blurry stills, both jpg and tif

[PapaAV8R]

I am using Video Studio 6. When I added stills to the clips they all come out blurry when I render the video. It doesn't seem to make any difference whether I take them directly from the camera or go through Photoshop. They are
all equally blurry. What am I doing wrong? Any suggestions?

[skier-hughes]

What dimension sizes are the pictures, ie are they the same size as your VS project, if they are odd sizes it may be forcing them to stretch or squeeze, if they are all small then it could be blowing them up to make them fit the screen??

[DiscCoasterPro]

Hi skier, when you have pictures (prints) that you would like to scan in to your computer for a DVD project , what are your recommended settings for them? (ntsc)

dcp

[caveman]

If you are adding pictures into a 720 x 480 video here is what you need to do. Crop each picture to 6 x 4.45 x 120 dpi. This makes a stantard 720 x 534 picture which all video soft sees as the correct size for the format. I use photoshop 7 and set the crop size to the above. The pictures are clear and sharp. You do not need large dpi files. Yes you can crop a 6 x4 at 6 x 4.45. Sounds wrong but you can. The key is your file must be 720 pixels by 534 pixels for NTSC or 720 x 540 for pal. There are several sizes that fit this. A 5 x 3.708 x 144 dpi is 720 x 534 also.

Create a folder on you desktop to add all your modifed pictures for use in you video. Select your pictures from this folder. They will overlay into the time line perfect or slideshow. Thats it.

[juglesh]

Great, I was just going to post a ? on this topic.

Please read below my original ?s, but if I read you right, you say that the pics must be resized in the image application befor importing to UVS9? Because I was trying to use a large image, and let VS9 squeeze it down.

My original posting:
Hello, I am trying VS9, but having problems with slide show images being blurry.

I am composing the slide in photoshop, using hi-res pictures and text to create an advertisment that will play thru a dvd projector onto a real cinema screen from the projection balcony.

I have tried various resolutions from photoshop, starting with 2000px wide, with pictures of around 1200px. There might be 50% or so of pictures, with the rest being text. The text seems to be OK if it's big enough, but small text gets a little blurry. It's the pictures that are the worst. And if I make the pictures very small (maybe 10 head shots on the slide) the quality is very blurry.

I am making a bmp or tif from photoshop at full res, then import it into VS9, which scales it for me.

I tried the non-square pixel options to no noticable avail.

thanks for your help,
juglesh

[jchunter]

Still images work best if you insert them (jpegs are fine) into the timeline at full resolution (don't prescale). Select "Keep Aspect Ratio" in Project Preferences.

Set your Project Properties to sensible values that will match your intended use: For DVDs: frame size 720x480 (NTSC), video bitrate 8000kbps, Field Order and Aspect Ratio should match any video clips that you include in the project. Non-Square Pixels should remain checked.

Make sure you set the properties the same when you make your video file and again when you burn the DVD.

[caveman]

Great, I was just going to post a ? on this topic.

Please read below my original ?s, but if I read you right, you say that the pics must be resized in the image application befor importing to UVS9? Because I was trying to use a large image, and let VS9 squeeze it down.

My original posting:
Hello, I am trying VS9, but having problems with slide show images being blurry.

I am composing the slide in photoshop, using hi-res pictures and text to create an advertisment that will play thru a dvd projector onto a real cinema screen from the projection balcony.

I have tried various resolutions from photoshop, starting with 2000px wide, with pictures of around 1200px. There might be 50% or so of pictures, with the rest being text. The text seems to be OK if it's big enough, but small text gets a little blurry. It's the pictures that are the worst. And if I make the pictures very small (maybe 10 head shots on the slide) the quality is very blurry.

I am making a bmp or tif from photoshop at full res, then import it into VS9, which scales it for me.

I tried the non-square pixel options to no noticable avail.

thanks for your help,
juglesh

I use photoshop 7 and resize each image. In fact, if you have version 7 or greater try this. In photoshop select new and scroll down to view the preset image sizes and you will see one there for DVD. One is NTSC and one is PAL. The NTSC is 720 x 534. This is what you need each picture to be for VS to properly size you pictures. My digital camera is set so my pictures are 4.5 x 6 in. I then crop them to 4.45 x 6 at 120dpi this gives me a perfect 720 x 534 image. I know most people will tell you 720 x 480. Try both and you will see the diference yourself. I do alot of slideshows and insert into the timeline overlays and they are perfect. No jitters. Hope this helps.

[juglesh]

Thanks for the comeback, people.

Still, no worky.

I resized in photoshop to 720X534. Just sqaure pixels here in PS.
Imported into VS9 on both the video timeline and overlay. In video timeline, the size gets messed up. In overlay, I can choose original size or keep aspect ratio. They are slightly different. Either way, I go to share>project playback and get blurry. I am using a bmp that is just a blank with a photo (which was originally 3mp) taking about 20% and some words at about 10pt.

Do I need non square pixel rendering checked (I do) in VS9? I have every setting I could find dialed up all the way. 720X540 is a 4:3. Either way, blurry. I'm pretty sure my playback projector is a 16:9.

I've tried other video sw with the same results.

Does anyone have a way to send me a sample image(PSD), VS9 file, and resulting video that I could look at?

thanks,
juglesh

[caveman]

Sorry my suggestion did not help. I'm still using VS 7SE and because I don't run into some of the problems I read in this forum won't be switching. I'm sure VS9 is different and my suggestions don't seem to work for you.

In my perferences I have set to keep aspect ratio, and checked fit to screen.. I do understand about the square pixels but have never found this to be a issue with version 7 at least not for me.

My projects consist of both video and slides together. The only difference I can see is the versions, and I never burn directly from VS. I click on share, create a video file and unlike most I always change the setting to 100% quality, VBR 8000, and sound to LPCM and save the project. I then open the mpg using Movie factory 2.5SE and add the video and also create slideshows at this time. I set the save files again the same as above. Then I burn the DVD and it comes out great. Again sorry I could not provide any more information. Good luck. If you solve your problem let me know what you did.

caveman

[Citizen Kane]

I have had excellent results following JCHunter's recommendations to your post as well as his guidelines in his sticky. I brought in massive RAW scans of huge prints by first converting them to JPEGs through Photoshop Elements 3.0 hey, it worked.

The results were vividly and clearly different to the video footage I had originally shot of the images--even when I zoomed in on details of the photograph using the pan and zoom feature within VideoStudio. The project was a walk-through and discussion of an accomplished amateur photographer's first NYC show. Using the stills versus the video made all the difference in his happiness with the final project. The mpeg file is probably too large to send anyway except via a DVD--if I can figure out why VS9.0 has suddenly stopped working with my DVD burner.