Let us know what the resolution of those still images on the timeline. The closer the resolution of images matches the resolution of the produced file then the shimmering seen would eliminated or be less.

... your question made me realise that we have 2 sets of Resolutions, one from my Panasonic DMC-FH2 Camera which is set to 4320x2432
The second resolution of 4608x2592 is my husband's Olympus E-PM2 camera.

To have both our (1200+) photos in Date Order I always first sort all our imported photos under [view tab] in Date Order, and then moved them into Timeline which results in our photos still being in date order but from mixed cameras and thus different resolutions.

Pls advise > Not sure where to look for the resolution of what you call "the produced file"? Look forward to your (hopefully) reply. Tks a lot ...

You are producing to a final resolution of 720x576 or 0.4 megapixels per photo in creating the dvd. Compare that to your original photo resolution of 4606x2592 or 12 megapixels per image on your timeline. That is a 30x reduction in photo size. No matter what your original photo resolution or sharpness is there is a severe reduction in resolution and sharpness in creating that 2 hour dvd.

That dvd takes many hours to produce. The same dvd would only take a few minute to create if you resize all those photos to a proportionate 720 pixel horizontal resolution using a photo or image editor before putting them on a timeline. Your photos then should not have shimmering/ flickering when using magic motion.

Take a few photos, resize them as above. Put them on a timeline and use magic motion. Create it on a dvd+rw. Make a note of the processing time and view the result.

Let us know if this fixes your problem.

Hi Su from Queensland -

tomasc has already mentioned one factor with your unwatchable shimmering images, assuming you are burning to DVD i.e. you're using ~14MP photos, applying motion, burning to DVD, then your player is upscaling the images. Burning to DVD is not a good way to enjoy your photos.

Applying motion to images brings complications, just as panning can in video work. If the photo has things like fences with repeated vertical lines, rippling water, close-up of long grasses etc, you're very likely to get shimmering.

The way to minimise the shimmering is to:

• use photos with decent resolution (you're doing that)


• make the motion so it's slow & subtle. Extreme/quick motion makes it worse


• produce to HD, UHD or 4K using a bitrate of 16+Mbps

I did a small test using only photos from an Olympus E-PM2 and a Panasonic FH2/FS16. Motion was applied to each photo, deliberately kept slow & subtle. The finished video was then produced to different formats and resolutions.

• M2TS UHD 3840x2160 @ 20Mbps


• M2TS 1920x1080p @ 20Mbps


• DVD HQ 720X480 @ 8Mbps (& burned to DVD)

Viewed each produced file (and the DVD) on 4K TV, 4K PC monitor, 1920x1080 monitor, less than FullHD TV. The results were predictable.

• The UHD produced file looked beautiful everywhere, even on the cheap TV... but stunning on the 4K TV


• The 1080p file looked good - not a lot of shimmering - but not as crisp as the UHD version.


• The DVD/produced MPEG-2 didn't look good (to me) during any playback... especially after seeing the others.

I've uploaded two of the produced files to YouTube, but it's not a valid example as YT processes the videos anyway.

1080p version -



480p version -



Unless DVD is an absolute necessity, I'd consider something different!

Cheers - Tony
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Hi Tomasc -

* re: if you resize all those photos to a proportionate 720 pixel horizontal resolution using a photo or image editor before putting them on a timeline.

1. Can this resizing be done with photos in the Library?
2. Or do you mean resize photos before importing into PD?
3. Don't know much about photo editors but wouldn't the quality of the photos become a lot less by resizing down? We have unique photos taken in Burma, Borneo, Italy, Vietnam, Laos, hence my question ...
I apologise up front for being untechnical - as it is all a bit beyond me and really appreciate your trying to help.

Thanks Tony
Great tips.

What size were your Olympus @ Pana pics?
Did you re-size the pics before each test?

Unfortunately DVD has not died for many of us. If I have a HD timeline with Pics and HD clips and I use Magic Motion on my pics to pan & zoom as a slide show, would it help to render the slide shows to HD first and then bring them back in the timeline, as clips, to combine with HD vid clips?
If so which HD format is best?
I want to use the HD project to produce BluRay and normal DVDs?

Thanks,
Al Power Director 13&14 Ultimate, Photo Director 6, Audio Dir, Pwr2Go 10
Win 10 64, Intel MB DH87MC, Intel i5-4670 CPU @ 3.40GHz, 16Gb DDR3 1600, 128Gb SSD, 2x1Tb WDBlue 7200rpmSATA6, Intel 4600 GPU, Gigabyte G1 GTX960 4GB, LG BluRay Writer

Hi ?notfish,

Your comment re fences, water, long grasses is exactly right - it emphasises it, and the remote places we visit obviously have loads of these type of photos.

*re: 2 of the points you refer to, to minimise the shimmering is to:
A) make the motion so it's slow & subtle. Extreme/quick motion makes it worse
1. Makes perfect sense - how, in Random Magic Motion can you set it to go slower
2. Is that somewhere in Preferences?

