Soft images, please help

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Soft images, please help

Postby David Tog » Sun Oct 07, 2012 5:50 pm

Hi, I'm new here and I could do with some help please.

I have just rendered a show on Proshow gold and the images are soft. I have good quality images. The settings in the "Create executable" "options" Panel are all set to 100% or High but the finished show is soft and out of focus.

Can anyone tell me what have I done wrong?

Thanks in advance, David.

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Re: Soft images, please help

Postby BarbaraC » Mon Oct 08, 2012 1:26 pm

You aren't being ignored. I think what's happened is that others who've looked at your post might be as devoid of possible answers as I am. :(

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Re: Soft images, please help

Postby Oldguy » Mon Oct 08, 2012 1:31 pm

I think I would try publishing the same show again.
It would seem to me that there was somehow a
glitch when publishing the show.
Don't change anything in the show just re publish.

Forrest

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Re: Soft images, please help

Postby cherub » Mon Oct 08, 2012 5:58 pm

Are you using Producer 5 or 4 ?

In Producer 5, the viewing and playing options are defined automatically, but in Producer 4 you must insert the sizes manually. The output options must match the resolution of your monitor.

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Re: Soft images, please help

Postby DickK » Mon Oct 08, 2012 8:46 pm

David -- Ignore the reference to Producer, the question is the same for Gold--I agree, that might be on the right track. The only thing I can think of that might give that result is if your output dimensions were significantly smaller than the screen size but you viewed it full screen. The would force the playback process to enlarge the video to cover the screen and that could make it look poor. Choose whatever size you want, but don't force it full screen, watch it in a window of that size and see what happens. In general, the EXE output makes a very nice result.

Another thing you can try is to make a video file output of the show and play that, again set so the video playback dimensions match what you select for rendering. It may not fill the screen but it should look good.

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Re: Soft images, please help

Postby im42n8 » Wed Oct 10, 2012 7:01 am

It might be your rendering options. Try going into your Preferences and, under "Playback," check your Software Fallback Resolution. It "MIGHT" have an effect (it used to ... but with the GPU acceleration it doesn't have the effect it used to have). The other thing to check is whether or not GPU acceleration is enabled for playback/previews. As stated earlier, it might have an effect too if it's not enabled.

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Re: Soft images, please help

Postby David Tog » Mon Oct 15, 2012 5:27 pm

Thanks for the responses guys. I have already re-rendered the show without any improvement to the show. I did set the resolution to match the pixel dimensions of my screen. There were other suggestions that I have already done too. I don't know what to do about it. It is really disappointing, I am at the stage where I am about ready to abandon the program. Are there any other suggestions??

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Re: Soft images, please help

Postby David Tog » Mon Oct 15, 2012 6:16 pm

OK I finally got it. It seems that the output quality needs to be defined. In my case to 1900 x 1280 otherwise it seems to default to 800 x 600. Intuitively, I expected a full resolution rendering if the "Limit Size" boxes are not ticked.

So I ended up limiting the size to my screen size and got a sharp copy.

Thanks everyone for your time and effort.

David.

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Re: Soft images, please help

Postby hcajones » Mon Oct 22, 2012 5:25 am

I also have continuing concerns about the soft images I end up with, and I need some help understanding the solution that was reached in this string.

When I go to burn a DVD, I always choose highest quality and slowest burn. But the images still end up too fuzzy.

When, as suggested by Dale, I go to "Playback" under "Preferences," it lists "Target Size" as 1920 x 1080, and "Software Resolution" as 800 x 600. It says that 800 x 600 is "maximum rendering resolution when GPU accelerated rendering is not in use." It also says in a bright red line that "GPU acceleration is NOT enabled." But when I look immediately above that, under "GPU Accelerated Rendering," there are three options listed, but only one of them is live. The first option, which is checked, is "Automatically configure GPU acceleration based on your hardware." (I am burning with a new LG Super Multi burner that does both DVDs and Blu ray. But I burn mostly DVDs becuase I'm making them for family members who don't have Blu Ray.) The other two options, that would enable GPU accelerated playback and previews, are blanked out and not available.

