Image quality in a menu..

Is there a way of optimising the quality of logos in DVDSP4 menu? I have a movie as a background, so cannot go down the layered photoshop route, but there is a logo in a dropzone in one corner and the quality is awful when the disc is burnt, even though it is fine when it comes in. Can anyone offer advice on improving it?!
It is currently a jpeg - but I have tried a pdf too. Is there an optimum format that works better than anything else to reduce tearing / pixelation?
The logo is 72 dpi and well within its scale (ie nowhere near 100% of its size).
Thanks in advance for any help...
Dave

Dave:
I have a movie as a background
Don't you have any chance to add the logo to the background movie itself?
Besides that, DVDSP must reencode your menus to "mix" the drop zones with the background movie. Try changing in DVDSP Preferences under Menu option from Hardware to Software based or from Software to Hardware (in case that's your setting now). That could make a difference deppending on your hardware (graphic card) setup).
Hope it helps !
Alberto

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Poor Image Quality at Start Menu

Hi All
I use iDVD 08 for my movies and was creating a menu at the start of the program.
While the resolution looks good in iDVD (before burning to DVD), it is not so after. I would like to enquire on how can can improve on the image quality on my DVD.
FYI, I referring to the photos that I put in my start menu. I burn my DVD in NTSC format. Appreciate any help and advise.
Thanks.
Jojo

Here's what iDvd's Help Menu states about those 3 encoding settings you inquired about:
You can use the amount of video in your project as a rough determination of which method to choose. If your project has an hour or less of video (for a single-layer disc), choose Best Performance. If it has between 1 and 2 hours of video (for a single-layer disc), choose High Quality. If you want the best possible encoding quality for projects that are up to 2 hours (for a single-layer disc), choose Professional Quality. This option takes about twice as long as the High Quality option, so select it only if time is not an issue for you.
Use the Capacity meter in the Project Info window (choose Project > Project Info) to determine how many minutes of video your project contains.
Can we really tell the difference ?
Yes. I can see the difference. And so can bcd in the following thread:
http://discussions.apple.com/message.jspa?messageID=8377592#8377592
Keep in mind Burned dvd's are low res devices by nature. Meaning all data is eventually compressed into mpeg 2 (normally). In general, Dvd's have not kept pace with today's higher res cameras and camcorders nor with apple's editing applications (ie, iMovie, FCE, and FCP) and there is very little you can do to improve upon this unfortunately since most macs do not yet support burning a Blu-ray disc. When and if they ever do, then we will see some significant improvements all the way around since Blu-ray dvd's hold at least 5 times the data of a standard dvd and with significantly higher clarity and resolution than the standard Dvd's most of us use today.
Am I missing something ?
No. You aren't missing anything from what you have described above. Your observations are actually rather astute.
Hope this reply helps but if not just come on back.
Message was edited by: SDMacuser

Image quality of HDTV vs. monitor

How does the image quality compare, of sending the output of a Powermac to an LCD HDTV with a VGA input, vs. getting a regular LCD monitor (with DVI input)?
I can get a 23" or greater HDTV for about the same price as the Apple 20" Cinema display. Unless the image quality would be significantly worse, this would seem to be the better option as I could also watch TV or hook up a video game console as well. I could kill two birds with one stone and get both a better TV and monitor than what I already have, with just one purchase.
Or a related question, if I were to get an adapter to output to S-Video or Component for use on my current SDTV, is the image quality acceptable? I've tried it in the past with my PC and I wasn't too impressed.
PowerMac G5 Dual 1.8 Mac OS X (10.4.5) 5G iPod 60GB

How does the image quality compare, of sending the
output of a Powermac to an LCD HDTV with a VGA input,
vs. getting a regular LCD monitor (with DVI input)?
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I can get a 23" or greater HDTV for about the same
price as the Apple 20" Cinema display. Unless the
image quality would be significantly worse, this
would seem to be the better option as I could also
watch TV or hook up a video game console as well. I
could kill two birds with one stone and get both a
better TV and monitor than what I already have, with
just one purchase.
A better choice might be a non-Apple computer monitor with DVI and video or TV input. Some have a buit-in TV tuner and speakers.
Or a related question, if I were to get an adapter to
output to S-Video or Component for use on my current
SDTV, is the image quality acceptable? I've tried it
in the past with my PC and I wasn't too impressed.
With SDTV the best you can get is about 640 X 480 interlaced. This is not much, and fine detail will flicker due to the interlace.

