Best Output Format for Slide Show?

If I were to purchase Final Cut Studio...
What would be the best output format to use for a simple slideshow intended for Web deployment? In other words, which encoding method will provide the best compromise between file size and video quality? The slideshow is a series of simple static images with some fade transitions and Ken Burns effects. There is also a soundtrack for background music.
A 1.5 minute slideshow with soundtrack created using Adobe Flash is less than 2 MB in size (which is great for Web deployment), and it looks very good. If that same slideshow is exported from Flash to a QuickTime-compatible format, it balloons to over 20 MB!
So what I'd really like to know is, if something like Final Cut Pro were used to create that same slideshow, would I be able to produce a web-ready video that rivals the Flash version in size?
Thanks for any help and insight you can provide,
-Steve

Studio X wrote:
Quicktime is a file wrapper that can contain anyone of a number of codecs.
Yes, I understand that.
H.264 is the prefered version for web/apple TV delivery.
A 90s slideshow that was less than 2 MB as a SWF file became a 27 MB behemoth when exported using the H.264 codec. The exported file had the same frame rate and resolution (pixel dimensions) as the original Flash file. The audio was optimized as well. Why the dramatic difference? (I think I know why, but perhaps I'm missing something.)
That being said, Final Cut Pro is a video editing program and is a waste of money if all you are doing is simple slideshows.
Slideshows are not all I will be doing, but I will be doing them occasionally, and it's hard to justify purchasing Flash just to create slideshows that are optimized for the Web.
Have you tried iMovie then converting the output to either Flash or (if you have Quicktime Pro) converting to h.264 QT?
My tests indicate that anything but Flash format results in a monstrous file for a simple slideshow. I have a notion as to why this is, but I wanted to check to make sure that I'm not overlooking some way of creating smaller non-Flash files.
The bottom line is that Final Cut Studio will be far more useful and versatile for what I need to do, and I would be much more proficient with that software; but if I can't output video files that rival those of Flash in terms of quality and file size, then I might have to get a copy of Flash after all.
And yes, you can convert a QuickTime movie to flash, but it's just not the same in terms of file size as generating the same slideshow directly in Flash. I suspect this is because Flash is optimized for animation, whereas the QuickTime codecs are designed for video, and a simple slideshow is more of an animation than a video.
So my real question is (and I suspect the answer is no), is it possible using Final Cut Studio to generate a simple slideshow which rivals the output from Flash in terms of file size for a given resolution?
-Steve

Similar Messages

What is the best import size for slide show images?

I have imported images sized 720 pix on the long end, and I'm not happy with the iDVD 08 quality - the images are soft. It's only a 50 image slide show. Can I use full resolution images and if so does iDVD size them down ? I am exporting Jpegs out of LightRoom so I can make any size/quality required.
Or, is there another app I should try that would give more professional results. I do like the themes in iDVD and the general interface. Is there an app that would perhaps take slide show produced elsewhere (like ProShowGold, SWF n Slide) and produce a theme/menu list/background etc., Soundslides Plus)
I am burning at 1X speed, and Pro encoding.
Thanks

I have imported images sized 720 pix on the long end, and I'm not happy with the iDVD 08 quality - the images are soft.
I'm not sure if you are in NTSC land or PAL land and the recommended sizes are slightly different. See Preparing images for iDVD slideshows at http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?path=iDVD/7.0/en/6675.html
Can I use full resolution images and if so does iDVD size them down ?
My experience has been the trying to use large, hi-res images actually produces slightly lower image quality than images I have resized and sharpened in Photoshop to the recommended sizes.
Or, is there another app I should try that would give more professional results. I do like the themes in iDVD and the general interface.
I just did some recent test and iDVD '08 gave as high a quality images as any of the others (and was better than iPhoto or iMovie created slideshow movies). It's important to remember that the images on the DVDs we create are low res (640x480 square pixels for NTSC) which is only about 0.3 megapixels. They were designed to be viewed on 'old-fashioned' CRT TV sets which have that same resolution. Viewing such a slideshow full screen on a computer monitor with 4 to 8 times more pixels is less than optimum.
I am burning at 1X speed, and Pro encoding.
Under 4 x is good. Pro encoding is a waste of time for such slideshows- you would get the best quality using 'Best Performance'.
If you ONLY want to view your slideshow on your computer - and NOT on a TV set - there are better, more high-resolution approaches you can take than using iDVD.
F Shippey

