Project Settings

MarkCC777 wrote on 9/7/2008, 9:27 PM
I have been creating slideshows with both pictures and video clips for my 5th grade students after returning from science camp. Each student is given a DVD to remember there experience for years to come. My question:

What are the best settings to use for this type of project? I've done several of these already, but I think the quality can be better. Some of the still images look blotchy and pixelated. They were taken with a DSLR at a high resolution, but they look kinda bad when played on a TV. This is especially true on my 42" LCD.

My Vegas Settings are:
Template: NTSC DV (720x480, 29.970 fps)
Field Order: Lower Field First
Pixel Aspect Ratio: 0.9091 (NTSC DV)
Rendering Quality: Best
Motion Blur: Gaussian
Deinterlace Method: Blend Fields

Render Settings are:
Save as Type: Video for Windows (.avi)
Template: NTSC DV

Description: audio: 48,000 Hz, 16 Bit, Stereo, PCM Uncompressed.
Video: 29.97 fps, 720x480, Lower field first.
Pixel Aspect Ratio: 0.909. OpenDML compatible.
NTSC DV video files compatible with Sony Video Capture.

DVDA Settings are:

Video Format: NTSC (720 x 480
Audio: AC-3 Stereo.

Original Media Properties are:

Stills are taken on a digital SLR at a high resolution
Video is in the MPEG2 widescreen format (Sony HDD video camera)

Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Mark

Comments

Robert W wrote on 9/8/2008, 3:50 AM
Whatever you do a photo will look pretty poor on a 42inch TV screen due to the resolution of the DVD format. 720x480 is going to look pretty poor whatever you do with it. You may get better results by preparing the images in a dedicated image program photo shop so it is optomised for display at that resolution and pixel ratio.

The other option might be to make a video of each photo and adding a slow creeping pullback with the event pan/crop tool. This will give an apparent higher resolution. The only problem with this approach is that you can only have the image on screen for as long as the video lasts.

Maybe I need to establish something here: Are your photos part of a video prepared in Vegas, or are you adding them straight into the DVD as stand alone images? Are you aware that there is a picture compilation mode in DVD architect?
Chienworks wrote on 9/8/2008, 3:52 AM
You're pretty much spot on. You might want to consider rendering to MPEG2 directly from Vegas instead of to DV .avi. This way you'll have more control over the encoding parameters and you'll only be doing a single encode rather than an encode to DV plus an encode to MPEG2.

Vegas has some issues with high-res photographs. You might want to consider batch resizing them to smaller versions such as 800x600 using good photo editing software before importing them into Vegas. Keep in mind that DVDs have a maximum resolution of 720x480 which is rather low for still images. Try resizing a photo to 480 pixels high in your photo editing program and then viewing it full screen on the 42" LCD and you'll see it doesn't look much better than the DVD version. This is just simple physical fact.

If you search for "still image" you'll find hundreds of threads full of excellent suggestions. Some of these include deinterlace settings and adding small amounts of gaussian blur to overcome the limitations of Video's inherent poor handling of stills.
rs170a wrote on 9/8/2008, 3:58 AM
It sounds like you're rendering to AVI first and bringing that into DVDA.
The quality will be better if you render to MPEG-2 directly.
Depending on the length of your program, you may need to use a bitrate calculator.
There are numerous free ones on the web or you can use that chart in jetdv's article in Vol.1 Issue 7 of his newsletters.
He goes into setting up custom templates as well as offering tips to get the most out of renders from Vegas.
Also, it sounds like your dropping the images from your DSLR directly on the timeline.
If you're not doing extensive zooming on them, you may find things will be easier on Vegas and look better if you downsize them to no more than twice your project resolution (1440 x 960 for NTSC).
IrfanView (free) has a good batch converter for doing this.

Mike
MarkCC777 wrote on 9/8/2008, 6:30 AM
Yes, I am dragging the pictures to the Vegas timeline and including them as part of a video. I use video clips throughout the project, so I don't think the picture compilation mode in DVDA will work for what I'm doing.
TheHappyFriar wrote on 9/8/2008, 6:45 AM
you can also render as NTSC 24p, no need to interlace. it's just photos and it will help a little bit.

but I'm thinking your issue is letting DVDA render the mpeg. I've taken high-res stills (8mp) to vegas to DVD & they don't look bad on a 50" LCD HD TV.
goodtimej wrote on 9/9/2008, 9:37 PM
For your purposes, those pictures will look awesome on that TV, almost guaranteed. These guys are all spot on, you may want to do a little resizing if that is within your skillset, but it is not imperitive. I would personally not make any dimension less than 1000 pixels, but that is just because I like to be able to zoom in quite a bit without losing any resolution. Working with pictures can really be a lot of fun.

I would suggest, though, that you use the NTSC DV Widescreen settings and render with the MPG2 widescreen setting. It will letterbox your picture, but looks much better on most TVs today in my opinion. It takes advantage of the widescreen and you don't have to worry about the stretching that occurs a lot when people don't know how to adjust aspect ratios on their new widescreen TVs. It also automatically letterboxes on standard "squarish" TVs. I always use this setting when working with SD and it works great for me every time.