Blurred outputs in MP4

[Jeep Profile Private messageWebsite]

I have noticed a rendering problem with mp4 outputs when I use an horizontal tilt (say 10% for exemple) on a panoramic effect on large photos zoomed at more than 100%. As long as I do not use the tilt effect, the rendering in mp4 is correct, but it's blurry when the tilt effect is in use.
I've tried many MP4 outputs in 1920 x 1080 : SP, AVC, 25, 30, 50 or 60 i/s
Did you encounter these kind of problems ? I've sent an email to Photodex to have their feedback on this problem.

Jean-Pierre

[Jeep Profile Private messageWebsite]

Photodex has finally found where the problem was. It will be fixed in a next update.

[im42n8 Profile Private messageWebsite]

It seems there are a number of little problems associated with tilt ... and the rendering under GPU acceleration seems be where many of these problems present themselves.

Dale

[gallenulenoir Profile Private messageWebsite]

A related (and maybe similar issue) - I noticed after I had applied the "Dark Zoom In 3D" style that my output render for those slides was fuzzy. So I got curious and had a look in the style file with Notepad - sure enough - the "Max Render" setting in the Style was set to 800 x 600 - so no amount of render quality changes will have an impact.

I am doing an experiment now by changing the Max Render resolution to bigger than HD (1920 x 1080) to see if the problem corrects. Which will get me by from now until the next release.

I assume V6 will see the world of 64 Bit, larger workspace memory and a step up in performance for rendering (which is possibly why these limits are currently in the 3D style files ?).....

Best Regards,
Scott.

[gallenulenoir Profile Private messageWebsite]

Ok - so after some more playing around at my end - these max render settings style settings appear to have no impact on the issue whatsoever (positive or negative). Hmmmm.

May just need to be patient for the next update - whenever that will be - but I am hoping in the not too distant future.

Best Regards,
Scott.

[Jeep Profile Private messageWebsite]

The 800x600 resolution is used when the show is played on a system without an accelerated graphic card. This resolution is basic and has no effect on other graphic cards.

[cherub Profile Private messageWebsite]

Just what kind of output are you referring to?

The GPU Acceleration, that Jeep mentioned above, should have no influence whatsoever, on a video output or a DVD output. It does however influence an executive output.

Look in: Edit > Preferences > Playback
Do you see a green bar, or do you see a red bar with the words "GPU Acceleration is not enabled' ?

[gallenulenoir Profile Private messageWebsite]

Ok - I have a postscript to my last post.

I went and had a look at the .psh file for my show (as opposed to the script files for each slide style).

If you open the file using notepad, you will see a bunch of parameters in the header of the show file.

You will see maxRenderWidth and maxRenderHeight - in my show these values were originally defaulted to 800 and 600 (for 800 x 600 resolution).

As an experiment I changed them to 1920 x 1080, re-saved the file, reloaded it into Proshow Producer and then re-rendered my show.

(which is a Custom mpeg2 file, 1920 x 1080 resolution, high quality, and high bandwidth (15Mbps), approx. 29fps).

With the old settings (800 x 600) - all the slides that were 3D processed in the show looked a little blurry.

With the new settings (1920 x 1080) - all the 3D processed images come out sharp as a tack once more!

(I have been doing lots of A-B comparisons to make sure I am not seeing things).

It is as though that the maxRender settings impact the 3D rendering for at least mpeg2 output - maybe other formats too - the edit is simple to do, you can verify it for yourselves. I have not had issues in the past with slides that are not 3D processed - this is my first show where I have used 3D styles more extensively - the fuzziness was driving me nuts. No longer however !

For completeness I have GPU acceleration and Direct Draw active and green in settings.

I would be interest if this helps with the mp4 case too.

Best Regards,
Scott.

[gallenulenoir Profile Private messageWebsite]

I should add - for complete and total clarity here - I am looking at the difference in the output .mpg file - not in the previews within Proshow Producer - this is nothing to do with any preview rendering while you are composing your show - this is all about getting the best final output quality in the video files you create.

Best Regards,
Scott.

[im42n8 Profile Private messageWebsite]

Scott, you don't have to edit the PSH file to change the settings. If you edit the PSH file, you probably should consider that the edit of last resort.

