Blurry Pictures in Premiere

[chris_snyder]

Hello,

I have created a slide show in Photoshop Elements 10. I clicked on output to send it to Premiere Elements 10 because my pictures were blurry/pixilated when I viewed them in full screen preview, but they were not blurry/pixilated in the screen above the timeline.

Once I had my slide show in Premiere, I finished making edits, created a DVD menu for it and then went to burn it to a DVD. None of the pictures were blurry in the screen above the sceneline. When I went to burn it to a DVD, I unchecked the box "fit to available space" and slid the quality slider all the way to the right. Most of the pictures were fine, but some are still blurry/pixilated.

Why is this happening and how can I correct it? Please provide detailed steps as I have only been using Premiere for about 2 weeks.

[pretabhorn]

Steve, would the slideshow feature in elements work like the Pro Show Gold, or are they two different monsters?

[BigSkyPhotog]

I have the exact same issue. I used the default project settings.   Images imported from Photoshop CS6 as 1920x1080 PSD files at 180dpi (no layers) input into Premiere Elements 11.  If I burn an AVHCD format DVD images look great.  When I burn a DVD in NTSC widescreen images and text both look blurry when played on laptop, desktop, DVD player on a 720p TV, and on a Blueray player with a 1080p TV.

My results are similar to what Copycat1 is describing.

I understand Steve's comment that NTSC is 720x480 but even when showing at a smaller size with Windows Media Player, quality is lacking even doing the deflicker trick Steve talked about.

My goal is to make a DVD that has both video (shot at 1080 on a Canon 5D Mark II) and still images with voiceover narration that I could give to people who attend a program.  I wanted it to look professional.  The still images are all photographs taken with the same Canon 5D2.  Images are very detailed and sharp in Photoshop CS6.  However I can only get good DVD output with AVHCD.

If I burn the project to a DVD disk in AVCHD the quality is very good, but it only plays in a blueray player.

If I burn the project to DVD in NTSC Widescreen, the still images and all text look blurry on every computer and both TVs.

If I save the project as an Web DVD or MPEG it plays fine on the computer but I cannot get a good burn that plays well on DVD.

[Steve Grisetti]

We could go on with the discussion forever. 30% resolution is just not going to look as good as 100% resolution. I don't know any other way to say it.

People keep bringing up "quality" -- but that's a relative term. It could mean any number of things.

If you want to continue the discussion, I challenge you to do this:

Create a high-def output from your slides and then open the video in VLC media player. Do a screen capture and then use Photoshop to size this image down to 400x300 pixels.

Now take those same photos, rez them down town 1000x750 and put them into a standard DV project. Output a DVD and do a screen capture of the exact same slide when played in VLC media player. Then use Photoshop to size this image down to 400x300 pixels. (This will limit the effect of interlacing, which can affect the "quality" of a DVDs playback on your computer.)

Put those two 400x300 images side by side and post them to this forum. Then we can address the specific "quality" issues that are illustrated.

[david1216]

Steve, I don't think the folks with issues on DVD blurriness are complaining because of expected loss of resolution. Pictures that do not start in the correct project settings come out unwatchable on DVD.

I do have one more related question regarding the correct settings to get started. Sounds like normally one would chose 1080p with the 29.97 frame rate (I'll be honest I was not aware of the subtlety here...always thought it was exactly 30fps). But there is another setting for exactly 30 fps. Can someone explain the difference and when one is chosen over the other?

[Steve Grisetti]

This thread is starting to fray a bit, David. How about we keep this thread focused on the subject at hand for now. And we're waiting for someone to post the 400x300 pixels side-by-side examples of a DVD and BluRay output for comparison.

But we can certainly discuss frame rate in a separate thread.

[Zahoor_M__Sakharkar]

I have been tinkering with dvd resolution issues from HD timeline for a while and decided to experiment with different setting using High resolution test images (scaled on timeline) with saturated movies - all of these test dvd compression methods to their limits.

My conclusion were that non of the settings (presets) within export satisfy or meet the required expected outcome.

My workaround was this - for 50i PAL video (use may substitute 60i for NTSC)

1) Create an SD Timeline DV PAL 50i lowr field first (there is a premiere preset for this)

2) Copy and paste the HD timeline content into the SD timeline (ensure scale to frame size is on)- Note dropping the HD sequence into SD timeline will not give you the same results.

3) Create your own export DVD preset  - ensure you use Lower Field First. (forget max depth and max render quality as they dont affect the resolution )

4) 6) Export the movie and use that in Encore - forget dynamic link as that has a mind of it's own.

The resolution of the DVD should be greately improved without having to use anything else other than Adobe applications. Please suggest your own settings if the above does not work for you. I live in PAL land..

Message was edited by: Zahoor M. Sakharkar

[BigSkyPhotog]

After making the above post I saw comment 49 from David1216 about the project settings.  I had started with the default Premiere Elements 11 settings for a project.  As several of us have stated those will not provide clean output of still images to DVD.  A kicker to that is you apparently cannot change the settings once you are in the project.  At least I tried to no better luck on output.  However if you START a new project and then change the settings to DSLR 1080p mode as David1216 suggested you can get a better output of still images in DVD format.

I started a new project  and CHANGED SETTINGS to DSLR 1080p 30 at 29.27

Imported 2 video clips in 1080p from a Canon 5D2

Imported 10 still images from the Canon 5D2 that I had resized in Photoshop CS6 to 1920x1080 at 180dpi PSD files

Burned a DVD in NTSC Wide .  I would grade the quality at a B+ on my laptop, as a B+ on blueray player with 1080p TV, and as a C- or D+ on a DVD player with a 720p TV. 

Getting good playback on my laptop and the blueray player is a first as prior attempts from the default settings in Premiere Elements were ineffective with DVD output.

As a control I also burned a DVD (had to use DVD as I do not have a Blueray burner) with a AVHCD file.  Played that on Blueray player and that gives "A" output.

I can accept and expect that the NRSC would not be as crsip as the AVHCD and the results I get now are more in line with what I expected all along.  In other words burning a DVD in standard defination was ok but in HD its better.

I still may work on getting a version to play in the regular DVD player as the quality dropoff was steep between the Blueray and laptop with the same disk.  Perhaps I shold have chosen DSLR 1080p 30 or perhaps 24?

[big sandy lake]

I went through some of this when I had to put together a slide show for a funeral but I took Steve's advice and got Pro Show Gold. I had it figured out in an hour and was able to put together a slide show without a single software problem or crash. It has dozens of transitions, effects like pan zoom and many others preloaded and ready to use and if you wanted to customize you could do that as well and include video if you so desired. I just used the transitions and effects that were preloaded and I'm still getting praise for that slide show. It took me less than two days. It gives you the option to output blue ray as well. What impressed me was its stability and ability to import many file formats.    

Tom

[Guest]

Could someone post a sample of their photo, a photoshop original and a snapshot from the timeline as I did? I'm still going back to my dilemma of why one of my previous projects from a previous version went from acceptable quality (from my standpoint) and has now somehow degraded.  I'm trying to rule out if it's computer or software related.