The ultimate image quality: how?

[michaelbs]

I have a bunch of raw files that I have converted and processed to PSD. I want to make a DVD slideshow for my (or any PC) with the best possible image quality.

My monitor has a native resolution of 2560*1600. (HP LP3065). Now I find the proshow very easy to use (I am new to this program) but the outputsetting/preferences very confusing. Can anyone point to the settings that will give me optimal image quality? I don't care how much space it takes up. There are several settings concerning resizing. D I set them all to 2560*1600 and that will give the best result on my monitor as well as others with different resolutions?

Can anyone point to a workflow that has emphasis on optimal image quality both on PC (from a DVD) and on television (PAL).

Also: how do I ensure that colors come out correctly (colormanaged) on the clients PC's.? Like I said I find the setting dialogues very confusing.

[alcain Profile Private messageWebsite]

Michael, from what I do know, the Photodex software delivers the best image quality of all the similar software. This is one of the reasons Photodex Presenter is required to view the shows online - it is a better "Mousetrap" so to speak. One of my shows (End of an Era), I shot RAW and processed all of my images to the highest quality I could using Adobe Elements 5. The detail in my finished show was breathtaking. I made a DVD using the highest quality settings and viewed it on my big TV - all I can say is that it was "Broadcast Quality" all the way. What I am trying to say is that PSG or PSP does most of the work for you - It's that good (and I have tried them all). ~al

In case you didn't see the show: http://www.photodex.com/sharing/viewsho ... 2285&alb=0

[michaelbs]

My compliments. That's some show you've put together. Very moody and expressive. Good choice of music too. What is that music?
I can see that the image quality is very good for a webshow.

However I was thinking of a presentation on a high resolution monitor like mine (2560*1600) taking advantage of the whole screen.
Burn it on a DVD and show it to clients on my PC and have them take it home to watch it closely on their monitor and/or TV set.

Of course I set it to high quality where ever possible but there is more to it than taht. There is the question of resizing, colormanagement and probably some other parameters that might influence the final image quality. .

I didn't get specific answers for those questions.

Please?

[marmart Profile Private message]

In case you didn't see the show: http://www.photodex.com/sharing/viewsho ... 2285&alb=0

I did not see this before and you are right Al, the photos are so crisp, I felt as if I were there looking at these scenes myself instead of through your lens! Wonderful!

Thanks for posting this again,

Peace,

Mary

[gpsmikey Profile Private message]

Who me ??

Unfortunately, I do not have a diffinitive answer on this one, however, a couple of
things to keep in mind:

1) from what I have seen, LCD's work best in their native resolution so the setting
of 2560*1600 should give the best results.

2) This means that any pictures you have need to be that resolution (or higher if
you are going to zoom in on them) to avoid losses due to upsampling.

3) I don't think you need to enable de-saturation for an LCD, but that is just a guess.

4) "safe area" does not typically apply to an LCD since they do not scan like a CRT
(so there is no "over scan").

5) something to keep in mind also -- at this high a resolution, I would assume you
are going to see a significant increase in data rate (especially during transitions) from
your hard drive so you want to make sure it is on a fast partition that has been
defragged and not a bunch of stuff running in the background (windows is ALWAYS
looking for ways to "help" you - often in the background )

Sorry I can't give a better answer than that, but I have not been down that path
yet. When you get done and get it tuned, *you* will be our resident expert !!
Let us know how it works and what works best (that is a BIG monitor ($$ too ))

mikey

[hardsoftware Profile Private message]

Something that has always bothered me about uploading shows is that when I play them full screen in presenter they appear "soft" for lack of a better word. Yet when I play the same show BEFORE it is uploaded it is crisp. Does uploading limit the screen resolution to 800x600 to fit the size of the presenter window asuming that you do not watch full screen?

