Still image quality

John McCully wrote on 5/4/2003, 10:32 AM
Using Vegas 4 and DVD Architect, just purchased last week, how do I create the highest quality video of still photographs for distribution on DVD to be played on a computer or HD TV. I understand that for regular TV viewing the DV format is as good as it gets but on my new 20 inch Dell ultrasharp flat panel monitor the DV produced video quality is poor relative to viewing the originals taken with a Sony 5 megapixel camera.

Suggestions most appreciated.

Comments

Chienworks wrote on 5/4/2003, 10:56 AM
The problem you have is that video is low resolution. NTSC digital video is going to be 720x480 pixels no matter what template or settings you use. If you want higher resolution than that, then you'll have to go some other route besides video. Many of the CD burning programs out there include a "slide show" function that lets you create a disc of stills at higher resolution. However, a disc like this probably won't be playable on a stand-alone DVD player.
riredale wrote on 5/4/2003, 2:18 PM
I agree, TV has lousy resolution when compared to what even cheap digital still cameras can deliver these days.

BUT--one of the nicest things about Vegas is that you can very easily zoom in and out on key elements of a still shot. In other words, you can very quickly turn out videos that mimic the "Ken Burns Civil War" style, and if done with a bit of artistry your audience will forget that the TV screen is a fuzzy window to the world.
SonyDennis wrote on 5/5/2003, 1:57 AM
I agree, use Pan/Crop to zoom in on the pertinent part of the photo. What I do for each photo, is start by right-clicking in pan/crop and saying "match output aspect", then set a keyframe at the end, and zoom in to a subject or feature in the photo. Vegas will automatically ease-in and ease-out the "camera" move.

Also, when using hi-res stills in a Vegas project, go into project properties and pick "Best" for "full resolution rendering quality". It will use a better scaling algorithm and will have far less aliasing.

///d@
farss wrote on 5/5/2003, 6:10 AM
You can also create DVD slideshows in DVDA or even on (S)VCDs, all of these will play in DVD players but the limiting factor is the res of the TV, ones with SVideo or YUV between the DVD player and TV should give better results.
John McCully wrote on 5/5/2003, 12:08 PM
Thanks everyone for the suggestions. As it happens I believe I have found a partial answer to my question. Within Vegas 4.0b I discovered under file properties a series of templates for HD TV. So I selected the HD 720-30p (1280 x 720) template, dropped a sound track in and then dropped my images in the video track, rendered as a high bit rate mpeg 2 and bingo, high quality indeed. I played this file in Windows Media Player and the quality on my 20 inch monitor was excellent. But now the question is how do I burn this to a DVD using DVDA??? And by the way, I guess I need a HD TV.