Is the visual quality of DVD vs. VCD significant on stills?

[Steadman]

Hello,
This is my first post on this forum (after reading as much as possible in the Newbie forum, the FAQ and several other areas about VCDs etc...).

I just bought a Apex 1200 DVD player and will be experimenting with creating a slideshow of digital images (from digital camera) using VCD (or if I can find the right stuff to make a SVCD). Will be purchasing the Pinacle DV Express to make the show.

Now I am curious if a DVD based slide show would have noticeably better quality on the TV. Current TV for viewing is a Sony 20" WEGA.

I burned a VCD using ULEAD demo of DVD Pictureshow and it looks pretty good on the TV. Still....I want to know if the image quality on these stills used in the slideshow will be much better (noticeable) if using a DVD instead of VCD. And....would a SVCD be noticeably better than a VCD?

IF DVD is much better for the still shots, I may purchase a Pioneer DVD burner but I don't want to spend the $400 extra dollars if the quality difference is not too great.

The purpose of the slideshow is to show off photo images to clients so quality image is important. Remember, this is for still photo review in a slideshow...not video or movies.

Thanks in advance if you have any suggestions or experience/comments on this topic.

Steadman

[Cornucopia]

VCD Stills can be Hi-rez (704 x 480) or Lo-rez (352 x 240)-NTSC format. PAL is similar. If it's done right, Hi-rez will incorporate both sizes and let the HW player choose what it's capable of playing.
DVD Stills are all Hi-rez (720 x 480 or 704 x 480-overscanned or fullscanned)-NTSC.
Therefore, if you do it right-see the guides on this and VCDImager's sites-then VCD still quality is identical to DVD still quality! The only difference then is in playback features and tricks, of which DVD has more of.
If you're talkin' about just a standard, simple-menued photo-slideshow to play on video, you certainly don't have to wait around for a pricier DVD burner to do hi-quality pix.

HTH,

Scott

[Steadman]

Scott,

Thanks a bunch....that was just the info I needed.

You helped.

Steadman

[JHebert]

Steadman, the Apex 1200 is one of the few DVD players that can play JPEG images from a regular data CD or Kodak PictureCD without the need to format it into VCD/SVCD/DVD. Just burn your JPEGs from the camera to a regular data CD and it should play in the Apex 1200. I don't think you need to even resize them, the player scales them on playback. Check your manual or Apex website for details. I think some Apex models even let you set cool transition effects between each still image. However if you plan to swap disks with friends or relatives whose DVD players don't support JPEGs you may still want to author VCD slideshows for compatibility.

[Steadman]

JHebert,

Thanks for the tip. Just so happened that in reading the manual (RTFM eh?) I learned the same last night. I tried it this morning and just popped a CDROM with jpgs into the Apex. It worked.

For a quick review of the images on TV it works. It also shows 12 thumbs you can pick from per screen.

But....there seems to be some limitations that may be reasons to try the VCD. You mentioned a few.

Obersavations from first attempt (and without any great experimentation)...

1. Images do a "wipe" transition only (as far as I can tell).

I personally don't like wipes and prefer fades or quick cuts.

2. There does not seem to be any way to get the show to "loop."

3. As I recalll, it does allow "zooming in" but very few other features.

4. It does allow use of "show slide name/number" in "display" which is nice.

5. Pause works....but I had some trouble getting the images to go forwards, backwards, and restart the show.

6. Default show appears to be 5 seconds per image with wipe.

Hope that helps someone.

Steadman