Video Studio 10+ Import backgound for menu screen very poor

mickey mouse · Post by **mickey mouse** » Sat Jun 09, 2007 9:08 pm

When i import my own picture to be used as a background for the menu page and burn the dvd. Playing the dvd then shows a very poor quality version of the picture i imported.
Does anyone know how to fix this.

thebiggfella · Post by **thebiggfella** » Sat Jun 09, 2007 10:33 pm

When you say poor quality, do you mean it's blocky? It may be that the picture you are using is small and when it's blown up to the size of your TV screen, the quality becomes poor. I make my menu backgrounds 1200 x 1600 and they work well on the TV screen, though you could probably get way with something a bit smaller. What size is the image that you are using?

mickey mouse · Post by **mickey mouse** » Sat Jun 09, 2007 10:58 pm

Hi Bigfella, thanks for your reply

I am using 5X7 pics @300 dpi, not sure of file size, I am on my laptop at the mo and the pics are on my desktop. I will check tomorrow.

The thing is i use the same size pics in slidshows on the dvd and they are fine.

The background is not blocky but it is like a low res and reduced color version of the pic i used.

thanks for your help on this

Post by **Ken Berry** » Sat Jun 09, 2007 11:15 pm

Different people use different methods, some of which involve a considerable amount of adjustment of the original image, including cropping it to a standard screen size.

I essentially just use the photo as shot on my Canon Rebel 300D digital SLR. For example, I just used two different photos taken on a recent trip to New Zealand, as menu backgrounds to the two DVDs I did of the trip. Both were straight out of the camera, with only a little touching up to improve the contrast. They were 1536 x 1024 pixels and around 700KB in size.

Both came out crisp and clear on the finished discs. I used VS10+.

sjj1805 · Post by **sjj1805** » Sun Jun 10, 2007 6:23 am

What I normally do as a simple way to remind me what file dimesions to use is to go to Windows Explorer and then to the samples directory and view the file dimensions of the samples. I then use those as a guide for my own pictures and resize accordingly.

For VideoStudio 10+ they are located here (by default)
C:\Program Files\Ulead Systems\Ulead VideoStudio 10\Content\Background

mickey mouse · Post by **mickey mouse** » Sun Jun 10, 2007 10:00 am

Thanks for all the replies so far.

The file I used is 1514KB in size, surely this should be ok. The sample files are only 280 - 300 Kb in size.

sjj1805 · Post by **sjj1805** » Sun Jun 10, 2007 10:52 am

Actually a larger file can be as bad as a smaller file.
You need to aim for a file with DIMENSIONS that are similar to the intended screen size
Example Standard Definition PAL = 768 x 576 *
Example Standard Definition NTSC = 720 x 480

Then the file format can make a difference, I would expect better results from a bmp than a jpg.

You must remember that a VideoEditor is not an image editor such as PhotoImpact, Photoshop etc. It is designed to edit video and all though it can and does resize your pictures by enlarging or SHRINKING then you get better results with an image editor.

* size amended - see posts below.

mickey mouse · Post by **mickey mouse** » Sun Jun 10, 2007 2:33 pm

thats interesting sjj1805 I will give that a try on my next dvd.

What resolution do you recommend for 16:9?

sjj1805 · Post by **sjj1805** » Sun Jun 10, 2007 7:51 pm

I have just added a new link to our Frequently Asked Questions:

What dimensions etc should I use for still images in Videos?

mickey mouse · Post by **mickey mouse** » Sun Jun 10, 2007 8:16 pm

Hi, thanks for the ongoing help and info

in your link you say...
PAL.
4x3 --- 768 x 576
16x9 --- 1024 x 576
HD (Progressive) --- 1280 x 720
HD (Interlaced) --- 1920 x 1080

NTSC
4x3 --- 720 x 480
16x9 --- 864 X 480
HD (Progressive) --- 1280 x 720
HD (Interlaced) --- 1920 x 1080

but in this post you had said PAL 720 X576 NOT 768X576

Also, I found a site which suggests that wide screen is actually 852X576

sjj1805 · Post by **sjj1805** » Sun Jun 10, 2007 8:39 pm

The original reply was written whilst I was at work and not at my own computer. The New figures - 4x3 --- 768 x 576 are the correct ones.
I will amend the above post in case anyone reads that without 'reading on further!'

I have also seen the other screen size you mentioned, plus a few more sites with other suggested sizes.

Please use the sizes I suggested as mere starting points, they are not written in tablets of stone. For 4x3 and HD the sizes are almost the same as the the Video Project sizes. what gets confusing is that when dealing with video, the dimensions for 4x3 and 16x9 are the same.

Take for example PAL
4x3 = 720 x 576
16 x 9 = 720 x 576

Now I hear several members scratching their heads and going "But 16x9 is wider". This is because with video we are not using square pixels we are using oblong pixels. In other words the pixels themselves are wider so there are still only 720 of them no matter which format you are using.

mickey mouse · Post by **mickey mouse** » Thu Jun 14, 2007 3:24 pm

I have resized the menu background picture using photoshop but its still not much better. It is still poor quality compared to the same pucture used in the slideshow....does not make sense to me.

when resizing in PS which method should i use?
Bicubic, Bilinear or Nearest Neigbour

Or should i deselect the resample option?

sjj1805 · Post by **sjj1805** » Thu Jun 14, 2007 8:39 pm

Normally I use PhotoImpact, but If I was using Photoshop I tend to use bicubic.

Wikipedia:

Bicubic
Bilinear
Nearest neighbour

and don't ask me to explain all that algebra!