Best export settings for slide show

I created a 3 page slide show in photoshop that I would like to burn to a DVD. The slides include copy, photos and a few logos. They look beautiful in photoshop. I've tried importing them to Final Cut Pro in order to add music and some transitions, but when I export to compressor or quicktime and burn to a DVD using Toast, everything is really fuzzy, even on my HD TV.
So I thought maybe I should do this in Motion. I exported to quicktime and used the animation codec and it looks fantastic in QT but loses some quality when I burn it to a DVD in toast.
Is my problem with Motion or Toast? And is this the way to go about it? I know FCP way better than Motion and would like to stay there. Is it possible to get the same results in FCP?

Tommyjamg wrote:
Basically I created a "powerpoint" presentation in photoshop, a series of photos with copy, etc.
I imported those slides into FCP and added transitions between slides, had some photos fade
in/out, nothing spectacular.
You left out the critical information: what size is the sequence?
Tommyjamg wrote:
And from what I've read on this post, it won't matter how I send it to compressor or qt, it will only
look as good as the DVD lets it because it's SD. Although that doesn't make sense to me because
I've had good luck sending movies I've made in FCP to a DVD and the video, as well as the titles
look pretty good.
Could be but your other movies were probably created using more DVD-friendly sequence settings and codecs.
Tommyjamg wrote:
What is the difference between a DVD and a DVD-ROM?
ROM is read-only-memory. It's just a disk with some files on it. DVD is a tightly spec'd MPEG2 video format.
bogiesan

When creating a new project, what is the best output format for TV?

I'm watching my iMovie creations on an LCD TV with 1080p. When I playback the mp4 format it always kinda looks worse than the original content.

I totally agree. The only way I have found to get good HD quality is to first output the edited camcorder file BACK to the camcorder. Then play that on your HD TV and you get real HD. Unfortunately you cannot do this with the newer versions of IMovie. Maybe there is another way but i can't find it.

What is the best output format for idvd

Am I better publishing to media browser and choosing "large," or is it better to export to Quicktime, and if so, what is the highest quality to choose for going to iDVD. This will be a presentation on a very large screen. Thanks.

The answer is: it depends. It depends on the resolution and format of the clips in your project, your aspect ratio (normal vs. widescreen), etc.
You want to try to keep the number of conversion steps at a minimum. I.e. using 640x480 source material in an iMovie '08 project, sharing as Large at 720x540 from iMovie '08 only to have it converted to 720x480 in iDVD isn't optimal as you end up with two resolution conversion steps.
Why don't you experiment with a short sample clip and a DVD-RW? Use a DVD player and a television to judge the results, not the software DVD player on your Mac.

