Still Picture quality problems

Here's my problem:
After creating a movie I notice that the same still photo is being rendered to DVD in different qualities. In other words, I have the same background slide used in different sections of a movie. Some are pixelated, others are smooth. I don't know why iMovie is doing this!
I've also set everything to the highest quality in iMovie and iDVD.
I've gone back and compared the original files and they seem identical in Photoshop (from dimensions, resolutions, etc.).
I've reached a dead end and need some help here!

Try the Flicker filter.

Similar Messages

Improving still picture quality

I am doing a ski video that includes many still pictures of snowy mountain tops and trees. I was wondering if one of FCE's regular filters could prevent the flickering effect caused by the snow on the trees. This is only visible on a tv screen.
Thanks

Try the Flicker filter.

Still image quality poor, Help

I posted a similar question last night. This one is more of the same.
Issue: Poor image quality (flickering, Jumping) when viewing stills on my TV only...
I have made 2 test videos. One was made in FCE and one in iMovie8. Both are identical and consist of only 5 still pictures. I added motion to a couple of pics in each test. The video from iMovie looks great on my TV. The video fro FCE looks very poor. The image is jumpy and flickering.
Why does the same movie movie look different depending on the source? What is different? Do I have something set up incorrectly in FCE?
I tried applying the De-interlacing filter and the Flicker filter. I tried all variants of the De-interlace filter, ie odd/even. I have made several exports from FCE trying to get rid of the flicker/jumpy-ness to no avail.....Even the still pics that have no movement flicker a bit from FCE, for example, one of the pictures are of my son holding a dark green fishing rod while standing in a tent. The picture has no movement but the fishing rod and tent poles are flickering, almost like there are lights in them blinking on and off. A similar picture that has movement shows the fishing rod as alternating dark and light lines instead of just a dark green rod. The same pics from the iMovie clip look great. The color is correct and no flickering at all.
To export from FCE I am using Quick Time Movie. From iMovie 8, I am using 'Export Movie' high quality. On each video I then just dropped them into iDVD and viewed on my TV.
I am a new user to FCE and so far I like it much better than iMovie 6 or 8. I have a hard time believing that the still picture quality output form FCE is worse than iMovie. So I must be doing something wrong.
Thank you in advanced for help,
Toshiro

Well I can only assume that there is a difference in the way the data is handled between the 2 apps. I have resolved my issue by not compressing the data while exporting. Unfortunately, my 3 minute video is 7G !!...oh well
...now if I could just get rid of the thin green line at the bottom of the screen during my opening segment it would be great....
Thanks for taking the time to assist
Toshiro

Por quality still pictures in Imovie

I am having this problem I hope someone out there can help!!!!!
I am making a movie only using still pictures (in imovie) and the result is that the pictures are not as clear as they are in iphoto.
Is there a way to improve the quality of the still pictures in imovie to at least match the qualiity of the originals?

Hi m
The quality of photos are a multi layered question:
a. The quality is severly lower on a TV-set than any computer monitor.
To be able to judge the final quality I have connected my Camera FireWire
end to the Mac and the analog end to a SCART adapter and a TV-set.
Now I can see what the result really will be on the TV.
(625 horisontal lines in PAL is maximum, 480 or 520 I think in NTSC)
(on a screen You can have say 854 x 1280 or even more)
b. The Mac showes different qualities on the screen depending on Your
choise and the Mac's capasity. (see iMovie prefs)
c. When rendering Your movie from iMovie to iDVD - severe damage will
occure if You use the Share/Export to iDVD from within iMovie and accepts
the question RENDER?. I don't do it like that. I close iMovie and drop the
project icon (with a star on it) into an open iDVD theme window.
The result is better.
Yours Bengt W

My iPod touch 5G has a problem with its back camera, there's a dark spot on picture quality and won't focus, it will only focus on things 5-7 inches away from the iPod. Could I go to apple and see if they can repair it or give me a new one?