HT201335 Airplay Mirror Poor Image Quality on CBS app - help?

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Hi guys,
I am trying to use iMovie to put together a slide show (I am a wildlife photographer) and it seems great for the job
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Are our events all co-mingled? Since ownership is ignored I assume we can see each other's video clips? This seems pretty messy to me and prevents any sort of privacy. In fact this basically breaks the whole user model.
Since still images are not stored as an event in iMovie '08, adding an image from iPhoto, your desktop, etc. adds a copy of the file to you project to serve as the "source" for later export of your project. In addition, since there is a maximum size associated with your project, this "stored" image may be scaled if the original height is greater than 1080 pixels. Therefore, my recommendation was to actually look at the "stored, scaled" file in your project so as to compare it with your original files to see there there was any loss in image quality. You can manually open the project "package" using the "contextual" menu option "Show Package Contents" at the Finder level.
I opened it in iMovie but can't see that option nor an option for setting colours to millions (which would probably solve my problem).
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Hi, i am very new at this discussion thing and am a french speaker so hope i do this ansking question ok.
I'm having problems with image quality of my 1h46 min movie imported from imovie (initially from quicktime made from final cut pro). I am having pixelly images when camera is moving... Although have read some things about this on the forum none of the answers seem to resolve my problem.
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In FCP i did choose export DV/NTSC and imported from camera with apple firewire NTSC (720x480). Should i have imported material in (640x480/30fps/interlaced...) ?
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Hi
a. make a DiskImage first and test this with Apple DVD-player.
(File menu and down "Make a DiskImage")
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else
*Not knowing the origin to Your problem - General approach when in trouble is as follows.*
• Free space on internal (start-up) hard disk if it is less than 10Gb should rather have 25Gb
• Hard disk is untidy. Repair Permissions, Repair Hard disk (Apple Disc Util tool)
• Delete iDVD pref file - *or rather start a new user/account* - log into this and re-try
iDVD pref file resides. Mac Hard Disk (start-up HD)/Users/"Your account"/Library/Preferences and is named.
com.apple.iDVD.plist
While iDVD is NOT RUNNING - move this file out to desk-top.
Now restart iDVD.
• Program miss-match. iDVD 5.0.2, Mac OS X.4.11 AND QuickTime 7.5.5 - is OK - DON’T work under Leopard
• Program miss-match. iDVD 6.0.4, Mac OS X.4.11 AND QuickTime 7.5.5 - is OK (might work under Leopard)
• Program miss-match. iDVD’08 v. 7.0.1, Mac OS X.4.11 AND QuickTime 7.5.5 - is OK (might work under Leopard)
• iDVD (08) v7 Locate theme folder. Move out iDVD1, iDVD 2 and eventually iDVD4 folders to desktop - re-try
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iDVD 6.0.4 and iDVD 7.0.1 are compatible with Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard
Last resort. from Craig. Solved the problem!! Finally!!
I deleted every iDVD application and folder from my boot drive,
emptied the trash and then installed iDVD 08 using the customize option
and I am up and running.
If You do a re-install be sure to get rid of all iDVD old parts AND then EMPTY the Trash-basket !
Yours Bengt W

Aperture Light Table - Poor image quality

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Image Quality - how to preserve it?

I have a web application in which I draw into a BufferedImage and Graphics2d created as follows:
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In the two lines where I convert the image to a jg and send it to the web page
response.setContentType("Image/jpg");
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I am using jpg images. I am not able to get 'gif' or 'png' image types to work for some reason.
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I am willing to sacrifice transfer time for image quality.
Any suggestions?