Instead, those values you changed are controlled by a preferences setting: Edit | Preferences, Playback. Under Rendering you'll find the Target Size (Default is 1920x1080) and Software Fallback Resolution (default is 800x600). The SFR is what ProShow uses as the rendering resolution when GPU acceleration is OFF. Note the GPU acceleration can be changed to affect both playback (or export) and/or previews (scrub/play within the program).

So, if you want to export at a different setting than the default, you should probably do so from within the program itself rather than editing the PSH file (and risk an inadvertent corruption of the file).

There ARE a lot of "interesting" things that can be learned from studying the PSH file. Still, editing it directly should be a carefully considered action. Further, you probably want to edit a copy of the file vs the original (as a precaution).

Dale

[Jeep Profile Private messageWebsite]

The PSH file IS the reference for ProShow to output the show. it can be modified directly in a text editor without reopening ProShow. It can be useful if you want to change a text for example or a specific parameter.
With a buck of patience you could initiate the rendering of a show without opening ProShow by creating a PSH file from scratch. The first lines of the PSH are what we could call the header of the show and we find here about the same coding for each show. After, it depnds upon the content of slides but with a few experiencing of functions involved, it seems possible to write a full show in an editor.

[gallenulenoir Profile Private messageWebsite]

Thanks Dale, Jeep,

I tested the theory - the maxRender values in the PSH file don't seem to be changed when you alter the Render resolutions in preferences - in fact it is not clear to me where and when they are set or modified. the values in the PSH file and in Proshow don't seem to have any impact on each other at all - very odd.

I played around with the render preference values in Proshow and they don't appear to have any impact on output renders in the case of mpeg2 creation at least. The primary factors shaping mpg2 output quality is the nominated resolution, bandwidth, frame rate and codec quality (as you would expect).

I may be getting confused too between the Adobe definition of "rendering" output, and the Proshow use of rendering during show assembly (as opposed to "publishing" output) if you see what I am getting at.

I also may have made a rookie mistake and compared a file of encoding at "standard quality" to "high quality" in the mpeg2 codec options in the Advanced Video Creation options. Unfortunately there is no easy way to tell from the metadata on the mpeg2 file as far as I can see. It is now late at my end and I am not inclined to run another test

So apologies - but I may have gone around in circles a little here on this one.

That said - there is a possibility that something in the rendering/output department is now working as expected (where it wasn't previously) - not a massive issue, very subtle noticeable differences. My output files are now looking as I expect them to look - nice full HD, sharp quality - 2D and 3D

Cheers,
Scott.

[im42n8 Profile Private messageWebsite]

MPG2 has built-in limitations. It is an older ISO standard that limits the resolution to a maximum of 720x480 (NTSC) or 720x576 (PAL) at frame rates of 29.97 (NTSC) and 25 (PAL) in aspects of either 4:3 or 16:9. You can specify a higher resolution all you want either in the PSH or via the preferences settings and it is NOT going to change a thing for DVD-video output. If you want a higher resolution output, you need to go for Blu-Ray output or some form of HD output in MPG4 (for instance).

The difference in quality between "standard" and "high" for MPG2 is not going to be a very large one. There is a difference in file size but it's not going to be a huge one. However, you might get a better output if you play the DVD (or resulting MPG2 file) on an upconverting DVD player.

Dale

[gallenulenoir Profile Private messageWebsite]

Hi,

Just for clarification - I am using file output to "Custom" format, with MPEG2 selected and 1920 x 1080 resolution, with custom bandwidth (15 Mbps) with High quality encoding. This combination definitely comes out in full HD as expected.

Best Regards,
Scott.

[im42n8 Profile Private messageWebsite]

There is a broadcast HD standard (DVB) that I was aware of. But, I was not aware of a video media output that qualified as 1920x1080. But, I was able to create such an output too. Odd ... the code was MPEG-1/2 (mpgv). After a little research I found that this is 1920x1080, 24fps, 16:9 aspect output is an initial release of the Blu-Ray spec (BDAV MPEG-2). Such a standard allows 2 hours of video for a single layer (25GB) BD-ROM.

I had no idea this Blu-Ray video was an MPEG-2 output. Ah! Well, learn something new everyday!

Dale