Best video format for converting DVD to NAS for widely sharing

Summary: The article shows you with an easy workaround for
copying DVD to NAS for streaming by ripping DVD to NAS friendly video
format on Mac and Windows
I recently purchased a NAS to store all my music/photos etc on. I
can stream stuff to my iPhone/iPad using the NAS software. What I want
to do is rip all my DVDs (over 400) to my NAS, but I’m not sure which
format to do it in, to play nice with my Apple TV2, Xbox 360, iPhone,
iPad etc. I wanna get some advice as to what format to rip in and what
software to use?
Learn some tips from online, I got know that to copy dozens of DVD movies to NAS,
you need to get the content off the DVD disc as a protection-free and
easily readable element for NAS. In this case, at the first place
powerful third-party software for backup DVD to NAS is what you need.
There are many, many DVD ripping tools on the market. I’ve tired a pile of them.
Brorsoft DVD Ripper
is the best one I’ve tried yet. It is capable of ripping DVD to MP4,
AVI, MKV for NAS streaming with no quality loss; it also enables you to
copy DVD main movies for backup onto NAS in .vob format. And what I’ve
learned is that MP4 would be one best target format for it is fully
compatible with nearly all media devices including iPad, iPhone, PS3,
Apple TV, etc. If you are running on Mac OS X, turn to DVD Ripper for Mac. If you haven’t got the software, download it now and let’s start the conversion.
Ripping and copying DVDs to NAS
1. Launch the DVD ripping program for NAS devices . Then
click "Load DVD" to import the DVD files you want to convert. To select
the subtitles you like, simply click Subtitle and select the one you
prefer. P.S. Before start the conversion, you can choose to backup DVD mian movies.
2. Click Format bar and choose your desired format. To store
hundreds of DVD's on NAS, you can rip DVD to .mp4, or .avi, .mkv, etc
compressed format. And click Settings bar, you can adjust the level of
compression to suit the quality you want.
Tip: If you like, you can click “Settings” to change the
video encoder, resolution, frame rate, etc. as you wish. Keep in mind
the file size and video quality is based more on bitrate than resolution
which means bitrate higher results in big file size, and lower visible
quality loss, and vice versa.
3. Press the "Convert" button to start ripping DVD for NAS streaming.
After the conversion, click Open button to find the output files.
Make sure the wireless network connection is accessible among the NAS
and Apple TV, PS3, HD TV or other media players. Then just enjoy the
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[quote] movies-videos-convert-tips.overblog.com/2014/02/ripping-dvds-to-nas-how-to-copy-dvd-to-nas-for-streaming.html [/quote]

I've always found encoding with Handbrake and choosing the Apple TV2 preset is an excellent place to start and video encoded using that preset will work on my iPhone 4, 4S and iPad 2.
If the files encoded using that preset are too big for one's taste they can always encoded at a lower average bit rate rather than using the default 'Constant Quality' of 20.
Later on I'm sure the Handbrake group will have an AppleTV '3' preset supporting the 1080p format supported by the ATV3 and iPad '3' but using such a preset would not create a file usable on the iPad 2 or the iPhones.

Import subtitles for slide show

I have two slide shows, each with 50 slides. I would like to generate a text file with the subtitle definitions and import it, but apparently subtitles can only be imported for timelines. Why is that?
I have the names of the slides (the texts that should be displayed as subtitles) in an excel file and generated a text file out of it that has exactly the format needed for importing subtitles.
It would be rather time consuming to manually copy the names of the 100 slides out of the Excel sheet and insert them as a description for each slide.
Are there any technical reasons why importing subtitles for slide shows is not allowed?
Regards,
Christian Kirchhoff

Hallo,
thanks again for the reply. In one case I really could do it, you are right there.
But there are slide shows, too, which do not proceed automatically but wait for the user to press the previous/next chapter buttons on the remote control. To realize the same behaviour in a timeline one had to set the end action for a chapter to "return to beginning of chapter". That works, kind of, but I found out that both with software DVD players on a computer and with regular DVD players the navigation (forward/backward) is very...irregular. Sometimes when you press the next chapter button it works, and sometimes not.
That's why I wanted to stick with the slide show instead of a timeline.
Regards,
Christian

Pdf for slide shows

When I create a slideshow in Photoshop Elements .pdf is my preferred file format to save the show.
One of the nice features of .pdf for slide shows is the 'fade out /fade in' transition between slides, which has been functioning on my laptop, even if slide changing was set to manual.
I recently downloaded Acrobat Reader for iPAD. Although slide changing was no problem the 'fade out /fade in' effect was gone. Is there any way I could get it back?

No transitions and multimedia on Adobe Reader for iOS.

The best output device for iPod?

Hallo Everybody,
Somedays ago I have seen an heard the T+A Caruso(http://www.taelektroakustik.de/deu/ta2/caruso/caruso.htm). This was it! Yes! Internetradio, CD and iPod in a perfect Combination of Sound! - and then the cold shower - 1700 Euro not $!
Who know a ultimative solution under this price?
DENON S52 is it not! no sound calibration!