My iPod touch 5G has a problem with its back camera, there's a dark spot on picture quality and won't focus, it will only focus on things 5-7 inches away from the iPod. Could I go to apple and see if they can repair it or give me a new one? Someone help please.

Try:
- Reset the iOS device. Nothing will be lost
Reset iOS device: Hold down the On/Off button and the Home button at the same time for at
least ten seconds, until the Apple logo appears.
- Reset all settings
Go to Settings > General > Reset and tap Reset All Settings.
All your preferences and settings are reset. Information (such as contacts and calendars) and media (such as songs and videos) aren’t affected.
- Restore from backup. See:
iOS: How to back up
- Restore to factory settings/new iOS device.
If still problem, make an appointment at the Genius Bar of an Apple store since it appears you have a hardware problem.
Apple Retail Store - Genius Bar
If the iPod is defective and not abused Apple will exchange your iPod for a refurbished one at no cost

Why is the camera such poor quality to take still pictures.

I have been trying other a
Apps to see if the quality of the still shots can get better.
No such luck. It just looks like a grainy picture.
Is there anything that can make this take good still pictures?
Especially for the price you pay for one of these things?

Yes I must admit the camera on the Iphone is very good.
Yes the Ipad is well bait big to hold in the palm of your hand so to speak.
But it would be nice to be able to take a quick snap if a picture becomes apparent.
It would have been nice to have the Iphone camera in the Ipad2.
Oh well just have to be disappointed about this feature.
Question to any one. Is there an app that allows you to take a picture from a movie you made on the Ipad2 at all?
As the camera picture is clear enough for me when I pause it.
Thanks

HT203554 MacBook Pro (15-inch, Mid 2010) intermittent black screen or loss of video. Can I still get this problem resolve by Apple or I'm screwed because the MacBook Pro (15-inch, Mid 2010) intermittent black screen or loss of video Quality Program has en

MacBook Pro (15-inch, Mid 2010) intermittent black screen or loss of video. Can I still get this problem resolve by Apple or I'm screwed because the MacBook Pro (15-inch, Mid 2010) intermittent black screen or loss of video Quality Program has ended?

You can have Apple replace the logic board, but it will be at your expense. The free replacement program has ended.
As a band aid you may try the following:
https://gfx.io/
This will allow you to run on only the integrated GPU.
Ciao.

Mid 2009 13" MBP iSight camera bad picture quality in photo booth

My daughter's stock mid 2009 13" MBP 2.26 ghz intel core two duo has a problem with the isight camera. The isight camera is built in to the screen. The isight camera works some of the time flawlessly and other times it comes out real grainy and with small colored pixels all over the screen like colored static (about 20% to 30% of the photo booth screen is affected but the rest of the screen outside of the photo booth app is unaffected). She only uses it in photo booth but we've tried the iChat app and the same thing happens there too, once she couldn't get the MBP to connect to the isight camera (it just showed a black photo booth screen), so she closed the lid of her MBP and reopened it and it worked. All of the software and firmware is up to date and we've tried resetting the PRAM and the SMC, it didn't do anything to fix the problem. It seems like there's a wire loose in the computer from the screen to the computer base, only because I can move the screen back and forth and the picture quality changes, the amount of static on the picture will move, go away or get worse. I had the screen changed in early 2010 (January or February) (the MBP was about 5 or 6 months old then) at the apple store under warranty due to dirt under the screen's glass (manufacturing defect). The photo booth picture static problem comes and goes, but here lately it comes more than it goes. The screen in general is in good shape and doesn't have any detectable problems with it, it has a good picture and no dead pixels, the problem seems to be only isolated to the isight camera. Can some one help with this problem? How long of a warranty is given on the warranty repairs (like the screen change they did in early 2010)? If apple does a repair on it and finds a wire that has rubbed the insulation off of it on a hinge causing a short and the isight problem, as a result of a sloppy repair from the first warranty repair, will they cover it under warranty again even if it's been over a year since they changed the screen? Also how honest will apple be if they do find out it is a problem caused from the first screen replacement, will they own up to their mistake? If I don't agree with apple's repair decision, can I get a second opinion from an outside source, third party, and if it's diagnosis different than apple's and can be proven, can I still get apple to do and pay for the repairs and labor if it turns out to be their fault from the first warranty screen replacement?
The reason why I'm asking is, I took my wife's white macbook in about a year ago for the famous cracked top cover replacement (under warranty) and when I got the computer back, the isight camera didn't work, so I gave it back, they took it apart a look at it and said there was nothing wrong with it and gave it back, then the screen wouldn't come on so after 4 hours at the Apple store they decided to send it to Austin, TX. for repairs (I'm in Ft. Worth TX.). Apple in Austin said it needed a new main board. They said the old one had water damage to it. We never had water anywhere near the computer, not even in the same room. It was working fine when we took it in, we took it in just to get the plastic top case, that cracks all of the time, replaced under warranty. And then they wanted us to pay for an $800 main board because some how while they were doing the top cover replacement it got water damaged. I argued with them and they finally gave me a one-time offer of them paying for half of the repair and labor or if I disagreed or left the store I would have to pay the whole amount if I chose to have the repairs done. So I ended up having to pay $467 for a year old macbook main board that was water damaged in their possession during their repairs. I like Apple and their products but I am worried about giving my daughter's MBP over to them for repairs because of this incident, it's an honesty issue with how honest they will be with what they find because they won't give back the old parts for analysis by a third party to verify their diagnosis.
Thanks for any info and advice anyone can give.

