Question on DVD slideshow and sharpness

[Alexconstan]

Hi All,

I hope you can help me with a concern I have on the sharpness of the DVD slideshows. I have successfully made PTE slideshows in EXE and DVD formats. I use Nikon dSLRs and professional grade Nikkor lenses, so my pictures are very sharp and of ample resolution. My PC monitor is a 26" wide screen LCD (NEC 2690WUXi) which is 16-bit and shows my photos beautifully. The photo quality of my PTE EXE files (in 16:10 and 4:3 formats) is absolutely stunning.

However, after creating a DVD video and watching it on TV, the quality is not nearly as good as my PC monitor. My TV is pretty decent - a Sony 40" Bravia XBR LCD HDTV. When I view my photos on this HDTV monitor via a USB stick, the photos are pretty darn close in sharpness to my PC monitor. The DVD slide shows created in PTE are not nearly as sharp. I have tried 4:3 and 16:9 DVD formats, I have tried progressive and auto "video types" and think the progressive results in a slightly better quality.

So here are my questions:

1) Am I doing something wrong of missing something? Or is this to be expected after converting to DVD format?

2) Not everyone who I share DVD slide shows with has a 16:9 format TV. I know that I can put 2 different slide shows into one DVD project with PTE, but in doing this can one slide show be in 16:9 format and can the other one remain in 4:3 format? That way the viewer can select his/her format from the menu screen based on the type of TV they have.

Thanks very much for your help!!

Alex

[Guest Yachtsman1]

Hi All,

I hope you can help me with a concern I have on the sharpness of the DVD slideshows. I have successfully made PTE slideshows in EXE and DVD formats. I use Nikon dSLRs and professional grade Nikkor lenses, so my pictures are very sharp and of ample resolution. My PC monitor is a 26" wide screen LCD (NEC 2690WUXi) which is 16-bit and shows my photos beautifully. The photo quality of my PTE EXE files (in 16:10 and 4:3 formats) is absolutely stunning.

However, after creating a DVD video and watching it on TV, the quality is not nearly as good as my PC monitor. My TV is pretty decent - a Sony 40" Bravia XBR LCD HDTV. When I view my photos on this HDTV monitor via a USB stick, the photos are pretty darn close in sharpness to my PC monitor. The DVD slide shows created in PTE are not nearly as sharp. I have tried 4:3 and 16:9 DVD formats, I have tried progressive and auto "video types" and think the progressive results in a slightly better quality.

So here are my questions:

1) Am I doing something wrong of missing something? Or is this to be expected after converting to DVD format?

2) Not everyone who I share DVD slide shows with has a 16:9 format TV. I know that I can put 2 different slide shows into one DVD project with PTE, but in doing this can one slide show be in 16:9 format and can the other one remain in 4:3 format? That way the viewer can select his/her format from the menu screen based on the type of TV they have.

Thanks very much for your help!!

Alex

If your Sony Bravia TV has a VGA connection, connect it to your PC with a VGA lead, not a USB stick and give that a try with your DVD playing through your disc drive. If your PC & TV have HDMI connections you should be able to improve the picture quality and transmit sound from your DVD to the TV, which you can't with a VGA lead. I tried showing one of my productions via a USB memory stick on a colleagues monitor and it was rubbish, something to do with the memory sticks re-fresh rate I believe.. Saying all that your shows on DVD shown on a TV will never be as good as on your PC monitor.

Yachtsman1

[fh1805]

Alex,

When you convert your PTE sequence into a DVD video sequence you will always lose the image quality. The DVD systems use a resolution of something like 700x500 pixels compared to PTE's ability to use all the pixels you give it. In addition, when running as an exe on your computer, PTE uses the graphics processor to render the images, thus retaining every bit of detail and sharpness. DVD-Video software doesn't do this. It's rendering techniques are primitive in comparison.

To get the same picture quality on the TV that you see on your PC monitor you need to hook up the TV to the PC as though it were an auxilliary monitor.

regards,

Peter

[szphoto]

First of all, beware at this: when you reduce image dimension (e.g. from full resolution of your dSLR to 720 pixel), you ALWAYS loss sharpness. So, you ALWAYS have to sharpen your reduced images.

Returning to your problem, you probably use full resolution images in your PTE project. But, when PTE create the DCD, it probably reduces images dimension to DVD standard (I don't remember exact number, but it is close to 700x500, as ft1805 said). So, images loss sharpness.

