DV-AVI output fuzzier than WMV output on PC & TV

[Guest]

Made a slideshow out of a series of pictures and saved it using the 'High
Quality (NTSC)' setting and the DV-AVI setting. Both files were then put
thru TmpgEnc to make the mpeg2. The DV-AVI files (the MM2 output as well as
the mpeg2) played fuzzier than the HQ output on the PC (using MP 9). Burned
VDV's from both and saw the same on the TV. Any ideas why?? I wanted to use
DV-AVI hoping to preserve picture quality. I understand I can make my own
'HQ NTSC' profile to push up the bitrate/quality levels etc, but was
wondering why the DV-AVI output looked so bad.

 

[Rehan]

Your experience is shared by me too.

To resolve the quality issue with "still images" you should export using a
profile that exports to 640x480 output size such as "High quality Video
(large)". For 16:9 the size is 856x480.

Make sure your input images are of the standard aspect ratio: 4:3 or 16:9.

Do not export using the DV AVI profiles or those with NTSC or PAL in their
name.
These encode the output to 720x480 (NTSC) or 720x576 (PAL) using non-square
pixel encoding. These are *not* suitable for crisp output from still images
because for these output sizes there is always an internal resampling step
involved which destroys the crispiness.

Hope it helps.

 

[Guest]

Thanks for the info. I have some 400 photos taken over the course of a
soccer season that have all been cropped, so I stuck as far as having each
picture be a 4:3 ratio, but I'll remember that for the next time (lthough I
want to give these out to everybody on the team so I'm sure some probably
have widescreen TV's).

 

[John Kelly]

Hello there,

Here is my reply to another chap a few minutes back....its the one that the
Microsoft chap who I believe is on the MM team endorsed...I think you will find
it of use in particular as you are aiming at NTSC....Anyway, here it is...

Hello,

This is why wrong information is such a pain in the ass, in particular
because its the same person over and over again putting out duff info that
confuses those who have not yet learned better.

No you are not being Obtuse.....simply....

1) Crop your image to the desired ratio utilizing as much or as little of
the original image as desired. If you have the right software (free version
of Adobe Photoshop or perhaps Jasc) you use a constrained bounding box
which you set to the ratio you require...this works for ALL ratios by the
way including standard and non-standard widescreen

2) Resize the resulting image so that its HEIGHT is exactly the number of
pixels high (480 in your case)

Job Done

I should have also said in the first message that it makes no odds what the
width is doing...think pedantic and think HEIGHT...everything else will fall
into place because of that.
--
Best Wishes.....John Kelly
www.the-kellys.org
www.the-kellys.co.uk
All material gained from other sources is duly acknowledged. No Value is
obtained by publishing in any format other peoples work

 

[Guest]

Thanks, I appreciate all the help.

 

[Guest]

Let me trouble you one last time,

Assuming I have the right ratio, then resize so that the height is 480 and
the width varies from picture to picture, then
if I make a custom profile for a NTSC DVD, would I specify a size of 720x480
or would I check 'same size as input file'?

BTW I found a freeware program called Irfanview that had some good reviews
over at videohelp.com. It has a very simple to use batch resize/crop
function.
Obviously, the crop fucntion would only work if every picture needed to be
cropped at the same locations, but the batch resize worked like a charm; I
just said use a height of 480 and there's a box to check that keeps the width
proportional.
Very fast; I was able to resize some 400 pictures in under 5 minutes- I
can't say anything about the algorithims it uses to resize, but the pictures
looked just as good as the original inputs.

 

[John Kelly]

Let me trouble you one last time,

Assuming I have the right ratio, then resize so that the height is 480 and
the width varies from picture to picture, then
if I make a custom profile for a NTSC DVD, would I specify a size of 720x480
or would I check 'same size as input file'?

Hello,

The croping must be to the ratio being used, so if you make a custom profile
where you change that relationship then clearly you will have to re-edit your
pictures.

The width will NOT vary from picture to picture so long as you do the cropping
first to the required ratio.....The actual height and width at that point are
only of academic interest....when you resize so that the image is 480 high and
if you are using the ratio W : H....(I use the word ratio NOT Pixels here) the
width MUST be W / H * 480. and in your case that would be 720...or whatever
your custom profile changes it too. This is maths 101 (no slight meant or
intended)
--
Best Wishes.....John Kelly
www.the-kellys.org
www.the-kellys.co.uk
Check out free video hosting at www.the-kellys.org
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All material gained from other sources is duly acknowledged. No Value is
obtained by publishing in any format other peoples work