My VFW Memorial show is a perfect example. When I play this show in Producer full screen (before upload) the names on the memorial are artifact free and sharp at full screen on my LCD (1280X1024). After I upload the show and play it fullscreen from the photodex site all the photos loose detail, and the names on the memorial pillars take on weird artifacts around the edges almost like the photos do not have enough resolution to be zooming in, yet I know this is not true since I do not resize anything when droping them into Producer. I've got to be doing something wrong. I see this in everyone of my shows. I wish there was a way to upload in the resolution that the show is made in. It just seems to me that uploading shows defaults the show to 800x600 and thats ok if you only watch in the presenter default viewing window. Theres got to be another way to upload a show in the resolution it is made in.

I tried once to watch one of my shows on a 1680x1050 20inwide screen LCD and the show looked horrific! BUT when I made an EXE out of the same show using the resolutions for the widescreen monitor it was fantastic!

The Music in Al's show is from Apollo 13 and I used it in one of my shows back in April that you may or may not have viewed yet. You are welcome to view it here:
http://www.photodex.com/sharing/viewsho ... 2785&alb=0 Give it a minute to load.

Sorry I cannot help with the questions you seeking answers too. Everyone method of display will be somewhat different or set up differently Just set everything to max and go from there

Ben

[alcain Profile Private messageWebsite]

The Music in Al's show is from Apollo 13 and I used it in one of my shows back in April that you may or may not have viewed yet. You are welcome to view it here:
http://www.photodex.com/sharing/viewsho ... 2785&alb=0 Give it a minute to load.

Ben, The above listed show is probably one of my all time favorites ever uploaded to this site. I thouroughly enjoyed watching it again. It is the reason I purchased the Apollo 13 CD soundtrack, a wise investment.

An intesesting note... I viewed it full screen on my HP VP17 lcd monitor, as well as on my Dell 18" CRT monitor. It actually looked better on the dell than the HP (I have Dual monitors). But it viewed the sharpest at 800 by 600 native.

Michael, I think you may be chasing the 'elusive' perfect pixel. Photodex software does such a good job 'as is', I think your clients will be very impressed with any presentation set to highest quality.

Blessings, ~al

[michaelbs]

let me rephrase my question:
I want to preserve the images in the show at their native size. I have cropped postprocessed and sharpened the images in Phtoshop and have saved them as jpegs for the DVD slideshow. I would prefer NOT to have Proshow fiddle with the images. No resizing, nothing. Is this possible?

If I click the create DVD disc a dialogue appears. Under the tab PC autorun I have different options. If I uncheck the "include PC Autorun on DVD" the size of the show shrinks from 2500mb to about 2100mb. Why is this??
If I check the "include PC Autorun on DVD" i get different options: Wndows size, limit image display size. monitor. Quality performance settings give me the option to limit rendering size and manually limit images. How do I relate to these settings?
I want maximum image quality and don't want any resizing at all. Because resizing calls for additional sharpening which is no option. All I want is for the image to fit the window automatically no matter the resolution of the monitor where the show is displayed.
Is it best to NOT include PC autorun on DVD in terms of image quality?

the Color Profiles setting dialogue under Create DVD disc is also difficult.
All images have the sRGB profile embedded. Which boxes to check and not to check under the colorprofiles dialogue?

Other thinsgs to consider?

Thanks in advance.

[alcain Profile Private messageWebsite]

I would prefer NOT to have Proshow fiddle with the images. No resizing, nothing. Is this possible?

I honestly do not believe that this is possible with PSP or with any other Slideshow software for web distribution. There are too many variables with graphics cards, monitors, resolutions, memory, etc. As for DVD creation, see my notes below where Photodex states that the original files are used...

The reason the size of the show shrinks is because there will be no .exe file embedded in the DVD.

From the PSP Users Manual:

The PC Autorun options let you add
a PC Executable to your DVD.
When the DVD is loaded into the
computer, a PC Executable version of the slide
show will automatically play; the user does not
have to have DVD playback software on their
computer. In addition, the PC Executable takes
advantage of the higher resolution supported by
computer displays, providing superior quality
versus DVD playback on a computer. You can
adjust the following options in this window:
• Enable and disable the addition of a PC Executable
to your DVD.
• Control the size of your PC Executable when it
launches (i.e. full screen).
• Specify the display settings for the PC Executable.
• Configure the settings that affect the file size of
the PC Executable.
• Apply copy protection to the PC Executable.

