Is a scanner just a scanner?

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I'd like to add some stills to some home video projects I am screwing around with. Alot of my photos are standard photos that need to be scanned to get digital format. They will probably end up in mpeg2 format.
Will any ole scanner do the trick? I am not worried about speed, but I would like to keep the quality for myself and for any project that may come up in the future; perhaps with people that will pay for the service.
I havent researched scanners much but I know many here can get me started towards purchasing a good scanner for my needs now and in the future.
I would like the photos to be saved in a better format than jpeg though. how many ppi would I need for a project such as this? Any recommendations?

[jtoolman2000]

Sounds like you are abit confused. Scanners such as flat bed or film can only scan and produce a photographic image formats such as BMP, TIFF, JPG and many others. These are usually opened inside a photo editor for further tweeks and repairs as may be required.

However, most video editing software can indeed accept photo image files as assets. Just like videos are also assets. These photos can be lined up on the time line in the order you want them to be played. You asign the # os seconds you want them to play as well. Effects like dissolves and many others can be added so the images merge from one to the other. You can make it as simple or as elaborate as you see fit. Finally you render it to MPG2. Load that MPG2 into any Authoring program and build the menus that link to the various MPG2s you may have loaded to the project. Finally you render that out to DVD files, ie, AUDIO_TS and VIDEO_TS floders. These are burned to DVD in your favorite buring SW.

As you can see it is not that simple of a thing to do. However there programs that will directly create photo slide shows that can be directly burned to DVD. Ulead Photo Show or Factory is one. They tend to be rather simplistic and the results are pretty much cookie cutter style show/ Not much creativity allowed.

A lot of this info is here in this forum so just do some searches on the guide sections.

Take care

[Supreme2k]

I think that he understands what he is talking about. He means that they will eventually be converted to mpg.

As to the question, no, there is no much difference until you get to the professional level. I have a couple of $30-$50 scanners that work great, with the pictures coming out at least "DVD quality" when I put them in slide shows. As long as the actual resolution is 600-1200 dpi, vs. with interpolation. Most scanners come with at least 600-1200 standard.

I usually go with 300-600 dpi, jpg. You can go with uncompressed TIFF for best quality, but you better have lots of HD space. You can tweak the image quality with a photo editor (usually included with the scanner).

Here's one that I own that's excellent, available at Fry's:
http://shop4.outpost.com/product/3754886

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S2k is correct. I will eventually go to mpeg2 with the photos. I do understand the editing aspect using Vegas 4.0.
What I was confused about was the quality of individual scanners. I assumed it had to do with ppi, but I was unsure. Sorry if I was unable to effectively communicate this.
Thanks for the heads up on that scanner. I like questions to be cleared up before I actually jump in and make a purchase. S2k has answered my remaining questions so I'll purchase the scanner in the next few days.
Thanks bro.

[gmatov]

Actually, that is an antique. As well as a refurb, as, sent back because it doesn't work, so a defect, or reject..

I would NOT buy it, for 2 reasons, the first being what I just said, the second being that they have way more DPI today than they did when that was built.

I just bought one of my daughters a Visioneer 7100 for 30 bucks after rebate of 15 bucks. It is a 2400 X 4800 mechanical resolution scanner, 9600 interpolated, which is the same as saying a compressed file can be decompressed to full size. It cannot, as far as JPEGs go, or pics in general.. You always lose some thing in compression.

Go look for a 24 X 48 scanner. You wil be happier.

Cheers,

George
'

[Supreme2k]

Yeah, I got that a while ago. this one is my favorite at the moment. I was making a suggestion about a fairly minimum spec.

Your best bet is to shop at your local electronics dealer and try to get the most bang for your buck. Like George said, you can get scanners such as Visioneer (or even HP) for fairly cheap, and save on the shipping.

[gmatov]

S2K,

I look for the most bang for the buck, generally. I like the Canon line, bought that one for my youngest daughter, but that was near 3 years ago. Excellent unit, but old.

The HP is not, to my knowledge, actually an HP, just a rebrand. I may be wrong.

The 7100 is 24 X 48, my 8100 is 12 X 24, so don't know how in hell they name them. They also have a 7300 on the same shelf, lower res, 3 times the price. Go figure. Numbers mean nothing, today.

Ah, well, he'll figure them out.

Cheers,

George