Need Help Creating Photo DVD

[Tony Mil]

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Hi All

I have created several DVD of photos I have taken, but when I show them on a TV either Hi-Def of Standard they do not look sharp with good color as when I look at them on my PC Screen, can someone give me some guidelines to create a Photo DVD that looks at least as good on a TV as on my PC Monitor?

Thanks for your help
Tony

 

[Hosebag]

I've had good luck using pro-show gold

 

[RonHenry]

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Hi All

I have created several DVD of photos I have taken, but when I show
them on a TV either Hi-Def of Standard they do not look sharp with
good color as when I look at them on my PC Screen, can someone give
me some guidelines to create a Photo DVD that looks at least as good
on a TV as on my PC Monitor?

Thanks for your help
Tony

I second Hosebag about Proshow but your problem is a bit more complicated. The resolution of a DVD is limited and is just not capable of achieving the same results that the average computer monitor is going to get. Getting better results on a computer monitor than from a tv is entirely normal

There are some alternatives. There's bluray. The downside is its expensive. But you might find some good deals on a burner this season if you look. If you have a laptop and a lcd consider hooking the computer directly to the tv. It shouid be possible. You can also consider using a projector but again...expensive.

Good luck. You're not the only one struggling with the crappiness of DVD. Proshow might still work for you because of the wide assortment of export options... including bluray. There's a free trial if you're interested.

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Best,
-RHS-

 

[ddot]

I’ve not going to claim to be an expert on this (and if I’m on wrong on something, feel free to correct me), but here’s my take on how the pixels work (NTSC).

DVD video files are stored on the DVD at 720x480 with a digital flag specifying if the video is to be full screen or wide screen.

First thing that happens is 8 pixels are chopped off the left and right hand side of the video frame (this is due to the legacy of overscan). This leaves a 704x480 video frame.

If the digital flag says the video is to be full screen, then the video is resized (squished) to 640x480 (giving you a 4:3 ratio) and then displayed.

If the digital flag says the video is to be widescreen screen, then the video is resized (stretched) to 853x480 (giving you a 16:9 ratio) and then displayed.

If any other aspect ratio needs to be displayed, then the video is padded with black borders right from the original encoding.

A little bit complex, but it allowed for both widescreen and full screen on DVDs and allowed for some compatibility with older TVs. HDTV/ Blu-ray largely corrected all this (but then they had to introduce more than 1 resolution…).

Lots of DVD players have also added extensions to their player allowing for Jpegs to be played directly.

My suggestion would be to first figure out if you want widescreen or full screen. If you want widescreen, prepare your pictures at 872x480 (keeping in mind that the edges will get sliced off). At the end, resize them to 720x480, introducing distortion and making everyone look tall and skinny. Then encode those pictures as is using the correct flag. The DVD player will chop off the 8 pixels on either side, stretch it to 853x480 and then display it. That should return the picture to its original unstretched self.

If you want full screen, start with the pictures at 655*480, resize to 720x480 and use the correct flag for when encoding.

Of course this is only if you really want to get into the details, many programs will do all this behind the scenes for you. But if you really want full control over what’s going on, you might want to give it a try. You can’t control the DVD player and its resizing algorithms, but you can control everything up to that point. Keep the resizing to a minimum and use a good photoeditor when you do.

But at the end of the day, you’re still limited to the resolution of the TV and (probably) its uncalibrated settings.

-Todd

 

[Gerry Pasternack]

Good description!

As far as picture quality (resolution) goes, is using an upscaling Player the best I can do? Will a Blue Ray player help any (my TV is 1080i, and supports 1080p via HDMI) ? Is there a software package that codes/burns DVD for Blue-Ray format?

 

[ddot]

An upscaling DVD player just makes use of resizing algorithms on the original information. Some will be better than others, but all are still bound by the limits of the standard DVD. Blu-ray will allow for the original information to be of a higher resolution, so it will improve the quality. Only you can say if it’s worth it for what you do.

There are numerous Blu-ray Authoring Software packages out there. Google it and see what you get.

 

[eagle_I]

I have a Vizio 42" 1080p TV and am VERY PLEASED how still photos display on it thru a Playstation 3. I just copy the pics to a USB memory stick insert it in the PS3 and watch using it's built-in slide show mode. Even photos I've resized down to 800x600 for forum posting look GREAT upscaled via the PS3. AMAZING! I'd say it is very close to matching the quality I see on my 24" Dell PC monitor.

I bought the basic 40g PS3 mainly for it's Blu-ray movie playback capability. I've tried a few games, but I'm frustratingly terrible at them! The excellent photo display came as a very nice unexpected bonus.

I am now seriously considering the purchase of a Blu-ray burner for the PC. I have both a monitor and video card which are HDCP capable and a nice 5.1 sound system so I can enjoy Blu-ray movies on the PC. But, more important for me is the 25/50 gig data backup capability ... size depending on using single or dual layered disc.

The drive that has my attention is the LG GGW-H20L which sells for $250. A bonus feature of this drive is it's playback capability for the now discontinued HD-DVD format. I've heard a good many HD-DVD high def movies can now be bought cheaply.

As for photos I think a $15 25gig Blu-ray disc will completely backup my personal still photo collection and then some.
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[mino]

You must decide what is more important to you: a DVD format, or HD slide show on TV. If it is HD, then there are better a cheaper way to go today - HD media players, like Popcornhour, WD TV HD media player, or SageTV Media Center. Once you have one of those, connect it to your HD TV. Make an HD slide show on your computer, transfer it to a portable HD that you plug into the USB port of the player (or if internet connected you can stream it with some players to internal HD, and you can play your HD slide show (or video) in up to 1080p resolution on your HD TV. I got WD TV HD media player (about $100) and I am very happy with the quality of slide shows and videos on my 46" HD TV. Even if you spend money on Blue Ray burner and player, you will still need to spend $5-8 per disk and it might take a few years before prices of those disks would come down to a reasonable price. Some are even speculating that Blue Ray systems might not make it with increasing popularity of internet video streaming and decreasing costs of hard drives.