Post by **heinz-oz** » Thu Dec 14, 2006 10:49 pm

The problem is mostly noticable if you have defined horizontal lines in the 1 to 2 pixel range like a tiled roof, close up of a bush or tree where you can see each leaf etc. I have had this happen with DVD PictureShow and MSP 7.3. Not sure about MSP 8 because I have not yet done a slide show or used stills with it.

I don't think it had anything to do with the older versions of VS because this is caused by the interlaced fields per frame. Small horizontal detail may show in alternating fields over a number of frames causing this jitter.