You probably just want to use an effect, whichever one you like best. Select the button, then go to the "Window" menu, and select "Effects" to open the Effects panel. In the bottom left you'll see an "Add Effect" button, click that and experiment with your options.

Image quality clarification

Hi I'm a newbie when it comes to video. I too was disappointed with the result of my 1st iDVD project. The images where soft, desaturated and there appeared to be some digital artefacts around type in the menu themes etc.
So I read the forum extensively on this subject and I THINK I finally understand something: (please correct me if I'm wrong)
iDVD outputs video to a maximum of 720 x 480 screen resolution. When we play this back on our lovely, wide, high-res, LCD monitors or our LCD TV screens at home – we are disappointed. The slideshow we can see in iPhoto (that plays all of our lovely sharp hi-res digital photos beautifully in full screen on those same LCD monitors) cannot be replicated by iDVD. Hence so many disappointed users like me checking the forum to see what gives.
Do I have it right?
If I have that right, how do the makers of commercial movie DVD's make movies that DO look gorgeous on our LCD monitors?
(I have a feeling the answer might be quite technical I'm looking for a "lay-persons" explanation!)
Thanks.
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iDVD outputs video to a maximum of 720 x 480 screen resolution. When we play this back on our lovely, wide, high-res, LCD monitors or our LCD TV screens at home – we are disappointed.
You're correct. In fact, it's even worse than that. In computer square pixel terms, the NTSC size is actually 640x480.
If I have that right, how do the makers of commercial movie DVD's make movies that DO look gorgeous on our LCD monitors?
Better quality original material and high quality hardware encoders.
There are things you can do to improve your video quality like lighting the scene correctly and placing your camera on a tripod for shooting - the very slight movements of objects between frames of hand-held video reduce image quality in MPG-2 compression.

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I converted the image to JPEG and imported it into the form. That actually made it worse, now client-server looked the same as the web version. I made sure to import the image at the Excellent quality level. I checked the image in another program from the one I created the JPEG in, and it looked perfect. Again forms must be doing something to the image in the import process. I appreciate the answer, any more suggestions on what I might try?

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New Bie:
Many of the adjustments you want to make can be done to the PDF within Acrobat if you have the Acrobat Professional version.
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Sudden Overlay Shift and Drop in Image Quality

I’ve been authoring DVDs for two years now, and operating out of my current authoring lab for 4 months. All of a sudden, with this one project, I’m having a frustrating menu problem.
The symptoms of the problem are:
1. Overlays no longer match up, they’re WAY off, by about %10 of screen size
2. Big drop in image quality of menus, text looks like garbage.
Here’s my workflow for the menus:
1. Create .mov files in After Effects, comp settings D1 720x486, render at lossless
2. Pull into FCP to create audio, render in FCP as 10 Bit Uncompressed, export using compressor at MPEG-2 (DVD Best 90 minutes)
3. Create overlay files in AE, render frames as PSD files
I’ve tried a lot of variations on this tonight, such as exporting .tiff’s from FCP and building the overlay in Photoshop, or using Compressor to encode the .mov’s from AE independent of FCP. The two symptoms are always there. When I pull the raw .mov from AE into DVD Studio Pro, the quality is a little better but the overlays are still off.
Please Help!
<Edited by Moderator>

I Feel your pain guys! The problem is, you are creating the comp in AE with the incorrect Size. I experienced the same problem for months and actually went back and forth between DVDSP and Photoshop until the overlays fit. After extreme headaches I decided to try something different.
Here's my process;
1. start by creating the comp in AE at NTSC D1 Square Pixels (720 X540)
2. complete the animation
3. then on rendering go to the output module and click stretch
4. Select NTSC DV (720 X 480). This will put it down to what you need it to be in DVDSP
5. Then create your overlays at the 720 X 486
6. Import and build your DVD as usual and it should work out
Somehow this seems to trick DVDSP into putting things where they are supposed to be. It may seem dumb and archaic, but it beats going back and forth! I hope it works for you!

