Poor quality DVD slide show from jpeg still photos

jezing · Post by **jezing** » Tue Feb 26, 2008 7:01 pm

I created a slide show with 360 still jpeg photos added titles and audio in the trial version of VideoStudio 11+. I burned a copy to DVD and the quality was good and everything worked fine.
I purchased and installed VideoStudio 11+ and after some editing on my trial version copy slide show I burned a new copy of my slide show and now the photos on this DVD are all fuzzy.
The photos look good in the preview window until I click on play and the photos get fuzzy just like on the DVD copy.
Please help!

Black Lab · Post by **Black Lab** » Tue Feb 26, 2008 8:24 pm

Make sure your Resampling Quality is set for Best (in Preferences>Edit tab).

Resampling quality: Specifies the quality for all effects and clips. A higher quality results in better video reproduction but takes longer to render. Choose Best if you are preparing for final output. Choose Good for fastest operation.

I always leave it on Best.

You may also try using bmp images, as jpegs are a lossy format.

pkalen · Post by **pkalen** » Wed Feb 27, 2008 4:16 pm

Try unchecking "Apply Antiflicker Filter in Image Clips"

File, Preferences, Edit

Made a big difference for me.

jezing · Post by **jezing** » Thu Feb 28, 2008 3:41 am

Thanks for your suggestions. I used the three suggestions from the two replys to my cry for help.
I created a DVD with six photos with Resampling Quality set to "Best" and I unchecked the "Apply Antiflicker Filter In Image Clips". I created all six photos in three different formats: jpeg, bmp & tiff.
The quality of the DVD was much better than before. With the photos in the tiff format the best with bmp a close second.
Still the photo sharpness does not match the sharpness I get when I view the photos in my Microsoft Office Picture Manager viewer program.
I used VideoStudio 11+ to create the DVD, burned on a Phillips DVD+RM DVD8801 burner on to a Memorex DVD+RW disc.

Do you any have more suggestions or are my expectations from this software and hardware combination too high?

heinz-oz · Post by **heinz-oz** » Thu Feb 28, 2008 8:35 am

Did you ever compare the resolution of your TV with that of your monitor? You TV is far inferior to a PC monitor and if your images are smaller or larger than the TV frame size, quality will diminish also. Every time you save an image in a compressed format like jpeg, the image is compressed again, losing even more quality. What are your image sizes in pixel x pixel and what are the file sizes in, hopefully, MB or at least KB?

jezing · Post by **jezing** » Thu Feb 28, 2008 4:50 pm

Thanks for the reply.

I did play my test DVD on both my tv and computer and as I expected the quality is much better on the computer.
I have now decided that tiff is the best format to use for my project as this format will not lose quality ever time it is saved, unlike jpeg.
My images are scanned 35mm slides, scanned in at 1200 resolutions and the image size is 1592 pixels x 1096 pixels and have a file size of 9.41 MB.

heinz-oz · Post by **heinz-oz** » Thu Feb 28, 2008 11:10 pm

Good thinking, I save mine as bmp which has the same effect.

jezing · Post by **jezing** » Mon Mar 03, 2008 1:18 am

Can anyone explain why the quality of my DVD slide show was much better on the trial version than my purchased version?

I implemented all the suggested fixes and they did provide a slight improvement, but it still has a long way to go.

I even uninstalled the software and reinstalled without any improvement.

I think maybe I wasted $80 on VideoStudio 11+ and now I need to spend more money to get a replacement edting tool.

sjj1805 · Post by **sjj1805** » Mon Mar 03, 2008 2:33 am

The trial version and the full version is the same program.
The only noticeable difference is the abscence of the bonus material from the trial version - templates, sounds etc.

If you have made a good DVD with the trial version but a bad DVD in the full version then you have done something wrong. Either you have a setting incorrectly set somewhere or you are using poor quality source material in your full version project.

Just to make sure we are following your work flow correctly are you using the original photographs in your second project and not edited material from your first project? Every time you save a JPG image it will lose some quality.

When creating a slide show of still images then you should turn ON the anti flicker setting and you should set your project to FRAME based.
The field order setting relates to input not ouptut and so even though you are going to view the slide show on a TV set it should still be created FRAME based.

