Hi PatC

When the clips are in the storyboard change the 'take a snap shot/select preview quality' button (the one that has a solid rectangle inside a clear rectangle) from the default normal preview quality to high preview quality.

Due to limitations of the preview screen the 'quality' won't be brilliant until you burn your project onto a DVD and watch it on a larger monitor.

I use alot of photos too and I crop mine to 16:9 in the windows photo editor OR use the magic motion button to crop the photos.

Goo Luck Happing editing

Best Regards

Neil
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Hi PatC -

There are two things that are degrading the appearance of your photos... 1. the preview screen (which is only a preview) & 2. burning the images to DVD (whic always results in loss of quality).

Were you to connect your camera (or SD card) directly to your TV, you'd notice a huge difference.

Still - whilst the images may appear blurry in the preview screen (depending on your PC, graphics card & screen settings), they should not be blurry on the TV screen.

When you produce the project, which format/profile are you using?

Could you please post the properties of one of the images from your 6MP camera?

Cheers - Tony


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Hi, Neil & Tony, thanks for the response...

I realise that the preview window is not necessarily an indication of the finished result, but the problem I am having is the poor quality of the photos when burnt to DVD. ( The trouble is the wife commented on it. )

As an experiment I tried the example clips supplied with the program.
The clip that shows the lack of focus most obviously when burnt to DVD is the Train.jpg.
The name on the front of the train "Glacier Express" is blurred when viewed from the DVD on TV.

I tried this with no motion or any effects at all, just setting the duration of the clip to 30 seconds and went straight from the edit timeline to create disc.

I also tried the same test producing to files as AVCHD all 3 choices and also all 8 of the MPEG-2 choices before burning to discs.
I have a pile of -RW discs that I am using for testing.

I must admit that the problem seems to be when rendering and burning to disk, as viewing the higher resolution produced files gives what appears to be reasonable results when viewed on the computer monitor.

Is there any way that the program might be using a different codec if it found one on my PC? I know in the past I have loaded some codec packages.

Maybe I am expecting more than the software can deliver.

Regards PatC

Pat -

It's very difficult to avoid loss of quality when rendering... everything you do to your clips or photos is going to degrade them slightly.

Editing, rendering, burning to DVD...

It would be good to know about the properties of your clips and images. You can use MediaInfo to do this for you... http://mediainfo.sourceforge.net/en

What sort of TV screen is being used?

One way of achieving a much cleaner result is to use a media player instead of DVD... or connect your PC directly to the TV (HDMI cable). These are better options than the DVD route.

Cheers - Tony
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Hi Tony,

Yes I agree about the picture quality being reduced when being coded from a PD8 file with a 1920 x 1080 resolution down to a standard DVD at 720 x 576 resolution.
The thing is, I just fancy the idea of having those photos and video on a DVD that you can just pop in the DVD player in the lounge no wires no fuss.

Anyway learning to use PD8 keeps me off the streets at night, pushes my PC to its limit, justifys having a DVD burner, and provides an excuse to buy even bigger and faster disk drives.

I shall carry on experimenting with different file converters and burning software and see where it leads.

Thanks & Regards PatC

PatC;
I see some of these answers don't address your concern. It seems you are disappointed with the FINAL quality of your burnt DVD. So, of course the "preview" mode has ZERO to do with it. I would hope that you had selected DVD HQ, and since you mentioned that you picked a bunch of all the options, I'm guess that one of your tests WAS with the DVD "HQ Best Quality" mode.

If that assumption is correct, then I will throw this out at you. resampling an image properly should not degrade the appearance of an image very much. Even going down to 720x480. I've written many resampling functions and understand the limitations of such. You said the following...

I must admit that the problem seems to be when rendering and burning to disk, as viewing the higher resolution produced files gives what appears to be reasonable results when viewed on the computer monitor.

Does that mean when you use the produce tab that the mpg files are of HIGHER quality than the VOB produced in the "Create Disk" tab"? You can view the VOB files just as you would an MPG file in most viewers. I use VLC to view practically any format. I hope I am not censored for mentioning another product, but I want to help you out.

I just did the test with the train and the results are pretty much IDENTICAL. No visual/perceptual difference between the "Produced" mpg or the "Create Disk" using DVD 4.7 and HQ Best Quality mode. I made two snap shots to see the outcomes of both and then overlayed them perfectly and then started to switch wiindows back & forth real fast and I could not tell any changes in the image.

So, I have a question.... Did you try to play the VOB file that you ¨Create Disk¨ on your computer and was it the same quality as the ¨Produced¨mpg file. If they are the same quality, but the produced file looks better on the TV than the DVD does, then MAYBE, maybe, it might have something to do with the way your DVD player DEinterlaces. See the "Create Disk" tab produces interlaced video, there's no choice to use progressive ;(( and no choice for resolution ;(( So, in order to see if that is the culprit, go into the PRODUCE tab and create a custom setting that is the same settings as the HQ Best Quality AND THEN set the format to Interlaced Bottom field First ... and then see if that mpg file play cleanly on your TV set. If you see a difference, then of course the interlacing is a factor, if you see no difference, then I can't explain what you are getting, because on my end, the TRAIN.JPG produce a VOB that clearly shows the lettering "Glacier Express 75".

Let me know what you find out.

VBRoger/VBDavie

VBRoger ' VBDavie
creators of www.photojockey.com

Onya VB -

That's what PatC needed... good technical advice. I don't pretend to understand it, but I'll refer back to your post if it's ever an issue for me. Thank you.