In order to avoid this, you have to reduce image dimension to DVD standard, apply correct shapen on them and finally use these reduced images in PTE project.

[Guest Yachtsman1]

If you sharpen your images too much you increase the moire effect (shimmering) on pictures with animation

Yachtsman1

[davegee]

The Sony Bravia, if it is reasonably new, should have a HDMI connection which will allow connection of a suitably equipped laptop or desktop and will allow viewing at full resolution (in your case, probably 1920x1080 but possibly 1360x768 - your TV manual will tell you which).

If you use the VGA connection the width will be restricted.

On my Sony 26" the HDMI resolution is 1360x768 and the VGA resolution is restricted to 1280x768.

So, in my case I make shows at the 1360x768 resolution, connect via HDMI from my laptop and it is, as you said, stunning.

I no longer see the point in making high resolution PTE shows, reducing them to PAL standard (720x576) for a DVD and then have the TV resize the whole thing back up to the resolution of a 40" TV monitor. Once you have resized to PAL you don't get any of those lost pixels back!

It's the same thing as watching "normal" TV broadcasts on a HD ready TV - when compared to HD broadcasts on HD TV it's no contest.

Hence the loss in quality.

DaveG

[Alexconstan]

Thanks everyone for the quick help! I think Peter told me what I needed, but didn't want to hear. That is, when converting to DVD format we cannot (at least with this current technology) retain the detail and sharpness we see on our PCs with the EXE files. I am not positive, but the quality of the DVD slideshow I made with PTE may be similar to those I have made in the past with my Pinnacle Video software. This is only from memory because I was disappointed with that qulaity and I was hoping that the Pinnacle slideshows, which were converted to AVI format, could be improved with the PTE software.

Just to be clear, I am not using the USB port (or any port) on my Bravia TV to show the slidesshow, I am using a high-end DVD player (I tried both upconverting and traditional DVD players). The reference I made to the USB port is that I know my Bravia TV can show incredibly sharp photos when I display the photos in JPG format from a USB memory stick (and then use the TVs internal program to sequence all the files on the USB stick in a slideshow).

I realize that my expectations are likely too high for photo/video output, but is it possible in the near future to make DVD slideshows that retain the quality that I see when I view the EXE slides show? Will producing an HD DVD slideshow do this with PTE 5.5?

Thanks again,

Alex

[davegee]

I think that we all probably knew what you were doing Alex, but I offered you an alternative way which would give you exactly what you want using the other connections on your TV and computer.

The HDMI and VGA connections between computer and TV will both give superior quality when compared to a DVD version of a PTE show.

Until Blue Ray is more widely available (and affordable).........

DaveG

[Alexconstan]

DaveG,

Gotcha, thanks! That setup will work for me. However, my concern is with trying to produce a high-quality DVD that others (i.e., clients and/or family members) can take home and play on their setup with minimal efforts - basically providing them a DVD they can drop in their player without hooking up a PC. Maybe my expectations are too high and the PTE DVD will be acceptable to others.

I used PTE for quite a while back in 2000-2002, but then started to use my DVD editing/authoring software to produce slide shows on DVD so others could watch at home on a TV. I was not very pleased with the quality of the final product then, knowing that it was rendered to AVI, but that seemed to be the best at the time. Recently, I had read several great reviews about the latest version of PTE and the quality of DVD slide shows. I had expected (hoped?) that this latest version would produce what I had been waiting for - a high-quality slide show on DVD that produced photo quality similar to what I see on my PC monitor. Although I think the DVD slideshows I produced this week with PTE are a little better in quality than that produced with Pinnacle, I am still longing for what I was originally anticipating. Not sure if there is another program out there that does this.

Thanks again for your HDMI suggestion, I can definitely use that at home to review photos with clients. I just hope they do not expect the quality of the EXE show on the Sony to reproduce on a DVD.

Alex

[Conflow]

Hi All,

This subject of PTE~TV quality issues has cropped up many times before and it can't be resolved

by any currently available Software methods available to the general Public...

Why ?

1)

When you make an AVI for DVD you are simply multiplying the origional Image by X ~ where X

is the Frame-Rate of the TV Set in question. Frame Rate = No of origional Picture frames per sec

which is 25.fps in Europe and 30.fps in the USA.

