Highest resolution slide show that VMF5 is capable of?

Phototaker · Post by **Phototaker** » Mon Jul 23, 2007 6:20 am

What is the highest resolution slide show that VMF5 is capable of making into a DVD?

DVDDoug · Post by **DVDDoug** » Wed Jul 25, 2007 5:51 pm

720 x 576 is the maximum resolution on a PAL DVD (4x3 or 16x9). That's a limitation of the DVD specification. ...I'm not sure if you can make a Blu Ray or HD-DVD slideshow... I assume so...

Note that there will be some quality loss with the still-to-video conversion...

- There is some loss with the MPEG-1 or MPEG-2 compression.

- Still image formats use square pixels and video uses rectangular pixels. So, pixels will be added or subtracted. (A 720x576 still won't have the correct proportions for 4x3 or 16x9 video.)

- Colors are handled differently with stills and PAL/NTSC video. The conversion is not perfect.

Phototaker · Post by **Phototaker** » Thu Jul 26, 2007 2:31 am

I'm aware that some other programs allow you to use other codec's other than MPEG2 can offer higher resolution like DIVX & WMV. If these codec's could be used in this program then the resoltion file could be burned as a data disk & should be able to be played on some of the newer DVD players which offer much better playback than the standard 720x576. In other words if the project were too long you could make & play a higher resolution disc without having to ese blueray burners & disks.

Post by **Ron P.** » Thu Jul 26, 2007 3:30 am

Your partially correct.

IF you are viewing them on a HD Television then the higher resolution may be possible. However the DVD specs are based on what most TVs displays are set to. For your area it is 720 x 576 (PAL). If you try using images that are for example 2560 x 1920, in the slideshow they will be downsized to the DVD spec.

In other words, you would need to create an HD video slideshow to be able to use any higher resolution.

etech6355 · Post by **etech6355** » Thu Jul 26, 2007 4:05 am

720 x 576 is the maximum resolution on a PAL DVD (4x3 or 16x9). That's a limitation of the DVD specification. ...I'm not sure if you can make a Blu Ray or HD-DVD slideshow... I assume so...

Yes, this is correct. I make SD & HD slideshows. Since HighDef is 16:9 if your pictures are 4:3 then MF inserts them into the 16:9 frame to maintain the correct proportions. The HD slideshows look really nice using project settings of 1920x1080@18000kbs VBR, add some background music etc.
But you don't need to burn a hd-dvd, use the export features of MF to create a HD file on your harddisk, you can also export to divx/wmv hd-divx/hd-wmv.

If you want to fill the 16:9 frame you can also crop to the pictures to maintain the correct proportions, but one can usually do this using the zoom features on any HDTV and also many HD players have a built-in zoom feature.

To bad I can't find any HD-DVD burners and media around. Seems to be like bird hunting on an island where there are no birds.

Phototaker · Post by **Phototaker** » Thu Jul 26, 2007 7:18 am

I can see the export feature in program. What I don't see listed in customize are the options for using different other codec's & the ability to adjust them as you like. WMV is listed but DIVX & XVID aren't listed even though I have them installed on this PC.

etech6355 · Post by **etech6355** » Thu Jul 26, 2007 1:01 pm

For divx & xvid you goto customize, select avi as the containter ("Save as type:" format (drop-down box) -> Options -> (AVI TAB)Compression (drop-down box) select Divx then hit "Configure" then customize your divx settings. Make sure the general tab has all the correct settings (along with MF project settings).

Note: If your version of Divx that you have purchased & installed is not displayed under the compression tab then perform this actiion:
Goto C:\Program Files\Ulead Systems\Ulead DVD MovieFactory 6\ Directory, find the "DivX_ul.dll" file and either rename it, move it or delete it. Then restart MF so it can load your correct version of Divx.
The above version comes distributed with the MF6 installation.

Note: Creating a divx or xvid video will be a smaller file size after encoding. For the best quality video you should use Mpeg2 video at approx 6000kbs VBR (variable bit rate).

Phototaker · Post by **Phototaker** » Thu Jul 26, 2007 2:07 pm

I'm surprised that you said that best quality would be MPEG2. I would have thought that a project encoded with either of the mentioned codecs would be better especially since its possible to encode up to 1080i which is from memory something like 1920x1080.

etech6355 · Post by **etech6355** » Fri Jul 27, 2007 1:50 am

Your original post:

What is the highest resolution slide show that VMF5 is capable of making into a DVD?

Mpeg2 standard defintion or Highdefintion is the best quality.
divx & xvid are work arounds to reduce file size which makes the videos easier to manage. divx & xvid produce great video. Mpeg2 is still the highest quality you will get from a dvd/hd-dvd/Blu-Ray disk.