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There is no zooming in use. I've tried resetting Safari. I've restarted the machine. To my knowledge no chances have taken place that caused this, it just seemed to start on it's own two days ago.
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The way Safari accumulates memory is normal. The way it is trying to page the memory to disc and error-ing is not. I think the integrity of your disc volume / catalog and directories may be to blame.
Try a bit of basic maintenance:
Repairing permissions is important, and should always be carried out both before and after any software installation or update.
Go to Disk Utility (this is in your Utilities Folder in your Application folder) and click on the icon of your hard disk (not the one with all the numbers).
In First Aid, click on Repair Permissions.
This only takes a minute or two in Tiger, but much longer in Leopard.
Background information here:
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=25751
and here:
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=302672
An article on troubleshooting Permissions can be found here:
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT2963
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http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1448?viewlocale=en_US
If you were having any serious problems with your Mac you might as well complete the exercise by repairing your hard disk as well. You cannot do this from the same start-up disk. Reboot from your install disk (holding down the C key). Once it opens, select your language, and then go to Disk Utility from the Utilities menu. Select your hard disk as before and click Repair.
Once that is complete reboot again from your usual start-up disk.
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Resolve startup issues and perform disk maintenance with Disk Utility and fsck
http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1417?viewlocale=en_US
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I want to slice a large photo into multiple smaller (4x6) printable photos to arrange in a 12x12 inch scrapbook binder pocket (made of of 4x6 pockets). I need to order separate 4x6s online so tiling in the print options is not what I need.
The slow way I know to do this involves cropping and saving each section (maybe even recording this action to do batch processing). However, another way is to use the slice tool to quickly divide up the sections then "Save for Web...". I can adjust some parameters, but I'm afraid there are other automatic adjustments that I don't want. For example, all images are converted to 96 dpi instead of the original 300 dpi. The number of pixels remains the same so I don't think there will be problems printing the picture.
My question is: does the Save for Web function reduce image quality in any way when printing (it is obviously intended to be used to optimize images for websites)? Are there settings in "Save for Web" that would optimize for high quality prints? Is there a better way to tile an image?
I have not yet compared any prints.
W7
CS6

If you understand that something will do something you do not want like convert to 96 DPI as long as it does not resample you can always convert back to 300 DPI. If you want 6 4x6 to form a 12x12 you must start with an square 1:1 aspect ratio image. That you resample to 12"x 12" at 300 dpi if you want 6 4x6 300 dpi images.
If the original images vary in size and aspect ratio you need to crop them square or add two borders to make them square. The rest is easy to do with an action.
The square crop or border can be automated with a little scripting. If crop a center crop would be the route to go. My crafting actions package contains more the a dozen scripts to be used within action. One is a plug-in script that would make center cropping a snap two steps menu File>Automat>AspectsRatioSelection followed menu Image>Crop. Add a menu Image>Size set side to 12" and resolution 300 DPI and you have your starting 12"x12" 300 dpi image.
Flatten the image make your first 4"x6" selection copy past to add it as a layer. Select the background select the next 4x6 area copy and paste repeat that process till you have added the 6 4"X6" layers. Then delete the background, Select all, target all layers and use layer>Align layers to selection>Top edge then repeat align to left edge. the Image>Trim you have your 6 4x6 in a stack. You can the use Adobe Photoshop Script Export Layer to file. All automated in an action however the last step Export layers to files is interactive for its not a plug-in script. So if you batch it you keen to hang around to interact with the last step for each image.
You could also write you own export script that would not need human intervention to use instead of Adobe interactive script.
Crafting Actions Package UPDATED Aug 10, 2014 Added Conditional Action steps to Action Palette Tips.
Contains
Action Actions Palette Tips.txt
Action Creation Guidelines.txt
Action Dealing with Image Size.txt
Action Enhanced via Scripted Photoshop Functions.txt
CraftedActions.atn Sample Action set includes an example Watermarking action
Sample Actions.txt Photoshop CraftedActions set saved as a text file.
More then a dozen Scripts for use in actions
Example
Download

Image quality in a menu..

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