Announcement: Our new CyberLink Feedback Forum has arrived! Please transfer to our new forum to provide your feedback or to start a new discussion. The content on this CyberLink Community forum is now read only, but will continue to be available as a user resource. Thanks!
CyberLink Community Forum
where the experts meet
| Advanced Search >
Still photo resolution issues
Ripsnort60 [Avatar]
Newbie Joined: Dec 25, 2010 11:45 Messages: 24 Offline
[Post New]
HI all,
I typically put together still photos and HD Video together in the same video.
I recently did this with my new Cyberlink Power Director 9.0, and I notice that PD drops the resolution significantly.

Now, as a comparison, using the same photos, Pinnacle Studio 10.7 creates a beautiful reproduction, sharp and crisp of the same photos in the slideshow video.

So, is it the software or something I am doing when I create the DVD disk?

I've tried multiple settings and all end up with the same crappy 'low resolution' look to the still pictures.
TIA!
All vodi
Senior Contributor Location: Canada Joined: Aug 21, 2009 11:24 Messages: 1431 Offline
[Post New]
What are you viewing your video in (application) when you get the dropped resolution ? Win 10, i7
Bubba in TX
Senior Contributor Location: Central Texas Joined: Dec 12, 2009 21:32 Messages: 1332 Offline
[Post New]
Ok we need a ton more info.

You talking about a rendered (saved to file) or produced (burned to DVD) project.

Before rendering or producing you talking about just watching in the editing preview window?

Did you crop you pictures or enlarge them?

If rendered what format did you save it to?

Did you render to AVCHD?

Ect ect ect.....


__________________________________________
Windows 8 Pro 64 bit

CyberLink PowerDirector 10 Tutorials
PDtoots PowerDirector Tutorials

**NOTICE**
When you are asked to provide a DXDIAG you go the following link and do part "B". Your posted specs are NOT what we are looking for as they tell us nothing. The specs on the box of your computer mean nothing. The DXDIAG shows us how your computer is configured as it runs.

DXDIAG Link
ynotfish
Senior Contributor Location: N.S.W. Australia Joined: May 08, 2009 02:06 Messages: 9977 Online
[Post New]
Quote: ... we need a ton more info... Did you crop you pictures or enlarge them?


Since I had some earlier issues with a related problem - reported http://forum.cyberlink.com/forum/posts/list/16652.page - I've chosen not to use certain features of PD for still images.

Whenever images need to be cropped (i.e. match AR to project) I do that in a separate photo editor before importing them into PD. That way, I know PD won't get the opportunity to mess with my pics! Using the "Set Image Stretch" option in PD, for me, isn't worth the difficulties (despite the convenience of batch processing).

That said, the information Bubba's asked for is important. There could be various factors causing the issue.

Cheers - Tony
Visit PDtoots. PowerDirector Tutorials, tips, free resources & more. Subscribe!
Full linked Tutorial Catalog
PDtoots happily supports fellow PowerDirector users!
Ripsnort60 [Avatar]
Newbie Joined: Dec 25, 2010 11:45 Messages: 24 Offline
[Post New]
Quote: Ok we need a ton more info.

You talking about a rendered (saved to file) or produced (burned to DVD) project.

Before rendering or producing you talking about just watching in the editing preview window?

Did you crop you pictures or enlarge them?

If rendered what format did you save it to?

Did you render to AVCHD?

A) Produced, burned to DVD project.

B) No, watching the final product on a 54" plasma. Comparing a Pinnacle DVD project using the same pictures, the Cyberlink looks like crap.

C) Some cropping, very little though. Image files are roughly 2 meg to 4 meg in size average. This should NOT make a difference since other programs such as Windows Movie Maker and Pinnacle did NOTHING to change the resolution of the pictures themselves., unless it is a software flaw eith Cyberlink.

D)The high resolution preview playback on the PC looks a little better, but not much.

This message was edited 2 times. Last update was at Apr 25. 2011 17:21

Ripsnort60 [Avatar]
Newbie Joined: Dec 25, 2010 11:45 Messages: 24 Offline
[Post New]
Quote:
Quote: ... we need a ton more info... Did you crop you pictures or enlarge them?


Since I had some earlier issues with a related problem - reported http://forum.cyberlink.com/forum/posts/list/16652.page - I've chosen not to use certain features of PD for still images.

Whenever images need to be cropped (i.e. match AR to project) I do that in a separate photo editor before importing them into PD. That way, I know PD won't get the opportunity to mess with my pics! Using the "Set Image Stretch" option in PD, for me, isn't worth the difficulties (despite the convenience of batch processing).

That said, the information Bubba's asked for is important. There could be various factors causing the issue.

Cheers - Tony

Looks like you told the emporer (cyberlink) that he has no clothes on.

