Media Offline Problem

Kahuna wrote on 1/27/2011, 6:07 AM
Recently upgraded to Windows 7 and Movie Studio 10 hoping it would solve a jpg poor resolution in timeline problem (it didn't) but now have a whole new problem! When I toggle between Movie Studio and another application, lets say Explorer or MS Word, then return to my open Movie Studio application, all of my media has gone "offline" and I have to wait 3-4 minutes before the Movie Studio project is fully populated with its media. What's up Doc? Thanks

Comments

Steve Grisetti wrote on 1/27/2011, 6:25 AM
You haven't really given us enough information to help you, Kahuna.

Where are your media files located? Are they on your C drive or on a second hard drive? Is this second drive internal or connected externally?

Also, what's the issue with your JPGs? Are you concerned with the fact that when you use JPEGs in a video project, they're at a reduced resolution? You do know that video resolution is only 720x480 pixels, right? It's never going to be as detailed as your original photo.
Kahuna wrote on 1/27/2011, 6:45 AM
JPG and M4H files sit on the C drive, under My Video's in a folder dedicated to the project I'm working on. I can provide more specifics on my other issue maybe after you can help me sort out this "Media Offline" issue. Thanks
MSmart wrote on 1/27/2011, 7:21 AM
In Options > Preferences > General, remove the check mark from "Close media files when not the active application". You wascally wabbit.
Eugenia wrote on 1/27/2011, 1:57 PM
There is no such thing as M4H files. Do you mean MP4?
Kahuna wrote on 1/27/2011, 8:16 PM
You're right, should had been MP4. Media Offline problem is now solved, thanks to the an earlier recommendation, thank you MSmart.
Kahuna wrote on 1/27/2011, 9:51 PM
Still playing around with every possible combination of JPG's or PNG's in various sizes in the timeline and varing project properties and the final product on a DVD still looks terrible. The jpg in Photoshop looks great, the jpg in Lighroom looks great, the rendered PDF from Lighroom looks great, the avi file rendered from Movie Studio looks great! Only when I try to make a dvd from any of these files the DVD, regardless of project video format also used in DVDA, played on a computer or a DVD player hooked up to a flat panel TV looks terrible. Funny thing, when combining video and stills in the same DVD, the videos look great, but the stills are terribly blurred. Unless someone can suggest a recipe for creating a slide show in Vegas, I'm of the opinion Vegas is not the right tool for conventional slide shows.
musicvid10 wrote on 1/28/2011, 7:26 AM
OK, you started with one problem, which was solved straightaway.
Now you're telling us about another one, which would require some details from you in order to address.

Please define "terrible." Be specific. Post a screen shot.
JPG / PNG resolution?
Project Properties?
Using Pan/Crop or Track Motion? How?
Render Properties?
Length of DVD?
DVDA Properties?
Is DVDA Recompressing?

Tim L wrote on 1/28/2011, 9:25 AM
Are you simply seeing a loss of detail / loss of sharpness in the still photos?

As Steve pointed out above, DVD resolution is only 720 pixels wide x 480 pixels high (in the US -- in Europe it's 720x576). That's the highest resolution image that any regular DVD (i.e. not BluRay) can produce. (Note: this is equivalent to what a 0.35 megapixel camera would produce.)

Take a copy of one of your pictures and resize it in PhotoShop to be 480 pixels high. Save it and then view it on your computer. Is this loss of detail similar to what you are experiencing?

Otherwise, post more specific details as Musicvid suggests.
Kahuna wrote on 1/28/2011, 10:10 PM
Please define "terrible." Be specific. Post a screen shot.
Sorry, not savvy enough to know how to do post a screen shot. Terrible ie; blurry, fuzzy, loss of clarity, loss of sharpness, out of focus, hazy, foggy, detail lost, etc.

JPG / PNG resolution?
JPG or PNG files utilized are approximately 1.5mg each, 1920 x 1080

Project Properties?
Custom (1916x1080, 29.970 fps)

Using Pan/Crop or Track Motion? How?
No Pan/Crop, Fx used in the timeline

Render Properties?
File Type .avi,
Template HD 1080-60i YUV

Length of DVD?
All of 5 minutes

DVDA Properties?
MPEG-2 720 x 480-60i16:9

Is DVDA Recompressing?
I have not a clue.

Are you simply seeing a loss of detail / loss of sharpness in the still photos?

Yes loss of detail and sharpness with the still photos when burned onto the DVD.

Take a copy of one of your pictures and resize it in PhotoShop to be 480 pixels high. Save it and then view it on your computer. Is this loss of detail similar to what you are experiencing?

No. When I resize the JPG from a 2 MB file to a 150KB JPG, the smaller file on my PC looks substantially better than the same file burned to a DVD using Sony DVDA. I could only wish the DVD product looked as good as the 150KB image on my computer.

musicvid10 wrote on 1/29/2011, 8:04 PM
"Render Properties?

Render your video to MPEG-2 using the appropriate DVD Architect Template provided in Vegas, and a separate AC3 audio file, again using the DVD template, import those into DVD Architect, Prepare without Rendering, and let us know how you come out.

If you do not know how to do this, there are ample instructions in your Interactive Tutorials, and Help files that come with your program, as well as the Sony Knowledgebase, and these Forums by virtue of their excellent Search feature.

Rendering to an uncompressed YUV intermediate, and importing that into DVD Architect, as you have done is, shall I say, a bit unusual.

Since you are unable to provide the other information that was requested, or even a screenshot of one of your problem stills, all I can do is wish you good luck.
Kahuna wrote on 1/30/2011, 3:48 PM
No noticeable improvement. If you were going to build a slide show, no video, no audio using only 1920 x 1080, 1.5MB jpg’s, what project properties would you use? When you render the slideshow to a file what file type and template would you use? Finally, when you load that file into DVDA what Project Video format would you use? I’ll duplicate and see if the final DVD product is as sharp and crisp as playing the rendered file on the computer.