Hi,
As a personal note I find long posts like this hard to read if they are not broken up in to paragraphs.
As I say it is a personal thing.
I can give you some information about the camera and laptops over the past few years.
Basically in early Laptops of the MacBook Pro and MacBook range the cable did tend to fray at the point where it passed through the hinge. It did take a well used laptop that had the lid open and closed frequently to cause this. (your 2009 model might just be in that group - I have no firm dates or models I am afraid)
Later models have this rerouted so that this does not happen.
However the cable has then tended to get pulled from the camera end and become loose.
This On Line Self fix site has pages about some models (The one I have linked to may not be yours)
I have linked in to later pictures in the sequence but there are navigation points to work back to the start.
Note:- they use pretty specifc specialest tools as well in these pics.
Doing this would certail Void any Warranty you have left.
From Posts mainly in the iChat and the iSight areas I have gathered that it seems common for Apple to replace the Screen as a whole rather than fiddle with getting solely at the camera.
Apple has this article on Trouble Shooting an iSight
Basically it says try several apps then try logging in on another Mac User account to see if it is App based or User based or in fact System wide.
If System wide then resetting the SMC/PMU is the only suggested fix. (Which I did read you had done)
In addition to that I would add that testing should be done in different lighting conditions.
Lighting in the evening or dark that is good enough to read buy is not always good enough for the camera or is not illuminating the right areas.
Some people have reported that Starting the computer in Safe Mode (then Rebooting afterwards) seems to help. (it clears out some caches and starts up with reduced extensions)
As to actual Repairs and any Warranty that may still be in place I cannot say.
I can say that when people post about problems with repairs a certain stores someone else will tend to post that their experience was different.
You seem to report two different experiences with the two computers yourself.
10:24 PM Thursday; July 14, 2011
Please, if posting Logs, do not post any Log info after the line "Binary Images for iChat"
 G4/1GhzDual MDD (Leopard 10.5.8)
 MacBookPro 2Gb( 10.6.8)
 Mac OS X (10.6.7),
"Limit the Logs to the Bits above Binary Images."  No, Seriously

How to avoid Moire Effects (jiggered still pictures) using iM and iDVD.

