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I know this issue has been raised before and I HAVE searched the forum but not found this particular angle. So here goes.....

When I'm editing High Def film the Project Properties show as 1140 x 1080 with a Video Data Rate of 25,000 kbps.

But if I load a project file with good quality JPEGS (no video, just jpegs) then the Project Properties slips to 720 x 576 and a Video Data Rate of 8,000 kbps.

This seems to me like the same difference I would find between editing High Def and Standard Def video. I'm sure that someone will tell me that there are fundamental differences between video and still images but could this be the cause (or just a symptom) of low quality stills?

To put it another way, is it possible to put stills into a VSP using the higher quality Project Properties settings associated with High Def film? And if so, would this give me the higher quality stills I'm after?

Hope this makes some kind of sense to someone!

I have experimented with what you are doing to try to make an HD quality photo montage. I inserted my jpegs in the timeline and then went to file:project properties:edit

I had really nice results with properties as follows
24bit 1280x720
upper field first
mpeg2 16:9
Variable bit rate 2500kbps max
Audio data rate: 224 kbps
MPEG audio layer 2, 48 KHz, Stereo

Played back on my 50 inch widescreen plasma tv the quality was awesome.

Of course I had pretty high resolution JPEGs to work with.

I found no problems setting the properties in the project properties to as I describe.

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

Metmot/Steve

The good news is that you both seem to be saying that I can do what I want to do (get the full benefit of high resolution stills) by setting the Project Properties correctly.

Next question: How do I do that?

I can't see this option in Preferences nor can I see it if I right click on the timeline and view Properties.

Come on guys, tell me how and make my day (not to mention my DVD).

Push
ALT+ENTER

open the "edit" dialog in the lower right

You will find what you are looking for there

Metmot,

ALT+ENTER does indeed bring up the Project Properties dialogue box but the dropdown menu for Frame Size only runs up to 720 x 576. This is essentially the problem I am facing- how to raise the Frame size above this.

Playing around with the dialogue box I note that the Media Type is 'PAL DVD' (I have not knowingly chosen this and am therefore guessing it is the default setting when I first drop my JPEGs into an empty project file). If I change the Media Type to MPEG2 things change and I can now push the Frame Size up to 1920 x 1080. Is this what you are suggesting I should do?

That would be correct. The PAL (or NTSC) DVD template settings are so they will be compliant to the Standard Definitions for DVD. The frame sizes that you're looking for are not, so they are not available through the PAL DVD template.

Guys,

I think we are there.
I've changed the Project Properties and can already see that the quality of the images is massively enhanced.

One last question: is there something I could do in Preferences which would automatically give me the high quality images when I'm working on a slide show (without video)? With my current settings it looks like I'm defaulting to the PAL DVD setting and hence getting the lower quality images unless I manually correct.

You also don't say what you are planning to do with the slideshow once you have managed to get the properties the way you want them. If you are going to produce a high definition slideshow, how are you intending to play it?

I have, in any case, said this before. The project properties to a large extent are irrelevant, or at best only a guide to the uninitiated. What matters more are the properties you select once you have finished editing. So if, say, you want to produce a high definition slideshow, you make your montage, add your titles and background music and whatever (essentially during all this ignoring what the project properties might be), and then choose Share > Create Video File. If you want to create high definition with the same properties you normally use with the video from your camera (which is evidently a HDV model, with those properties), then you choose Share > Create Video File > HDV (1080i for HDV). Or you can choose AVCHD as the output if you intend to burn an AVCHD hybrid disc (high def/blu-ray but burned to a standard DVD). But in either case, you have to have a way of playing this back, unless you only intend to watch it on your computer screen.

Hi, Ken

I've been filming in High Def for 4 years now and mainly keep my edited high def movies on my hard drive. Sometimes I play them through the XBox but usually I downconvert to standard definition and burn a simple DVD.

So why do I bother (I hear you ask)?

Because one day all DVD players will take High Def DVDs as standard and I will be glad that I took all that time and trouble to build a High Def collection of home movies.

Plus I keep gazing at the media centres you can now hook up to a HDTV and I may well invest in one of those during the next year.
I will then be in High Def Heaven.

Make sense?

maxfrost01 wrote:Metmot,

ALT+ENTER does indeed bring up the Project Properties dialogue box but the dropdown menu for Frame Size only runs up to 720 x 576. This is essentially the problem I am facing- how to raise the Frame size above this.

Playing around with the dialogue box I note that the Media Type is 'PAL DVD' (I have not knowingly chosen this and am therefore guessing it is the default setting when I first drop my JPEGs into an empty project file). If I change the Media Type to MPEG2 things change and I can now push the Frame Size up to 1920 x 1080. Is this what you are suggesting I should do?

Yes

maxfrost01 wrote:Hi, Ken

I've been filming in High Def for 4 years now and mainly keep my edited high def movies on my hard drive. Sometimes I play them through the XBox but usually I downconvert to standard definition and burn a simple DVD.

So why do I bother (I hear you ask)?

Because one day all DVD players will take High Def DVDs as standard and I will be glad that I took all that time and trouble to build a High Def collection of home movies.

Plus I keep gazing at the media centres you can now hook up to a HDTV and I may well invest in one of those during the next year.
I will then be in High Def Heaven.

Make sense?

Max,
I recently bought a Buffalo link theater HD. It was pretty inexpensive and very nice to broadcast HD from my PC to the 50" tv screen. I can recommend this one for the price.

And I use my PlayStation 3 which is, of course, already a Blu-Ray player which is also rated to play AVCHD hybrid discs. Moreover, I have it networked to my computer, and it is also connected to my HDTV via HDMI. Using either Nero Media Home or even WMP as the server, I can play all my edited HDV (and indeed all other media) directly from the computer to the HDTV; or make hybrid AVCHD discs; or copy the edited HDV to either a USB stick or external hard drive and connect them to the PS3's USB ports; or even burn the HDV to a data DVD and the PS3 also recognises that.

I too am waiting for the day, not when DVD players will recognise high definition natively -- as I don't think that is where technology is heading. When Blu-Ray players and discs come down substantially in price, I believe, regrettably, that the ordinary DVD player will start being phased out. It will only happen over many years, but I am afraid it *will* happen...