The next item you should look at is the size of the photographs being used. They are best resized with an image editor such as PhotoImpact, Paint shop Pro etc so that they are the same or as close to the same size as your intended DVD output format. If however you intend to add a Ken Burns effect in which case you neeed to increase the size of the photographs to compensate for any panning and zooming you intend to include.

jezing · Post by **jezing** » Mon Mar 03, 2008 9:37 pm

sjj1805, thanks for helping me find the root of my problem.

Yes, I am using original photos (tiff format) when I create my project.

I have tuned ON the anti flicker and set project to frame based.

My photos came from 35 mm slides and are 1592 x 1088 pixels. Not sure what the intended size should be for the dvd output format. It appears to me that the VideoStudio 11+ default size is 720 x 480 pixels for the 4:3 aspect ratio.

If my assumption is correct I need to resize my photos to 720 x 480?

Trevor Andrew · Post by **Trevor Andrew** » Mon Mar 03, 2008 10:08 pm

Hi

Video uses a process called ¡¥non square pixel rendering¡¦, Basically the pixels used in video are not square unlike standard image pixels.

Notice that 720 x 480 for Ntsc is not 4 X 3 aspect ratio, this image size will not fill the screen unless you select ¡¥fit to project¡¦ but this will distort your image, making people looking a little thinner/taller.( may-be that¡¦s good).

If you were to use 640 x 480 for your image size it would fit to screen correctly being 4 X 3
This would be the minimum size you should use, and as Steve mentioned (If however you intend to add a Ken Burns effect in which case you need to increase the size of the photographs to compensate for any panning and zooming you intend to include.)

So I would double the size to 1280 x 960.

In any case use images that are 4 x 3 aspect.

laurentje · Post by **laurentje** » Mon Apr 21, 2008 10:29 am

sjj1805 wrote:
....
When creating a slide show of still images then you should turn ON the anti flicker setting and you should set your project to FRAME based.
The field order setting relates to input not ouptut and so even though you are going to view the slide show on a TV set it should still be created FRAME based.
...
.

Is this right? This is new for me. Thank for the information.

I thought that the project-settings were related with the ouput. The question then is: what should I set when in the time-line I have several still images, frame-besed videos, interlaced video's etc... ?

Post by **lancecarr** » Mon Apr 21, 2008 1:06 pm

Yep!
Generally speaking video will be upper or lower field first depending on the source and of course there are formats that will be frame based as well. Photos are just single frames so when you render them to video you can make them upper, lower or frame based.
Your real problem is not the still photos. it is the fact that you have frame based content and fielded content in the one project. Something's gotta give here!
The project properties do relate to output but are important as they are going to tell the program how to handle the existing assets you have on the timeline. The images will be ok as they will be rendered to what you dictate, however the final output has to be either framed based, upper or lowere field and that is where you may get some nasty flickering and jerky motion.

Post by **Ken Berry** » Mon Apr 21, 2008 1:55 pm

As I have just told someone else, you can have frame based slideshows and either Upper Field First or Lower Field First video. But you cannot have video of both Upper and Lower Field First in the same project. Only one or the other, plus Frame based photos. The latter will take on the characteristics of either Upper or Lower Field First. But video MUST be one or the other field first in a single disc. No mixing of Upper and Lower...

laurentje · Post by **laurentje** » Mon Apr 21, 2008 3:50 pm

Ken Berry wrote:...But you cannot have video of both Upper and Lower Field First in the same project. Only one or the other, plus Frame based photos. The latter will take on the characteristics of either Upper or Lower Field First. But video MUST be one or the other field first in a single disc. No mixing of Upper and Lower...

Why can you not mix the INPUT-clips? This means that you must convert each clip to a defined format for example:"bottom field first" before you can put them together on the time-line. Is this the case?
A program like PowerdDirector you can mix the input clips.
I understand that the ouput-file must be in one format, not the input-files.

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Poor quality DVD slide show from jpeg still photos

Poor quality DVD slide show from jpeg still photos

What if the input is mixed: still images, interlaced video,.