2)

Example:-Your Image of duration 4 secs = Pic x4 x25 = 100 Avi-Images for PAL TV Sets

and 4x30 =120 Avi-Images for NTSC TV Sets and each of these is 720x540 pixels for PAL TV's

and this is chosen to preserve the 4:3 aspect ratio of the TV-Screen. There are also other signals

outside the visible Screen-Area concerned with Synchronisation and Colour correction etc.

3)

In actuality, each 'TV Screen-Frame' contains 2 Image ~ the direct Image and a 2nd interlaced

image so in visual terms you are getting (pseudo) 50 Frames per sec. This allows for TV 'motion'

effect because the interlaced image could be that as a remnant from the previous Frame.

TV-Studio

Unlike your 'static-images' the TV-Camera works in a completely different way and in effect it is

3 Cameras in one. Whether it uses Videocon Tubes or CCD Image Sensors there are always 3

sensor-systems each to cater for the R-G-B Colour Data, plus Luminance and Chromanance

and Remainance (delay-effect) and Synchronisation. It doesn't stop there because each is given

a pre-emphasis boost to counteract losses during Transmission.

Finally all this lot is 'Rasterised' into a composite TV-Signal which is locked into a signal level from

Zero to 70% ~the remaining 30% is reserved for 'Black-Level' which also contains invisable signals.

Summary

Now you have the 'basic bare facts' about whats going on and when this reaches the TV-Set it is then

de-compiled and de-modulated into the appropriate R-G-B signals plus FM Sound and Synchronisations.

How the heck can you expect simple Digital-Software such as PTE to emulate that lot and also change

your R-G-B data to TV Format ??....it can't be done.

The PTE DVD Utility was intended purely to give a simple method of presenting your Shows on a TV.Set

nothing else was claimed of it.

Hope this goes some way to ending this 'never-ending' futile debate about DVD Disc quality.

Brian.Conflow.

[davegee]

Hi Brian,

What are the comparative figures for "Blue Ray" DVD?

DaveG

[Conflow]

Dave Gee and Peter,

Dave ~ your question concerning comparitives of "Blu-Ray~V~DVD" is really a 'Loaded Question''

because it would take nearly 2 pages of Forum Text to answer the question properly and that would

divert away from the origional thread ~ "Poor quality of Pte DVD Shows" which I had answered.

Here are the Basics

Concerning 'Blue-Ray' ~ It's Recording Format is completely different to Standard DVD in that Blu-Ray

is a HD Video System where Standard DVD is not (somewhat like Pal -V- Betamax Systems).

1) For a given DVD-Disc size and Rotation Speed the Blue-Ray Disc stores 10 times more Data than DVD

for the reason that it contains more Recordable Tracks.

2) Also for the same size Disc ~ Blue-Ray contains more 'Data-Density' per Track than DVD, not only that

but the 'Data-Bit' is 20 times more precise, so better definition is possible, thus its a 'High-Definition Disc'.

3) And again, the Colour Management is different (this is complex) although both use R-G-B Colour the

Blue-Ray Colour is Ry-Gy-By ~ its too complex to explain here, see below.

4) Would 'Blue-Ray' improve the replay rendition of Pte-DVD Discs ? ~ Only marginally because the Pte-AVI

is only a small part of the conversion process ~ there is so many more Conversion artifacts needed to bring

the AVI up to a 'Commercial Television Standard' which includes Rasterisation and Colour Conversion and

so much more, making the Software Package larger than 'Auto-Cad' and that package would not run on a

Windows Computer.

5) Finallly the Blu-Ray Disc is cut with a Blue-Laser where DVD is cut with a Red Laser and Commercial

DVD's are not cut at all ~ that process is a multi-layer Dye Process on the CD which are Laser-Etched

whilst the DVD is held stationary.

Here below is a Link to the 'Blue-Ray Association with has various Instructional-Videos and a User Forum

and a Manufacturers Forum plus FAQ's and Tech.Section which will be of interest to all.

LINK:-

http://www.blu-raydisc.com/en/nlmp/Blu-rayGlobal.html

Also a Screen-Shot of the Home Page ~ I hope this helps....

Brian.Conflow.

[jfa]

Brian

Thanks for the previous post on Blu-ray it has answered several questions for me, very timely.

I assume the end result will be sometime in the future, (maybe a very long time), when PTE can burn a Blu-ray DVD disk and then we run this DVD on a HD TV system the show will compare favourably with the EXE file that we can currently produce and view on a PC monitor.