Optimum Image dimensions for Slideshows

Scott_Mullen · Post by **Scott_Mullen** » Fri Mar 30, 2007 7:52 am

What are the best dimensions to set up images for use in a DVD slideshow with MF4.04? The problem I am having is that it is "trimming" the edges of all my images which contains important info.

Also, is it possible to add more than one audio track?

Thanks
Scott

etech6355 · Post by **etech6355** » Fri Mar 30, 2007 1:17 pm

What are the best dimensions to set up images for use in a DVD slideshow with MF4.04? The problem I am having is that it is "trimming" the edges of all my images which contains important info.

Usually 720x576, but information on the edges of pictures & videos are cut off due to TV's overscanning. This is called the safe area when editing. You can activate this under "Preferences" (F6 Hotkey). It will not correct the overscan, it's displays the area and makes you aware what's in this overscanned area that may or maynot be displayed on your TV.

Also, is it possible to add more than one audio track?

No, MF5 & MF6 can.

Scott_Mullen · Post by **Scott_Mullen** » Fri Mar 30, 2007 9:51 pm

Usually 720x576, but information on the edges of pictures & videos are cut off due to TV's overscanning. This is called the safe area when editing. You can activate this under "Preferences" (F6 Hotkey). It will not correct the overscan, it's displays the area and makes you aware what's in this overscanned area that may or maynot be displayed on your TV.

Thanks. Is there a recommended safe area to use? Or does it vary from screen to screen. At present my images are well within those constraints(560x400 @72dpi) and the safe area is set to 10% but the problem is still occuring.

heinz-oz · Post by **heinz-oz** » Sat Mar 31, 2007 12:39 am

Whatever you have set your title safe area to has no bearing on the display at all. It only gives you a visual guidance of what may or may not be displayed.

The overscan is caused by the TV itself. !0% is rather low and a 13 to 14% overscan is more realistic.

If you want to see the whole image, you will have to put it on a canvas of the right aspect ratio but 14 or 15% larger than your image on all sides. In your image editing program it will look like you have a rather wide frame around your image but on the TV it will not show due to the overscan.

Whether or not you follow my advice, given in different posts on this subject, and resize your images first by cropping to true 4:3 or 16:9 aspect and then resize large images down to just over the frame size (I use 1200 x 900 bmp for 4:3 aspect), is irrelevant in this context. I find my images are sharper, crisper when I do that, others dispute it and use unedited images straigh from the camera with good results. In either case, you have to do some calculations. Calculate 14% of each side of your image in pixels and make a canvas (in an image editing program like PhotoImpact or PS, PSP etc.) which is larger on each side by the calculated amount of pixels. Place and center your image on that and save it for later use in your video. I prefer uncompressed formats like bmp, tiff or tga but find the bmp format to be better in filesize to quality comparison. Others use straight jpeg. The problem with that, IMHO, is the fact that you start with a jpeg image and save it again as a jpeg which, by it's nature, recompresses the image again, losing quality. Then you put that into a video project where it will be compressed again

Please don't take the above as the one and only truth

It just works for me and that's all I'm interested in.

The fact of the matter is that you will need to follow the process of placing your image on a larger canvas if you want to see the whole image.

Scott_Mullen · Post by **Scott_Mullen** » Sun Apr 01, 2007 1:24 am

Thanks Heinz, much appreciated... all woks great now.

One last question for you all.

I have now upgraded to MF6 but it doesn't seem to have anywhere near the same amount of template options for menus and buttons as MF4. Is there more I can download from somewhere? And I can't seem to change which slide appears on the show menu whereas I could do it before by simply double clicking the icon. Is there something simple I am missing?

sjj1805 · Post by **sjj1805** » Sun Apr 01, 2007 3:28 am

Scott_Mullen wrote:Thanks Heinz, much appreciated... all woks great now.

One last question for you all.

I have now upgraded to MF6 but it doesn't seem to have anywhere near the same amount of template options for menus and buttons as MF4. Is there more I can download from somewhere? And I can't seem to change which slide appears on the show menu whereas I could do it before by simply double clicking the icon. Is there something simple I am missing?

We have:-
Shared DVD Menus Created by Forum Users
Tutorial: PhotoImpact: Creating DVD Menu from scratch
VS9 & PI11: Creating a Custom DVD Menu Layout
MF5/ VS9 /VS10: Share Menus, Transitions between products
Free Stuff that can be used with Ulead Products

Scott_Mullen · Post by **Scott_Mullen** » Sun Apr 01, 2007 7:33 am

Thanks. One of the links in particular was of interest to me but I couldn't work out how to do it. It referred to importing menus from previous versions of Movie Factory into the latest version.

How do I import the menus, buttons and frames from versions 3 & 4 into V6?

sjj1805 · Post by **sjj1805** » Sun Apr 01, 2007 11:48 pm

If you have earlier versions of MovieFactory and/or VideoStudio you can use those menus also simply by copy pasting (maintaining the directory structure) to
C:\Program Files\Ulead Systems\Ulead DVD MovieFactory 6\Ulead DVD MovieFactory 6\Content\Menu Template
below this you have sub-directories for
4x3
16x9
HD Basic

So if you have an existing 4x3 sub-directory named sports (containing various sport menus) you would create a directory and copy them to:
C:\Program Files\Ulead Systems\Ulead DVD MovieFactory 6\Ulead DVD MovieFactory 6\Content\Menu Template\4x3\Sports

Scott_Mullen · Post by **Scott_Mullen** » Mon Apr 02, 2007 12:19 am

Thanks... much appreciated.