B) produce to HD, UHD or 4K using a bitrate of 16+Mbps
1. No idea how to do that, and we need DVD's as we want to watch it on TV...we are approaching our late sixties and once we stop travelling this is what we hope to have as "entertainment" of revisiting the wonderful places we saw on TV. Hope this explains and thanks so much for your effort in testing - I looked at the files and yes, clearly shows fences, grasses and water having the very same problem as I have.
2. If you can think of any settings in preferences that may help pls let me know.
3. Particularly wondering about the "General" setting for Timeline Frame Rate which is set to 25FPS PAL,
4. in "Editing" I am set to Overlap, i.s.o. Cross as well as unticked "Add Transition - however shimmering problem even worse when ticked Transition.
Tks again

Hi Al -

The photos I used were downloaded from photography sites - originals from each camera. They weren't taken in the same 16:9 mode that Su & her husband's were, so I cropped each one.

The Panasonic originals were 4320x3240 & I cropped to 4320x2430. The Olympus shots were 4608x3456 & I cropped to 4608x2592 - same horizontal px count.

I did no other resizing before importing them into the project.

As a side note to Su - if your intention is to apply motion to photos, it's probably best to shoot in the maximum resolution your cameras allow. More to play with!

Cheers - Tony
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Hi Su -

You're very welcome

Quote: How, in Random Magic Motion can you set it to go slower? Is that somewhere in Preferences?

If you use the random motion option, you cannot make it go slower except by increasing ther duration of each photo. To my way of thinking (I'm 60+ too), the default motion keyframes are a bit extreme. I always "tone them down a bit". Essentialy that means making the setting for the last keyframe not much different from the first keyframe.

If your TV or player has a USB port, you'll probably find you can transfer your FullHD slideshow to a USB stick or hard drive and play it directly on your TV. No discs. No upscaling. Just as you produced it! That's exactly what I do with my photos, produced to 4K (which is still smaller than the originals).

I wouldn't be too bothered about frame rate, unless you're also shooting video... in which case, you'd probably have it set to 25 or 50 to match your video clips.

Quote: No idea how to do that (produce to Full HD, UHD or 4K)

In the Produce module, select a file format then choose the profile you want from the dropdown menu...



Quick - go and have a look for that USB port

Cheers - Tony
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Hi Tony,
You saw me running to our tv right ... and yes, we do have usb connection so ...
Followed instructions to produce, then AVC / M2TS / Default / ... however, in Profile Name/Quality drop down window I do not have AVC 1920 x 1080/60i (16 Mbps) - on 50i.
I selected this and rendering took 2.20 hours and I found the file .....CyberLink\PowerDirector\14.0\Produce.m2ts, however the file is 6.633,746kb and requires usb stick that will take at least that ... so I have assumed something went wrong because of the 50i iso 60i.
Googling indicates it is linked to PAL system and 50i being out of date and 60i (like you show in screen dumps) are the ones to use.
Not sure how you manage your screendumps in your replies (nor the neat "Su wrote" boxes so I can't show you what my PD offers in dropdown window but no 60i's to be found right from start to end. I am set to Pal Australia. Maybe you can direct me to 60i somehow, in case you think that will solve the size of the file?
Tks lots

Hi Su -

Not sure what happened there.

First thing - before you hit "Start" in the Produce module, name the video e.g. "S&M Adventures in Spain" (or whatever). By default it will land in that folder your found, but you can put it where you wish.

Just to test the playback on your TV, I'd make a short slideshow and produce to H.264 MP4 1920X1080 @ 16Mbps. Transfer it to your USB stick or external drive. Plug that into your TV & select the right source... then see how your video plays back.

If it works fine, get a high capacity USB stick/drive - 32 or 64 GB - on which to store future videos.

The reason you have 50i options, rather than 60i is because you have PAL selected - not NTSC (in your produce options).

Cheers - Tony
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The digital media options supported by PD14 is truly amazing. Tony is the expert here in this area. He want users here to have the greatest experience possible. Viewing those >4k resolution photos that you have taken on a UHD or 4K TV will give you that experience. A slideshow on DVD will not do that because it is the older SD resolution. A 2K TV or 1980x1080p monitor is acceptable. I have a HTPC for this purpose.

A later model TV or a higher end BD player should allow you to view those jpeg photos as is on CD, DVD, or USB Memory stick.

The 6.6 GB produce.m2ts file of AVC 1920 x 1080/50i (16 Mbps) indicates that the slideshow is about 45 minutes. You could put that in an 8 GB memory stick provided that your first format it as NTFS instead of the default FAT32. It is too large to fit a 4 GB memory stick with the default FAT32 formatting.

Another option that you may want to persue is if you want a menu with chapters is to create an AVCHD Disc on DVD or usb memory stick. You can also create a HD 1920x1080p50/60 AVCHD II disc which is progressive instead of interlaced. The shimmering you see with magic motion would be very minimal if any. This would require the later BD players that supports it.

You can create a smaller slideshow as suggested by Tony for testing purposes.

BTW: They do make 4K BD players now.