So I end up in a circle, I think: I can increase rendering resolution only by enabling GPU acceleration, and I can't enable GPU acceleration. Why is that? It shouldn't be because of limitations of my computer: it's a high-end computer with lots of capacity.

David says he solved the problem by "limiting the size to my screen size," but I don't understand what that means.

Thanks for your help.

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Re: Soft images, please help

Postby im42n8 » Mon Oct 22, 2012 5:31 am

Turn on GPS acceleration manually (check both lower options). Increase your resolution to 1680x1050 (or whatever your screen res is). Try rendering again.

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Re: Soft images, please help

Postby BarbaraC » Mon Oct 22, 2012 5:59 am

hcajones wrote:It shouldn't be because of limitations of my computer: it's a high-end computer with lots of capacity.

GPU acceleration depends, not on your computer, its speed, etc., but instead, on your video card. If you don't have a separate card and thus the onboard graphics are being used, it's unlikely you can use acceleration.

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Re: Soft images, please help

Postby hcajones » Mon Oct 22, 2012 6:58 am

Dale, the two options that you suggest I click on are not available. They are faded out and clicking on the boxes does nothing. Perhaps that's because, as Barbara suggests, I don't have the necessary video card?

When you suggest that I change the resolution to 1680 x 1050, are you referring to the "software resolution" I described in my earlier posting, which is now set for 800 x 600?

And I still don't understand what David meant when he says he solved the problem by "limiting the size to my screen size." Understand -- I use computers every day for lots of stuff, but you can lose me very fast on anything that requires an understanding of how they work.

Thanks again.

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Re: Soft images, please help

Postby im42n8 » Mon Oct 22, 2012 8:02 am

As Barbara said, your system probably doesn't support hardware acceleration and that leaves you with the software rendering (what we used prior to v5). But, you must UNSELECT the "automatically configure GPU ..." box before the other two option become available. Once the top option is unselected, if your video card allows it, the other two options become available and you can check one or both (check both if you are allowed to).

And YES! Change the software resolution to something much higher than what you have. It should, however, be compatible with what your system is capable of doing. If you're using 1024 by 768, chose that. If you monitor has a resolution 1680 x 1050, use that. But, you can use just about anything you want. 800x600 is going to give you really soft resolution. DVD resolution is only 720x480 (at 29.97 fps) ... but if you ever play it on a PC, you want a much crisper res when the EXE plays.

"Limiting size too screen size" -- if your monitor is set to display at 1440 x 810, that's what you want to limit your s/w rendering to. If it's 1680x945, use that.

If you want the hardware acceleration, upgrade your video card (if your computer will support the upgrade). Depending on how old your computer is, you shouldn't have a problem. Just don't get a card that requires more power than your power supply can provide.

Dale
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Re: Soft images, please help

Postby hcajones » Mon Oct 22, 2012 8:51 am

Thanks. Very helpful.

But I want to make sure I'm not confusing people. My concern is about the quality of the images when I play a DVD made in ProShow on a TV. It is not about the quality of the images on my computer monitor.

It appears to me that when I go to burn a DVD in ProShow, and even when I tell it to use the highest quality, it is inherently limiting me to a much lower resolution that you are now talking about. There is no option available that generates the resolutions you are talking about.

In other words, it looks to me that even if I do all the stuff that's being suggested, none of that will ultimately increase the resolution of what goes onto the DVD.

Am I missing something? (Probably am.)

I really appreciate the patient explanations you are giving.

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Re: Soft images, please help

Postby briancbb » Mon Oct 22, 2012 10:09 am

One of the things to remember is the limitations of the DVD standard. The maximum pixel resolution if you are in a PAL country is 720 x 576 pixels, and for NTSC 720 x 480, this is roughly 20 pixel to the inch on a 50* TV!
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