PhotoSlide Show quality

[AvailingFaith]

Trying to make a photoslide show to play on DVD player. I am losing serious quality when doing so. Using ULead I get great quality but extremly limited editing options (no transistion, ect) I've tried using Studio 7 which but the quality isnt worth the time. I'm new to all this but I think I'm losing the quality when I convert my photo files to MPEG1. Anyone have a fix for this? My DVD player with play VCD/CD/CD-Rw/DVD.

[georg]

VCD allows for still images to be 704x576 while the resolution for motion images is much lower. I also tested Ulead and it's the best quality I have seen for far. I would like to have some more options for the menu and also some automatic fade out of the music at the end of a slide show. But other than that I think it's the best you can get.

If you want transitions you need to create a video that has a lower resolution. For me I prefer to have the better picture quality over transitions.

If anyone knows another tool than Ulead DVD PictureShow to show a slide show on VCD or SVCD at 704x576 please let me know. I would like to give it a try.

[AvailingFaith]

Thanks for the reply, here is what I've tried..

1.ULEAD (best quality, poor options)
2. Pinnicale Studio 7 (great options, easy to use, default setting for VCD produces poor photo quality, I'm not sure how to tweak the settings for better quality)
3.PhotoFlix (better quality than Studio7 but still not great, good set of options but not as good as Studio 7 or as easy to use)

What are the optimal settings for photos on a VCD?
Studio 7 lets you custom select either MPEG1 or MPEG2?
Width and Height?
Data rate?
or should i compress it to avi?

[zaqxsw]

If you want quality then still slide show is the best. If you want features & control, then the only way that i know is to convert the slide show to mpeg2 (movie). If you have good quality pictures then the movie would look great. Do a seach on SSMM for some other posts.

My method is, using SSMM to convert your slides to AVI, you can use it to add fading effects, music, scrolling images etc, then use DVD2SVCD (cce) with VBR settings, 2400, 1900, 2250, quality 5 and 5 (there is a post on VBR at doom9.org) that show you how to configure the settings, to convert the AVI file to SVCD. Makesure you have divx5, and set it to 1pass quality in SSMM. I find divx5 gives much better quality than divx4.

Do a small movie first to see if it worth your time. Once you have the mpeg file you can then add chapter (vcdeasy), selectable subtitles (winsubmux), endding etc.

I have tried ulead studio5, and not happy with the quality of the movie, it did not give you much control like the method i describe. A word of warning thou, it may take time if you are not familiar with the tools, but the end result would worth it, and it's fun.

[kyemeng]

I understand that Studio DV 7 produces terrible mpeg quality. Try saving the file in Studio DV 7 in avi format and then using Tmpgenc to produce the mpeg file. Try it and you may be surprised by the results.

[zaqxsw]

I understand that Studio DV 7 produces terrible mpeg quality. Try saving the file in Studio DV 7 in avi format and then using Tmpgenc to produce the mpeg file. Try it and you may be surprised by the results.

I dont know much about the latest version of ulead studio, if it supports random effect then I say it would be the tool. At the moment with version 5, I have to add effect to each photo, this is fine for a small number, my slide show comprises of hundred of photos, it's a pain. SSMM allow me to quickly add random effects to the whole project with a hit of a button.