For those few photos that still have some shimmering like beach water, sharp lines then using a photo or image software is necessary. You need to apply selective Gaussian blur to those areas of the photo that still shimmer with pan and zoom. An alternative would be to use a transition.

There is a learning curve for any new software or the ones you use. You will be greatly rewarded for your effort.

Let us know what you decide to do.

ahhh... maybe just 'Adventures in Spain'... ummm... just saying... (lol)

Hey I resisted saying anything all day... apologies for digressing!

CS PD13 Ultimate - Build 3516, WIN 8.1, 64 Bit, 16G RAM, Intel Core i5 4460, CPU @ 3.2GHz, NVIDIA GeForce GT720, Graphics Memory(total avail.)-4093MB
LG WH14NS40 Blu-Ray Drive

Hi Tony and Tomasc,

Tks both so much for your input - a bit of testing and learning ahead of me ... based on both your latest responses.
This is just to let you know I will need time until some time this weekend to get back to you, hopefully with final and great results.
Tks - Su

Su - it sounds like you're on the road to success

tomasc - your assessment of my "expertise" is overly kind. Just tossing in what I've found over years of reading others' posts and trying things out, just as most of us do.

CS - that was meant to fly under everyone's radar. Even though you showed marvellous self control to wait so long before posting, you're a very naughty boy for even noticing!

Cheers - Tony
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<further restraint being exhibited>....err... lol
Enough! apologies.. folks... hehee

CS
(p.s. - I think Dafydd will appreciate this though.. lol)

edit addition: I will stress the point tomasc made here as it affect me once - make sure the flash drive is formatted to NTFS as this will allow files sizes to be larger than 4 GB.

I've plugged flash drives directly into my TV many times too. Although some versions produced - played fine and some didn't. You just got to find the production specs that work for you that the TV will interpret.

PD13 Ultimate - Build 3516, WIN 8.1, 64 Bit, 16G RAM, Intel Core i5 4460, CPU @ 3.2GHz, NVIDIA GeForce GT720, Graphics Memory(total avail.)-4093MB
LG WH14NS40 Blu-Ray Drive

Quote: I've plugged flash drives directly into my TV many times too. Although some versions produced - played fine and some didn't. You just got to find the production specs that work for you that the TV will interpret.

That is so very true. It is impossible to say which type of video files will work for the specific manufacturer and the specific model. Newer models from the same manufacturer like Samsung work with more file types and resolution.

This is why I mention later model TV and higher end BD player earlier. The newer models can play more formats. High end Sony BD players can play almost everything through the usb port that I have tried. The old cheap ones are very limited. It is up to each individual to buy what they want.

Hi Tomasc & Tony

As Tomasc mentioned, I do want the Menus and use Subtitle room to put text in many photos so I tried your suggestions with USB stick / NTFS which reduced shimmering really well but clarity was much worse. Tried different settings and many more of ideas in this forum.
None really worked out as clear as creating disc (iso producing options) of still photos and I still like each holiday on separate DVD's.

Maybe PD will come up with very slow motion setting that will not effect stripes and water one day. Until then I will have to stick with current method as that suits me best.

This will be my last post re this, so Tks again Tomasc and Tony - appreciate your time spent and my knowledge gained.
Regards ...

Quote: Hi Tomasc & Tony

As Tomasc mentioned, I do want the Menus and use Subtitle room to put text in many photos so I tried your suggestions with USB stick / NTFS which reduced shimmering really well but clarity was much worse. Tried different settings and many more of ideas in this forum.
None really worked out as clear as creating disc (iso producing options) of still photos and I still like each holiday on separate DVD's.

This is probably too much for a beginner. It can be daunting to accomplish this task in a week. Glad that you found that a progressive format instead of an interlaced one reduced the shimmering well.

You stated that clarity in a HD resolution is less than that of the dvd sd resolution. That can be puzzling for many users, readers, and contributors here unless they are viewing on a sdtv.

Quote: Maybe PD will come up with very slow motion setting that will not effect stripes and water one day. Until then I will have to stick with current method as that suits me best

All the tools you need are already in PD14. You can create, modify, and save your own Magic Motion (MM) templates using the Magic Motion Designer.

The Slideshow template Motion may be all you need. The motion are already much slower than those in MM and a fade is inserted automatically between each photo. You are again allowed to customize each one separately to your liking. I have done this many times. Try this instead.

Quote: This will be my last post re this, so Tks again Tomasc and Tony - appreciate your time spent and my knowledge gained.
Regards ...

You are not alone. Many people are used to DVD. I have seen those who swear that their $200 sdtv is better than the image on a $2000 hdtv or a uhd tv. A week later they can’t tell the difference or remember the image on a 4ktv in a department store. Nothing but the cheapest will do as the mind is already set on dvd resolution.

This is the reason I try to answer only the question. I suspect that most users on this forum are using HD or 4k instead of vcd or dvd resolution.

Other users and contributors contribute greatly with their knowledge to help all others reading this post and all the threads here. Hopefully readers may find something useful here.