I believe it's a software issue.

Dammit...I was just getting used to this program too. Ah well, back to Pinnacle or something more expensive....
ynotfish
Senior Contributor Location: N.S.W. Australia Joined: May 08, 2009 02:06 Messages: 9977 Online
[Post New]
I think I may have mentioned that one article of the emperor's clothes is not be all it's supposed to be.

Still - since I've been using PD the forums have been speckled with similar concerns to yours. You only have to do a little search for "blurry" or "resolution" to find hundreds of posts on the subject.

I suppose, to balance my previous post, I should ahve mentioned the things PD does well with processing images.

Guess I don't need to tell you what happens to a 15Mpx image when you burn it to DVD, do I???

Could you please attach one of the images from your camera for others to test.

Cheers - Tony
Visit PDtoots. PowerDirector Tutorials, tips, free resources & more. Subscribe!
Full linked Tutorial Catalog
PDtoots happily supports fellow PowerDirector users!
Ripsnort60 [Avatar]
Newbie Joined: Dec 25, 2010 11:45 Messages: 24 Offline
[Post New]
Sure thing.
[Thumb - DSC_0068.JPG]
 Filename
DSC_0068.JPG
[Disk]
 Description
 Filesize
2233 Kbytes
 Downloaded:
415 time(s)
curt y [Avatar]
Member Joined: Sep 02, 2009 10:22 Messages: 55 Offline
[Post New]
I had issues with quality of slide show also. I did a number of tests and rendering in .WMV Full HD (1920x1080) produced excellent results.

The h.264 1920x1080 format also produced excellent results, but the file size was almost 3 times as large.
Ripsnort60 [Avatar]
Newbie Joined: Dec 25, 2010 11:45 Messages: 24 Offline
[Post New]
Thanks. I'll give that a try next...
Robert2 S
Senior Contributor Location: Australia Joined: Apr 22, 2009 05:57 Messages: 1461 Offline
[Post New]
The only problem I have is when I try and change the aspect ratio with stills. When I do this the diagonal lines have steps. If I just crop I have no problems.

Although as ynotfish says trying to get a HD still like yours at 2896X 1944 to show in all it's glory on a normal DVD at PAL DVD's at 576x720 or NTSC DVD's at 480x720 is not possible. My youtube channel====> http://www.youtube.com/user/relate2?feature=mhsn
Bubba in TX
Senior Contributor Location: Central Texas Joined: Dec 12, 2009 21:32 Messages: 1332 Offline
[Post New]
I made a 6 picture slide show with transitions with your picture (great pic buy the way) Then rendered in all formats.


The results were not what I thought it would be.

I could not render a usable video in m2ts... All I got was black screen.

The best was after I re did it was WMV HD quality. Looked great

Another one that looked as good as the original was to mov HD quality.. AND mpeg4 best quality. But just not quite as good as the wmv HQ.

The the next best and looked good was avi windows standard. Just a good was the avi dvx

Then the mpeg2

VCD mpeg1 looked like a flv file.

This message was edited 2 times. Last update was at Apr 25. 2011 22:01

__________________________________________
Windows 8 Pro 64 bit

CyberLink PowerDirector 10 Tutorials
PDtoots PowerDirector Tutorials

**NOTICE**
When you are asked to provide a DXDIAG you go the following link and do part "B". Your posted specs are NOT what we are looking for as they tell us nothing. The specs on the box of your computer mean nothing. The DXDIAG shows us how your computer is configured as it runs.

DXDIAG Link
Robert2 S
Senior Contributor Location: Australia Joined: Apr 22, 2009 05:57 Messages: 1461 Offline
[Post New]
Hey Bubba I had no problems renering/producing Ripsnort60's stills to H.264 AVC in .m2ts, I was using a custom setting of 1920X1080 22,500 bit rate, don't know what would be causing the black screen. My youtube channel====> http://www.youtube.com/user/relate2?feature=mhsn
Bubba in TX
Senior Contributor Location: Central Texas Joined: Dec 12, 2009 21:32 Messages: 1332 Offline
[Post New]
The only option I had was 720dpi... I have rendered many of those files playing with them like today...
Will try some other HD pics later...

But I was really impressed with the wmv output...


UPDATE

The problem with my m2ts file was my media player not the file.... looks and plays fine now...

And yes the m2ts was the best of all for quality....

This message was edited 3 times. Last update was at Apr 25. 2011 23:12

__________________________________________
Windows 8 Pro 64 bit

CyberLink PowerDirector 10 Tutorials
PDtoots PowerDirector Tutorials

**NOTICE**
When you are asked to provide a DXDIAG you go the following link and do part "B". Your posted specs are NOT what we are looking for as they tell us nothing. The specs on the box of your computer mean nothing. The DXDIAG shows us how your computer is configured as it runs.