Color prifiles only affect PC playback, not TV playback.

Again, from the manual:

Color Profiles options let you specify which profiles will be used to prepare show colors for display on a PC. Color Profile configurations allow software applications to process the colors in photos and video so that they display correctly.
Use ICC Color Profiles enables and disables the use of a selected color profile for generating the video for the PC Executable.

According to Photodex:

PSH File (Photodex Slide Show File) is the main file for you show. This file contains all the settings and options ProShow Producer needs to load, create and play your show. This file does not contain any of your show content. ProShow Producer simply links to your files and does not alter or move them.

Regards, ~al

[michaelbs]

Thank you Al
Your answer addresses some of my questions.
I am so used to being in control from image caption all the way to the final print.
I realize that PSP has some automation routines that I have to accept.
It does a good job. And I am thankful for that.

I just wish some pixelpeeping nerd (like myself) had studied this issue intensely and made a tutorial that goes through the settings:
"for best possible image quality check this and uncheck that and set this to" ..etc etc

best regards Michael

[DickK Profile Private messageWebsite]

let me rephrase my question:
I want to preserve the images in the show at their native size. I have cropped postprocessed and sharpened the images in Phtoshop and have saved them as jpegs for the DVD slideshow. I would prefer NOT to have Proshow fiddle with the images. No resizing, nothing. Is this possible?...

Maybe I'm the one confused here but if you're creating an slideshow on DVD as video then nothing you do is going to increase the image quality beyond what NTSC or PAL standard definition video is defined to be. You could make it worse but you can't make it better. If you feed it images that can't be rendered within the bounds of those standards, whatever program renders the video will reduce the image size/resolution to suit the video standard. No way around that.

AFAIK, max image quality is going to come from an EXE running on a PC. You can force ProShow to limit what it stores inside the EXE but if you do nothing, it appears to just store the image as-is and what you see is then dependent on the window-size, display settings, characteristics of the monitor and how the graphics card & drivers on the PC will handle the whole situation. I can't prove it but it appears to me that ProShow does little or nothing much with the images in this case unless you tell it to limit something in those confusing settings I think you're referring to.

Dick

[michaelbs]

I am a newbie here so I guess I am the one to be confused here.
I am attempting to create a slideshow to store on a DVD.
It should be able to run the DVD on a computer as well as on a television.
I am going to play the show for my clients (wedding slideshow) on my 2560*1600 monitor. Then give the DVD to my clients for them to go home and play the DVD on their computer or their TV should they choose that option.
Isn't the correct approach to this task to simply hit the Create DVD Disc button?

I am well aware of the limitations of PAL and NTSC so my main concern was related to replaying on a PC.

You say "If I do nothing, it appears to store the image just as it is". That is what I was hoping for but there are a number of settings that I have to relate to when I hit the DVD Disc button. They hide under the tabs: Output options, PC autorun and colorprofiles.
They are the subjects of my question.
Also under Edit<Preferences<miscellaneous I am supposed to fill the the field: Max preview rendering solution. Now what do I type in here to keep my images untouched? The native resolution of my camera? (4368*2912) ??

(English isn't my native language, sorry)

Regards Michael

[Saxman28]

I have a bunch of raw files that I have converted and processed to PSD. I want to make a DVD slideshow for my (or any PC) with the best possible image quality.

My monitor has a native resolution of 2560*1600. (HP LP3065). Now I find the proshow very easy to use (I am new to this program) but the outputsetting/preferences very confusing. Can anyone point to the settings that will give me optimal image quality? I don't care how much space it takes up. There are several settings concerning resizing. D I set them all to 2560*1600 and that will give the best result on my monitor as well as others with different resolutions?

Can anyone point to a workflow that has emphasis on optimal image quality both on PC (from a DVD) and on television (PAL).

Also: how do I ensure that colors come out correctly (colormanaged) on the clients PC's.? Like I said I find the setting dialogues very confusing.

Hi Mike,

convert your Raw files to TIF first and then allow PSP 3.0 to downsize them when you drag them to the frames in the slideshow. You will maintain the best image quality that way in your slideshow.

Alan Russell