This is a discussion going on forever and forever in this forum. I had the problem of bad looking slideshows myself, and I am hearing the same tips over and over again that just don't work. This is what I found out on how to avoid moire effects in your still images, when you want to edit a slideshow using iMovie - and I personally think, this explanation makes a lot of sense.
Try it on your own and you will have had the last bad looking still image slidehow on the TV screen ever!! Here we go:
Like everybody here I am talking about the process of creating a slideshow incuding movie strips in iMovie to get as a final result a DVD with menus and such using iDVD.
And the common problem with stills and iMovie 5.02 are the so called jiggered pictures iMovie creates. Call it a moire effect, if you'd like.
Whenever full resolution still images are importet from iPhoto into iMovie, the quality that iMovie will spit out in the end is disgusting. Period. Just disgusting.
It has nothing to do with that iMovie does not display it properly on the Monitor or we are just in preview mode - the results are bad there and will be bad (maybe even worse) on the TV screen.
There is no SIGNIFICANT difference between wether the pictures are imported with KB on or off, whether they are imported as still frames or as video clips using iMovie "import" function. iMovie can treat the color fairly bad, overprocesses the pictures and - worst of all, the moiree effects you will see in the endresult are just very very bad. It is worse when the pictures are panning a lot (KB).. This is true for every picture containing a lot of detail (Trees, Forests, horizontol lines (stairs) etc.) - not so bad for closeup face shots, unless that person is really old
There is no SIGNIFICANT difference on the result by how the iMovie project is fed into iDVD. When the movie is sent to iDVD using the iM command "send to..." the quality is worse (and you let iM render when it asks) than if the movie is dragged into the iDVD window - but again, the difference is not significant. The result will suck. The DVD will also look bad, when the iMovie is exported has high res quicktime first, before imported into iDVD. Again, its slightly better that way, but not significant.
Whenever a slideshow is created in iPhoto and than exported to iDVD (or via being a quicktime movie through iMovie into iDVD) the result will be however stunning. But that totally defeats the purpose of iMovie and the degree of freedom of designing slidehows in a very appealing manner.....
The problem I think lies in how iMovie processes still images. And this is not a bug, but more of a mathematical/programmatical problem. iMovie has to REDUCE THE RESOLUTION of your still. A 2000x3000 pixel image @ 300 dpi(roughly the dimensions of a 6 MP image) has to be downsized to a TV image (NTSC or PAL, whichever) which has a resolution of approximately 480x640. HD is accordingly higher. The amount of pixels has to be reduced. iMovie can do that. NOT GOOD. But it can. The problem starts when the picture is panning around (KB). iMovie makes a let us say 5 second movie @ 30 fps out of one still image. Almost every frame will be slightly different from the previous one due to the used KB effect. So, the routine of iMovie does this downsize calculation for each single frame - and it removes each time different pixels from the still image, due to a slightly different source still image. Got it?
Now, when you look on how moiree effects occur (which is some weired math in it's own) than it makes sense, that we see all this jiggereing in horizontol lines of high res. patterns.
I found that if I reduce the size of each image in Photoshop (or Photoshop Elements) prior to importing it into iMovie, the quality of the final product that iMovie and subsequently iDVD spits out in the end is AMAZING (reduce the dpi to approx. 72, so the image resolution is roughly 480x640). This is not a difficult process, because both programms (PS and PSE) handle BATCH PROCESSING. Just let the Mac work for a couple of hours or so.... its WORTH IT (and don't forget to make copies of the high res originals beforehand... :D).
(before you resize, find out about how to properly resize and rescale an image!!!!)
I am slightly annoyed that I found that out after producing a long long long long and really good slightshow, that is watchable but looks REALLY cheasy and cheap).
I hope this helps out.
Waenni
Mini G4 Mac OS X (10.4.8)

I agree that iMovie's still image quality is embarassingly bad and has many bugs.
Even with no Ken Burns, the sharp images tend to flicker on a TV because iMovie doesn't blur them properly.
And as you very well described, iMovie's Ken Burns produces uneasy zooms/pans because the subpixel rendering is, uh, suboptimal.
iMovie's immortal rendering bug when exporting non-Ken Burns'ed images to iDVD/tape doesn't make things any better.
Yes, bicubically downsampling the input images to 640x480 or adding gaussian blur to the megapixel input images takes care of the flicker and uneasy zooms/pans, but as a side-effect the maximal zoom-ins are then TOO blurry.
The best workaround is to use Photo To Movie's higher quality export setting. It has the best quality rendering engine (I recently compared it to Still Life and FotoMagico). Disclaimer: I'm just a satisfied customer of Photo To Movie.
See also:
http://www.sjoki.uta.fi/~shmhav/SVCDon_aMacintosh.html#slideshow

