Advice on committing 35mm slides to DVD

[Wayne Waag]

‘Matching output aspect’ doesthat mean what you have set in ‘Project Properties’

Yes.

Does it apply to all images on timeline or do I have to select all and ‘apply attributes’

It only applies to the image selected. To apply to all, first apply to first image. Then copy that event (Ctrl-C). Then select the remaining events (images), right-click, and select “Paste Event Attributes”. That’s it–you’re done.

wwaag

[Rick Hughes]

Wayne … thinking that having now completed all the scan \ edits \ resize … and from this thread know a hell of a lot more about what aspect ratio and Blu-ray format to use.

Your idea of ‘up font‘ creation of slide shows is a good consideration. I have access to ProShow Gold.
So I could create the independent slide sets … (by year or major Family event)

End game is to then drop these into Movie Studio and with correct project settings Render out as Blu-ray 1920 x 1080, 50i

What file ‘export’ settings should I use on Proshow …. want to avoid extra transcoding and other such issues.

Within Proshow I see the following options: (others require extra licensed plugins)

HD Disc authoring 1080 50i .mkv
Quicktime movie 1080 50i .H264/AVC

[Wayne Waag]

[Rick]

In my opinion, use of Proshow is definitely the way to go, especially if you have a large number of images. Proshow was designed for slideshow creation-Vegas was not. While you CAN do pretty much the same thing in Vegas, it is usually very tedious and time-consuming. Proshow comes with a large number of pre-defined Slide style effects which you can apply and it also has the ability to create your own. For example, I have created quite a few very simple effects such as Zoom in 15%, Full pan right to left, pan bottom right to upper left, etc. Once you’ve done this, it is very simple to apply these.

Another example–matching the output aspect ratio. We just went through a number of iterations on how to do this in Vegas. When using Proshow, you simply set in your Preferences–Fill to Frame–done. Of course, use of Proshow also entails a learning curve.

Regarding export settings. I can’t help you too much with this since I am usng Proshow Producer, not Gold. One of the advantages of Producer is the larger number of export options. Currently, I use a high bit-rate (60 Mbps) MPEG-2, but I suspect this is not available in Gold. My suggestion is to create a very simple 5 or 10 slide test set, apply some slide style effects and render to different settings and see which one works best for import into Vegas.

Another option is to simply do everything in Proshow. You can add titles, music, etc. and then burn DVDs or Blu-rays directly within Proshow although I have never done so.

wwaag

[Rick Hughes]

Taken your advice …. a little Google on-line and found a 20% off code – and just purchased Pro Show Gold 7

Thanks.

If you have any tips for using it feel free to send them my way .

I used ver 5 a few years back .. it was reasonably intuitive.

[Wayne Waag]

I think you’ve made the right move, especially since you’ve used V5 in the past. I’m still using V5 of Producer and have not upgraded to V7. For lots of stills, it is so much easier than Vegas. Good luck.

wwaag

[Rick Hughes]

Wayne … just spent a few minutes playing with it, and quickly recalled how to use it.
V7 is pretty polished .. and has extremely easy user interface.

A question for you … I’ll create multiple slideshows and then collate into Movie studio where I’ll add sound etc. to end up with single Blu-ray disc …hopefully with menu front end if I can get Architect to work for me (been clumsy with it in the past)

To save each pro-show ‘set’ what format do you (or should I) save to ? …

M-JPEG 1080p Quicktime MOV file mpeg-4 for use in 3rd party video editor

mkv using H.264/AVC 1080,50i HD Disc Authoring option

MPEG-4 using H.264 video for editing

** This last option would need a purchase of a plugin for it to be used

[Wayne Waag]

To save each pro-show ‘set’ what format do you (or should I) save to ? …

Just downloaded and installed the trial version of Gold just to see what export options are available. It turns out that you can use the same MPEG-2 encoding that I use. To bring up the correct windows, select Publish from the toolbar (or Ctrl-p) and on the right select “Custom Video File” under video files. There you can choose MPEG-2 encoding. These are the settings I use.

