Digital Workshop

I am attempting to create a simple slideshow of 175 High Res (3+Mb) images - This works fine in Opus Pro XE 5 - looks fatastic when run on the PC.

The slideshow is to be burnt to DVD with some video footage.

However when the slideshow is produced to either the DVD output or Video output the results are very disappointing - unusable. The images have noise/lines in the lower half of the image and the right edge of the slideshow changes in part from grey to B&W and on the full version of the DVD output (not included due to size) it had a corrupted image on the right side of the screen.

The attached file has cut down examples of the DVD & Video output (several codecs tried) and an image (3Mb version used in slideshow - reduced here for upload purposes) used in the slide show to indicate quality.

Whilst I could enter each image into my video editing suite and produce the required results, I would need to set all the timings and transitions individually Therefore I looked at Opus providing the solution ....

The system producing the package is a Compaq Presario 2100 with an AMD Athlon XP 2400+ 1.8 Ghz processor and 1Gb memory (128 Video / 896 Main - 600Mb free).

Any comments / sugestions greatfully accepted as I hope to have this produced for a meeting on Sunday.

Thanks and regards


Don


PS: - I have tried to upload the <5Mb file a few times ... Not sure why it hasn't loaded, will email forum administrator.

While I have not worked with the new DVD capabilities of Opus I can tell you an aspect of DVD authoring that is universal and is most likely your problem. You cannot use photos any larger or higher rez than the end result will support. If you are going to DVD which is to play on a tv set there is no use using a photo larger than the screen resolution which in US is 720 by 480. You are forcing Opus to do some very serious crunching and it is not made for such an extreme size in photos. It is pretty much standard practice to pre-size your photos for the end use.

Question: Since the output size of the highest computer monitor is use for the average desktop is 1600 x 1200 what did you thinkyou would gain by putting in photos at what appears to be 10 times the resolution of the end viewing device. And being you were trying to use this on a DVD shown on a tv it was even more overkill. Is there something I missed in your post as to how this was being shown. Maybe on a high definition setup?

Thanks for your reply Evereddie.

I must admit as soon as I posted the article having juggled some resolutions I went back and converted all the images to around 500k and had Opus re publish the slideshow with the same results.

Again I am trying to attach a file of screen shots which will give an example of the DVD output.

Regards


Don


PS: - Again I have tried to upload <1.8Mb file which hasn't worked Its going to be one of those days...

I wish I had Opus 5 to see this for myself but the other issue it could be is photo format. Is the format you are using the exact one specified on the help area.

Also I still maintain you should put the photos in exactly the screen size it is being shown on. Don't know PAL sizes but your file size of 500k sounds more reasonable but again the format will change file size greatly. What actual pixel size are the pics you are using. Also turn off any re-sizing capabilities in opus.

There is the chance that you have some strange-exotic-different- corrupt codecs on yor computer and it is causing all of this. I have had that happen.

Just to throw in my tuppenceworth, I tend to use a programme called Proshow Gold by Photodex for DVD-based slideshows, with superb results.

My digital photos are invariably huge (3000 x 2000 pixels approx) and any compression that's done by the programme for use on tv doesn't really affect the general perception of the images - indeed, using this size resolution allows slow-motion zooming and panning around to great effect.

Horses for courses - Opus is brilliant in many ways, but for straight slideshows I tend to use this other programme.

PAL (as used in UK and Oz) screen size is 720x576 pixels ...not 720x480 quoted above, which (as stated) is for NTSC.

I'm not convinced the precise image size is the problem here - selecting DVD output from Opus should surely make it render out (aka publish) the files at the appropriate screen resolution?

I think there are 2 other factors at play...
1. Image ratio - if the original images are not an exact multiple of 720x576 then the codec will have to do some manipulation, and maybe it doesn't like this or cannot cope?
2. MPEG2 is the only codec appropriate for DVD output, but there will be many different settings for data rates, etc ...maybe the settings default to safe but poor quality?

I only have eval version of Opus 5, and haven't tried DVD output, so I'm just making logical guesses at what's going on here.

Rob Kirkwood
www.visibleform.co.uk

Don,

Please email this problem and material to support@digitalworkshop.com where you won't have the upload issues and we can investigate the problem more effectively.

I'm doing some DVDs at home with Opus and haven't hit the problem you mention but we're also preparing some additional DVD guidelines so I'd obviously like us to find out where the problem is arising as quickly as possible in case we need to fix or advise. But as you've already realised, we'll need the example images and email to support will avoid any limitations of going via the forum.

Thanks.

Paul Harris

Have been in 'one on one' contact with KPL and bringing the photos in exactly the size needed (720 x 576) solved the problem as I suspected. In most multi-media apps using the exact size needed, and not have the application do the crunching, is always best.
And as Rob Kirkwood said, the ratio may also be a prime factor here too.

Thanks to all those who have replied.

Evereddie is correct in saying that by ensuring the photo is imported in at the required output size has removed the noise/lines at the bottom of the images, however there is still some corruption at the side of the slideshow.

I will still forward the examples referred to earlier onto the support desk as requested by Paul.

Regards

Don

Don,

If you can forward these on to me ASAP I will try to look at them before the Bank Holiday weekend. I have been try for a couple of hours to reproduce the problem here but none of our images seem to show any problem. Please can you send me a copy of your page that has the problem just incase you have set somthing different to the way I am testing.

Regards

Brenden Knifton.