Flash image viewer, picture scale problem in CS3

Please someone help me. I have built a website 3 years ago, and I still have this problem. In CS3 I added a flash image viewer (slideshow.swf) as a slideshow to show gardens we have made. When you first visit the site and look at the pictures (wich are bigger than the viewer window because of picture quality issues) they don`t shrink to fit into the viewer window, you only end up seeing a fraction of them. But when they download and you go back to see them again a second later, they become the right size. It also swiches to the right size when the loop play gets back to the first pic again.
In the flash element properties I tried the different scale settings, and looked at other settings too but I couldn`t make it work.
I think making the viewer window as large as the pictures, would look odd. Maybe buying on other slideshow program to insert into dreamweaver would work.
If you would like to see the site its: tsugagardens.com , than look in the photo gallery and after the pics download go back with the back button and see the difference in the pics.
Thank you for your efforts,
Tibor

function(){return A.apply(null,[this].concat($A(arguments)))}
serestibi wrote:
Please someone help me. I have built a website 3 years ago, and I still have this problem. In CS3 I added a flash image viewer (slideshow.swf) as a slideshow to show gardens we have made. When you first visit the site and look at the pictures (wich are bigger than the viewer window because of picture quality issues) they don`t shrink to fit into the viewer window, you only end up seeing a fraction of them. But when they download and you go back to see them again a second later, they become the right size. It also swiches to the right size when the loop play gets back to the first pic again.
In the flash element properties I tried the different scale settings, and looked at other settings too but I couldn`t make it work.
I think making the viewer window as large as the pictures, would look odd. Maybe buying on other slideshow program to insert into dreamweaver would work.
If you would like to see the site its: tsugagardens.com , than look in the photo gallery and after the pics download go back with the back button and see the difference in the pics.
Thank you for your efforts,
Tibor
Here is the code for the image viewer

Poor picture quality in crystal reports

Post Author: marina
CA Forum: .NET
Hello,
I need insert high-quality photos of some products to a crystal report dynamically and then export this report to a PDF file to be printed by the customer as some proposal of products.
Some time ago I developed a web-application using MS Visual Studio .NET 2003 and Crystal Reports for Visual Studio .NET 2003 to generate PDF reports. I added images to reports generating BLOB objects at runtime. But the customer complains on poor quality of images in exported reports. The images in the exported reports have a problem of lost smooth color gradation. Now Iu2019m investigating if Crystal Reports for Visual Studio .NET 2005 would help me.
So, now Iu2019m using MS Visual Studio .NET 2005 and Crystal Reports for Visual Studio .NET 2005 for a test and nevertheless I have the same problem with poor image quality in a total report and an exported PDF file. If I insert a photo file (e.g., TIF or PNG, RBG/8) to a report template, I see an original good-quality picture (RBG/8) on the template screen. I do not use any scaling in the test. If I just switch to the Preview tab to preview the report, I see a bad-quality picture instead. It has the same width and height but has lost smooth color gradation and looks like a 256-color picture. The option "Retain Original Image Color Depth" does not help. I have the same problem with image quality in an exported PDF or MS Word file.
Is it possible to manage total image quality in crystal reports and how?
Your prompt reply will be very much appreciated.