DXDIAG Link
ynotfish
Senior Contributor Location: N.S.W. Australia Joined: May 08, 2009 02:06 Messages: 9977 Online
[Post New]
Ripsnort -

Using your image (thanks for that), I made a number of slideshows containing the image & another few higher res ones for comparison. I also included a 16:9 cropped version & applied image stretch to one.

Produced to AVC H.264 1920x1080, I couldn't see any problem with the resolution during playback. Your photo looked crisp & sharp, as did the cropped & image stretched versions. They looked good, even beside higher res images.

I didn't go to Bubba's trouble of producing to different formats, but I did repeat the test in Adobe Premiere (MPEG - H.264 1920x1080). If you were watching the two side by side, you wouldn't be able to tell which was which. The visual results were the same, as far as I could tell.

So - whether the other software you mentioned is doing something PD & Premiere aren't, I don't know... but the results look great to me.

Cheers - Tony
Visit PDtoots. PowerDirector Tutorials, tips, free resources & more. Subscribe!
Full linked Tutorial Catalog
PDtoots happily supports fellow PowerDirector users!
Ripsnort60 [Avatar]
Newbie Joined: Dec 25, 2010 11:45 Messages: 24 Offline
[Post New]
Wow! I did NOT expect this ! Thanks so much for trying it out at your end, fellas!

Just to reiterate, the issue arises when I finish, and create directly to DVD.
The WMV file finished late last night and I've not had a chance to burn it and check it out on the TV. Will do so tonight.

Thanks again!

A side note: When I purchased a Canon Vixia HD camera at Xmas, the post processing of the data with my current laptop (Intel duo-core 2.0 Ghz -3 gig ram) rendered it useless and brought it to it's knees.

So, I just ordered this through Dell (We get a discount through Dell through my employer, and they have always been reliable to us the past 12 years of owning Dells)

Model: XPS 8300 (with Win7 64 bit)
OS: Win7 Professional
CPU: Intel® Core™ i7-2600 processor(8MB Cache, 3.4GHz) (Sandy Bridge, but it's not a K...doubt I will ever overclock...)
RAM: 8GB DDR3 SDRAM at 1333MHz - 4 DIMMs
Video Card: ATI Radeon HD 5450 1GB DDR3
Multimedia: Blu-ray 8X BD-R, DVD+/-RW Drive with DVD+R double layer write capability
Harddrive: 1TB SATA 2 Hard Drive 7200 RPM

Hopefully it will cut down on the processing time!
Ripsnort60 [Avatar]
Newbie Joined: Dec 25, 2010 11:45 Messages: 24 Offline
[Post New]
[quote] I had issues with quality of slide show also. I did a number of tests and rendering in .WMV Full HD (1920x1080) produced excellent results.

The h.264 1920x1080 format also produced excellent results, but the file size was almost 3 times as large.[/quote]

Okay, so this worked great! The work around was producing to .WMV 1920x1080 HD format, then burning a disc with Nero.

I'm still scratching my head why burning directly to DVD (Create Disc) in 16:9 or 4:3 format, HD Quality still produces a low quality product when dealing with images.... (Shrugs) The work around is just that, I have to add another step in the processing.

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at Apr 26. 2011 22:07

Ripsnort60 [Avatar]
Newbie Joined: Dec 25, 2010 11:45 Messages: 24 Offline
[Post New]
Have I mentioned that ynotfish saved my bacon by pointing out the weak link in the new system I ordered?

He did! I canceld the order and pruchased the same system with a better graphics card (not the best, but certainly better than the original order--ATI Radeon HD 5670 in place of the 5450)


Thank you once again sir!
jnanster [Avatar]
Newbie Joined: Mar 14, 2012 17:10 Messages: 9 Offline
[Post New]
Tony

Have had the same problems with PD 9. No problem with slide shows, even slide shows as chapters on a DVD. The problem is when inserting an image in between video segments in the same chapter. When burning to DVD. The image quality drops to say… fuzzy, strictly low res. Have you ever found a fix for this.

Dorian in San Diego.
ynotfish
Senior Contributor Location: N.S.W. Australia Joined: May 08, 2009 02:06 Messages: 9977 Online
[Post New]
G'day Dorian -

The other issue I referred to was resolved with patch v2930 - http://forum.cyberlink.com/forum/posts/list/16652.page#90498

I've not ever been particularly aware of image quality being diminished when placed between two video clips & burnt to DVD... apart from the normal degradation you'd expect.

Next time I'm having a burn, I'll check.

Cheers - Tony
Visit PDtoots. PowerDirector Tutorials, tips, free resources & more. Subscribe!
Full linked Tutorial Catalog
PDtoots happily supports fellow PowerDirector users!
Powered by JForum 2.1.8 © JForum Team