You can connect an iPod to any sound system. So the best "output device for iPod" is the same as the +best output device, period.+
I'm told you get better sound (for the purpose of feeding into a sound system) if you connect the audio output through the docking connector, instead of from the headphone jack. You get +line level audio out+ like with other audio system components.
You can do so if you have a Docking Station device with a stereo jack, or if you get a cable like this one.
[Example of cable with docking connector and mini-stereo jack|http://www.restockit.com/Cables-To-Go-IPod-Audio-Cable-Apple-Dock-Connecto r-Mini-phone-Stereo-3-5-Mm-M-White-(73679B).html?source=froogle&Bvar5=100F1&Bvar 6=100F1&Bvar7=100F1]

What's the best output format to burn a dvd with?

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A DVD is Standard Definition... export using the MPEG2-DVD preset and import the TWO (audio and video) files in Encore for authoring
CS5-thru-CC PPro/Encore tutorial list http://forums.adobe.com/thread/1448923 will help
The bottom section of the link above has several Adobe links, and other information, on downloading Premiere Pro CS6 and the bundled Encore CS6, and the TWO ADDED downloads for the Encore library content, to author a DVD or BluRay... and the tutorial list includes learning how to use Encore... pay particular attention to the picture in reply 3 at this link - https://forums.adobe.com/thread/1516173

What is best movie format for iBooks Author

What is the best movie format for iBooks Author?

Thanks for the people who helped my. Thanks to you I now have the answer. It is as follows:
1. Load your movie into Quick Time Player.
2. When in Quick Time Player go to File then Export to then check Broadband H.264, 5Mbp/s maximum data rate.
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Best File Format For Online Line Art?

I thought the conventional wisdom was that all line art for the screen should be saved as GIFs, all photographic line art should be saved as JPEGs.
Then PNGs came along and offered an alternative to GIFs.
I've been exploring this because I've been having a problem when exporting line art from Illustrator 8 as a PNG and opening it in Fireworks MX, where it appears washed out.
I did a bit of research among comic strip artists -- the art I'm exporting from Illustrator is a comic strip -- and came up with conflicting results.
Dilbert seems to save black and white line art as GIFs, e.g. http://dilbert.com/comics/dilbert/archive/images/dilbert2008611230313.gif
... But its Sunday colored strips seem to be saved as JPEGs, e.g. http://dilbert.com/comics/dilbert/archive/images/dilbert2008040261966.jpg
Meanwhile Donnesbury seems to save colored comic strips as GIFs, e.g. http://images.ucomics.com/comics/db/2008/db080406.gif
Any thoughts, suggestions?
Thanks.

I assume your line art is drawn as vector art in Illustrator, correct?
As far as I'm concened, the "best file format for online line art" would be .swf, because it would retain its scaleable vector nature, and the Flash Player is most likely embedded in any reasonably recent computer's browser.
But a little simple experimentation would be in order regarding file size. SWF (as exported from Flash, not necessarily AI) is very efficient. But the complexity of the line art could still make a given image require more bandwidth as .swf than as a rasterized version.
The former conventional-wisdom regarding PNG is the old "not supported in older browsers" saw. I see even Firworks's online help still says:
> However, not all web browsers can view PNG graphics.
Personally, I think its way past time to stop cow-towing to outdated browsers and use PNGs anyway. So if it were me, and the nature of my line art required rasterization for online use, I would use PNG for its obvious advantages. But then, my livlihood is not affected by some minority of outdated web viewers not being able to view my PNGs.
I would think that whatever color problems you are having in getting your AI files exported to PNG can be worked out with a little investigation/experimentation. (PNG supports color management profiles, so that alone may be your problem, and may be easily fixed in your workflow.) GIF is by definition limited to a subset of colors. JPEG is by definition a lossy compression format. So there are certainly precise color-accuracy issues with those overused formats, too.
But again, that's just me. What little I do in web graphics that would involve this issue doesn't really affect my livelihood. Lowest-common-denominator compatibility may be more important to you.
> Gilbert seems to...
> Doonsbury seems to...
The two images are very close to the same size (132K & 125K). They both include contone grads. Between JPEG and GIF, I would expect JPEG to more consistently yield acceptable results. Since GIF is limited to an 8-bit lookup table, I would expect aberations such as unwanted banding to be more likely in GIF if the artwork contains many colors and alot of highly-rendered shading.
Since you specify
line art, though, that would rule out contone fills, and you could use GIF with a very small color table.
On the other hand, you do not specify whether you want to use transparency in your line art images. If you do, PNG would be far superior, because it supports true alpha transparency. In a GIF, if you can only make one particular color transparent. So even with line art, if the line art is antialiased at all, you'll have the ugly halos so commonly seen in GIFs when displayed on a wrong-colored background.
The only functional "advantage" that I see in GIF over PNG is its multi-image capability, for quick & dirty frame-by-frame animation. My personal animation efforts focus entirely on Flash/SWF, and use scripted animation whenever possible to avoid frame-by-frame. But I recognize the simplicity convenience of animated GIFs for web banners and those (often-annoying) moving icons and such.
JET