Post Author: marina
CA Forum: .NET
Hello,
Iu2019ve found how to solve this problem in Crystal Reports for MS VS.NET 2005. The option u201CRetain Original Image Color Depthu201D in the Report Options window helps u2013 the preview screen and the exported PDF file contain images of suitable good quality.
Iu2019ve found information on the u201CRetain Original Image Color Depthu201D option here: http://support.businessobjects.com/library/kbase/articles/c2016162.asp?ref=devzone_rss_net.
Unfortunately, I donu2019t have the full version of Crystal Reports 9 or 10 to check if this helps to solve image quality problem in the application on MS VS.NET 2003.
So, I try to edit source report templates in Crystal Reports for MS VS.NET 2005. I set the u201CRetain Original Image Color Depthu201D option in the Report Options window for them. Then I use these updated templates in my old application on MS VS.NET 2003 u2013 I donu2019t edit the templates there, I just load these updated templates at runtime. Dynamic images are added as BLOB objects to a data set at runtime to bind the reports. But I still have the same problem of lost color gradation in generated reports and exported PDF files. I also insert static images for a test to the report templates in MS VS.NET 2005 and then generate reports again by the application on MS VS.NET 2003. I have the same problem of lost color gradation for the static images too.
So, is it possible to use u201Coriginal image color depthu201D in an application written on MS VS.NET 2003? Or should I remake the project under MS VS.NET 2005 to retain original image color depth?
Your prompt reply will be very much appreciated.

Still pictures lose resolution when transition added?

i'm making a slideshow in FCP using still pictures. when i add a disolve, or key frame a crossfade between two pictures the pictures lose their sharpness/resolution. the last frame before the dissolve ends the picture remains sharp, but as soon as the picture comes up by itself it drops to a lower quality. i hope that makes sense.
the problem only occurs on some of the pictures i scanned, but not all that were scanned (problem doesn't occur with pictures that came straight from a digital file (i.e. a memory card/camera). i scanned the pictures with a resolution setting of 200.
any ideas with what i'm doing wrong? any thoughts, criticisms, are greatly appreciated, and thanks in advance!

the clips exhibit the problem both rendered, unrendered, and exported.
thanks for responding nick!
oh, and i like where you're from nick, but i couldn't find the answer when i consulted it.
Message was edited by: awp

Picture Quality & Final Cut Pro 5.0

I just finished a big project using FCP - I really like the program, but the picture quality is less than perfect. In fact, it's pixelated, especially where there is motion. I've tried upping my monitor's refresh rate, but that hasn't seemed to resolve the problem. Does anyone have advice for me? Is this a known issue with FCP or Quicktime, or is this more likely a hardware problem?
Thanks,
Craig

Shane's Stock Answer #2: Blurry playback
ONLY JUDGE THE QUALITY OF YOUR MATERIAL ON AN EXTERNAL NTSC MONITOR, OR AT LEAST A TV.
1. Disable overlays on the canvas
2. Make sure you've rendered everything (no green bars at the top of the timeline
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=24787
Video playback requires large amounts of data and many computations. In order to maintain frame rate and be viewable at a normal size, only about one-fourth of the DV data is used in displaying the movie to the screen. However, the DV footage is still at full quality, and is best viewed thru a TV or NTSC monitor routed thru your camera or deck.
Shane

Still pictures and titles vibrate on my dvds

Still pictures(photos and titles) edited with Final Cut vibrate on the dvds I burn with DVD Studio Pro. What can I do?

How are you exportin g from FCP? You should use Uncompressed (8 bit/10-bit) whihc helps cure some quality issues. Some color combinations also seem to "vibrate" more and also smaller fonts can do that. In general larger fonts (20pt+) Sans serif work well if you can use them.
If you have a bit more detail of the entire workflow you are doing, it mmay point to what the problem may be

DVD picture quality, Instant-On vs. InterVideo

Why is the quality from the Instant-On DVD player so much better then the picture received from InterVideo Home Theater under Windows XP?
Are there any settings to get the same picture quality?
What DVD software are you guys using?

I've tried DriverCleaner, but to no help: I was still getting a foggy picture. Then I noticed that playback of a previously recorded Tv-show did show a good quality!? So that guided me to the fact that the problem wasn't caused by the Nvidia drivers but perhaps by the InterVideo WinDVD player. Reinstallation of the program completely solved the problem!
Although you didn't provide the answer, thanks for your help anyway Dr. Stu.
JaDi.

Still Picture quality problems

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