I did a test render and it would open in Vegas just fine. Suggest you try a test render to see if it works OK in Movie Studio.

wwaag

One correction. I do not apply the anti-flicker filter in Proshow.

[Rick Hughes]

Problems …. That MPEG2 option does not work well.

I did a test ‘publish’ of same set of slides …
MKV … smooth motion, clear image
MOV … smooth motion, clear image
MPEG2 … seriously degraded image … highly pixelated, plus Blu-ray player throws up error on ‘unsupported audio format’ …. Even though no audio on any of the samples.
Tried it at frame rate 50 and 50 interlaced … both the same, remaining settings as per this pic.,

Maybe getting to MPEG2 via this custom route does not work correctly.
Short 4 slide sample of the MPEG2 attached:

https://reels.creativecow.net/film/mpeg-sample

for comparison here is H264/MOV:

https://reels.creativecow.net/film/h264-mov-sample

… not sure how the uploads will view … as even though I selected ‘no conversion, still got messages about re-encoding

I also tried MJPEG/mov …. It was 10x the file size of H.264/mov …. But no visible difference in video image quality …

I can’t attach MKV as forum does not support that format.

As MKV and MOV seem to work fine …… is there any reason why I should not use one of these, and is one preferable to the other ?

[Rick Hughes]

2 quick questions on this …

As I will be using Vegas Render for Blu-ray at 1920×1080 50i
In the ProShow settings (as per your screen grab) should I set interlacing to ‘none’ or should it be interlaced.

Lower down on that same sub-screen it has option ‘multplexing’ – as I will be creating Blu-ray from Movie studio … you showed it set to DVD is that still OK ?

[Wayne Waag]

Good to see that you have done some tests. This is really the only way to find what will work best for your system. Here are a few comments.

MPEG2 … seriously degraded image … highly pixelated, plus Blu-ray player throws up error on ‘unsupported audio format’

The problem is that you have your bit rate set to 6000, not 60,000. That will definitely make a difference. Regarding audio, it seems best to always render in Proshow with the Audio box ticked, even though there is no audio. Once inside Vegas, simply delete the audio track and add your own.

I also tried MJPEG/mov …. It was 10x the file size of H.264/mov …. But no visible difference in video image quality … The reason is that there is much less compression usig MJPEG. Remember that you will have to re-render from Vegas. Although much larger in file size, the final result should be better. Whether that is important or not depends on your judgment.

As MKV and MOV seem to work fine …… is there any reason why I should not use one of these, and is one preferable to the other ? Of the two, MOV is preferred since MKV is not supported in Vegas–at least not in Pro 13. It may work OK in Movie Studio?

As I will be using Vegas Render for Blu-ray at 1920×1080 50i
In the ProShow settings (as per your screen grab) should I set interlacing to ‘none’ or should it be interlaced.

I would set the interlacing to None, since Vegas will do the interlacing on final render.

Lower down on that same sub-screen it has option ‘multplexing’ – as I will be creating Blu-ray from Movie studio … you showed it set to DVD is that still OK ?

I would just leave it set to DVD since you will be getting rid of the audio track once inside Vegas.

Well, it seems like you’re making progress. Again, doing test renders and seeing what works best for you and your system is the way to go.

Having now tried both new versions of Proshow (Gold and Producer), my inclination would be to render using MJPEG/MOV rather than H264/MOV. Although file sizes are much larger, the render will be faster and the color levels will be maintained. As a test, import both the MPJEG/MOV and the H264/MOV into Vegas onto different tracks–one on top of the other. Then mute the top track to see if there are any color differences. The MPJEG/MOV should appear “brighter” since it uses the entire range of luminance levels (0 to 255)that are suitable for computer display. The H264/MOV output has already had its luminance levels reduced for TV (16-235). If you decide to use the H264/MOV render, then you will have to boost the levels back to (0-255) using the Levels Fx with the Studio to Computer RGB Preset. Otherwise, your final render will really look washed out.

wwaag