Using downloaded songs for slide show background music

Maybe I am naive, but I just joined iTunes and downloaded some music to use as background for slide shows of family pics. I am using Microsoft Plus! to put the slide shows together. The iTunes songs downloaded in MPEG-4 and the Plus! code will only recognize MP3. I am also concerned that the copyright protection will make the songs not useable for the slide show compilations. Any ideas? Thanks!

In iTUnes you can burn the song to CD then reimport it as a MP3. Goto edit>preferences>advanced tab>Import sub tab, and set it from "AAC" to "MP3" then hit OK
Now burn the songs to CD in itunes. Put the CD back in and hit the "Import" button in the top right corner of itunes

Video adapter only works for slide shows.

We received the Apple video adapter today. It appears that it only works for slide shows? It might also work for Keynote, but we don't use that much and haven't installed on the iPad. For our purposes, we'd like to be able to display from other programs- Numbers, Pages, and a PDF reader. This seems counterintuitive to business use if the adaptor isn't fully functional. We are hoping that a software upgrade will make the adaptor functional.

The iPad Dock Connector to VGA Adapter can play content to a VGA display when using the following apps:
Videos
Photos—Slideshow playback only
YouTube
Keynote
Safari—Video content on webpages
Whether Apple will add additional support in the future is unknown, but you can indicate your interest to Apple via their feedback page:
http://www.apple.com/feedback/ipad.html
Regards.

Line Drawing best file format for import in InDesign

i was wondering what is the accepted and recommended file format for files to be imported in InDesign. I was under the impression that AI files should be saved as EPS but I just read an article that says that Adobe's Dov Isaacs said that eps will be shortly obsolete.What should I do. I work on curriculum that contains both photographs and line drawing and we use tiff for the former and eps for the latter. Most of our line drawing is done in AI. Howeverwe have a cartoonist that sends us files in jpg format. What would be the best file format for him and for us as we draw in AI?
Article link: http://www.prepressure.com/library/file-formats/eps
The future of the EPS file format
EPS is rapidly becoming an outdated file format which is being replaced by PDF just like PostScript itself is also being phased out and replaced by PDF. Don’t just take my word on this. Here is what Dov Isaacs from Adobe said in a discussion on a PrintPlanet forum about the future of PostScript: “ …Adobe will continue to support EPS as a legacy graphics format for import of non-color managed, opaque graphical data into Adobe applications (such as InDesign and Illustrator). Although we certain do not recommend that new graphical content be stored in EPS format (except to satisfy the need to import data into page layout programs that aren’t quite PDF-centric — no need to mention names here!), our user base should feel comfortable that there is no need to worry about a need to convert their very sizable libraries of EPS-based graphic assets.”

Yes, I drag the AI file in.
If after it's in place I need to change I can just right click and chose edit original make the changes and save and the illustration in inDesign will reflect the changes.
On the other hand I can make changes to the original and all iterations of the file will automatically update, say if I used the illustration in several documents.
As an example I had completed a set of documents for a new company, i.e., biz cards, brochures, product labeling, stationery, etc. and in their wisdom they decided to make changes in their logo, which, of course, is on everything. I opened the AI file with the logo made the changes saved and all the documents then reflected the changes. The only caveat to do this seamlessly is to make sure that your file logo size is the same as the original or you might have to tweak placement in the other documents
It is this interoperability that to me makes the Creative Suite so much more than the sum of their parts.
Craig

Best Output Format for Slide Show?

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