Cheers - Tony
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Superb answer VB,

I don't burn discs as I don't desire a Coaster Collection, but that sounded to me like you were getting right to the source of the problem!

Kevin
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Hi VBRoger;

Yes the problem is the FINAL result from DVD.
I now realise after much research that displaying mpeg video is very different to displaying a set of jpeg images in quick succession.
I had imagined that a digital movie was simply a set of still images like on film.
After reading that there are keyframes used as reference and look ahead and motion detection it is becoming inceasingly obvious that what I thought was a simple linear process of decode and display is far from fact.

I did wonder when looking at the display option (viewed on TV) of my DVD player why the bitrate varied from 2meg to 8meg according to the action on the screen and also why there seemed to sometimes be pixelation effects around busy areas of picture when viewed up close.

So if I am correct it would seem that the digital signal is more or less completely dissassembled by whichever device is handling it.
The software/firmware then makes decisions, based on several frames of video content, before the actual current frame is displayed.

Wow I am surprised it works at all. I was weaned and worked on analogue electronics and a smattering of synchronous linear digital equipment.

I have printed out your reply and will go through your suggestions and let you know how I get on.

Just one point: is it possible that PD8 could be using a different codec found on my PC or is the one they use built into the program and fixed?

Thanks for taking the time to make suggestions it is much appreciated.

Regards PatC

I think VBRoger made a good point. I have a bunch of DivX video that would barely play on a DivX compatible DVD player. I switched to a PS3 and they play perfectly from beginning to end. That said, I have one image that I use in all of my videos and it has a large blue area. For some reason I get a lot of pixelation there. It's not a perfect system, but it's very good compared to the days of slide projectors and Super 8.

Good luck and have fun. __________________________________
CORNBLOSSOM

Jaime;

You said....

I think VBRoger made a good point. I have a bunch of DivX video that would barely play on a DivX compatible DVD player. I switched to a PS3 and they play perfectly from beginning to end.

I dont' believe I gave you anything worthwhile in reguards to that situation. because it seems that you are talking about "barely" playing which I take as meaning "Jerky and sticking" and acting as though the player is having problems "reading" the media. To me that means your DVD discs may not be totally compatible with the DVD player, so you may switch to another media. Don't be fooled by switching brands. Many brands use the same media. There are only a handful of companies that actually make the media. Verbatim makes their own and are very good, might give them a try. If you meant "barely" played as in the image playing was smooth but LOW quality, then my comments may have some relavance.

PIXELATION PROBLEM:
Here's something to consider. When you have a SOLID or near solid colored background or area of an encoded video, as the bitrate lowers, most codecs will STEAL bits from the large flat areas and give them to the areas that have detail. This can produce an ulgy/disappointing appearance in which the surface looks solarized. This is agrivating to me so I use a different codec that allows me to re-balance the bits and to give more priority to those flat areas. Thus even though I use a 1200 bitrate, the final product is still quite good. Of course not professional film quality, but for documentaries it's great. So, I can get a lot of hours on a single 4.7DVD. My last project has over 6 hours of video at 720x480 using around 1200 and it came out very nice. If you stay with the codecs provided by PD, then you are stuck with the preset balance of the flat areas compared to the detail areas. But if you stay away from low bitrates, you shouldn't see that anomoly very much.

VBDavie/VBRoger VBRoger ' VBDavie
creators of www.photojockey.com

Hi,

After 4 full days of experimentation, with PD8 and other 'media file' edit, conversion, and burning programs, I have come to the following conclusions with regards burning home movie DVDs with PD8.

It seems that most programs are pretty good at converting photos and video to mpeg movie files.

The problem of quality really starts to show when you burn from reasonably high quality mpeg or m2ts files to DVD VOB files for standard DVD at 720x576 PAL or 720x480 NTSC.

It seems pretty reasonable to believe that, the better the source, the better the result, even if there is a loss of quality in the conversion process. This proved to be the case with all the programs tested.
Actually of all the programs and converters I tested PD8 did as well as any of them and generally does the job far more easily, as well as having a host of editing and special effects available.
Most of the programs I tried were trial versions either 30 day limited or the ones that put a watermark on the finished product. None were free.

In PD8 I found the following results when using the produce function.

Using AVCHD 720x576 produced blurred m2ts files.
Using AVCHD 1440x1080 or 1920x1080 produced good quality m2ts files.

Using MPEG2, I found that I had to use BD 1440x1080 or 1920x1080, or (HD)MPEG2 1080i to obtain good quality mpeg files.

The lowest 3 MPEG2 options DVD SP, DVD HQ, (HDV) MPEG2 720p, all produced blurred mpeg files.
The fourth option (HDV)MPEG2 1080i was marginal.
Option 7, SVCD HQ produced blurry mpeg files.

For testing I used a mixture of digital photos form high to low resolution, including a couple of test cards, but all the video I used was SD widescreen PAL chosen really to highlight jitter or interlace problems.

My conclusion is:-

If you use PD8 to produce the bigger, higher quality mpeg or m2ts files, then when you burn to DVD you can get acceptable results.

However the best quality picture is obtained by viewing the MPEG or m2ts files directly and these results can be exceptional.

Regards PatC

I have an older version (6 i believe) and inquired about this a while ago.
The pictures actually looked great but were a bit blurry when burnt to disk.

Was unable to obtain an answer/fix, but it will be interesting to see how pictures turn out for me with version 8 and creating a quick slide show and will let you know the results.