Different settings for picture playback ?

denvachowd44 wrote on 1/6/2012, 5:57 PM

I am making a picture slideshow with my Magix movie edit pro MX Premium, and having some issues with the playback on the dvd player. Quality is really low. Is there a setting that I am missing to make my dvd look much better ? Looks great on the cpu, just not on my hdtv with bluray player. I'm certain there is a setting I'm missing. I need pretty well detailed help to walk me thru this...thanks !!!

Comments

johnebaker wrote on 1/7/2012, 4:25 AM

I am assuming you are creating standard DVDs.

The problem here is that playing standard DVD on HD TV always reduces the quality of the viewed image - how much depends on the quality of the BD players upscaling and the size of the TV - you have a fixed number of pixels ie 1920*1080 - the bigger the screen the worse the image quality when viewed from the same distance.

To help try these:

1. Changing the quality settings and bitrate as shown in this image

2. Creating BD movie a standard DVD disc - this does limit you videos about 20 - 30 mins long, and can only be played on a BD player.

HTH

John

denvachowd44 wrote on 1/7/2012, 12:20 PM

Hi John,

Thank you for your response !!! I am running out to go pick up some new discs for I have burned through my entire arsenal... :) When I get back I will give this method a try. I will let you know how it works, Thank you !!!

Scott

denvachowd44 wrote on 1/7/2012, 5:59 PM

Hey John,

I just tried those settings and It didn't improve it all. I've gone into the advanced settings and see that it is only 720, but still looks bad. Like it is not even 720 more like 360 or less. Which is very strange to me, because all of my other projects are crisp and clear. I have not had this issue before, so I'm still struggling with trying to find the right setting. And, Yes, i am just burning on to a standard dvd, but have not experienced such vivid unclarity

johnebaker wrote on 1/7/2012, 6:00 PM

I use DVD-RW discs for test burns until I am satisfied with the final edit. Then I burn to DVD-R.

John

dizpark wrote on 1/11/2012, 4:48 AM

johnebaker has provided a really useful screen shot. I have a further suggestions. Try unclicking "Apply anti-interlace filter (reduced flickering)" under MPEG Encoder settings and see if it helps.

If you search Magix forums, then soft DVD output is and on-going complaint. I really think that having the anti-aliasing (anti-flicker) on as a default option is a poor choice. This filter applies blanklet blur wiping out detail to all of your slides to supress potentil flickering (most pronounced on interlaced tube TVs) on some slides with fine horizontal patterns. For me unclicking anti-aliasing has made a huge improvement.

Commenting on johnebaker's suggestions. I would not bother increasing bitrate to max, as IMO Magix uses a rather good and efficient MPEG codec that works very well at default "standard" bitrates. Max bitrate will inflate the file size and might create DVDs that choke on some older DVD players. On the other hand "slow high quality" setting might be a very good idea, especially if you have a fast computer or are not bother by longer ecoding time. And of course Blu-Ray disk will beat DVD quality at any time.

denvachowd44 wrote on 1/11/2012, 4:11 PM

Hey dizpark...That was very helpful...as a matter of fact you should be working for Magix, because the help that I reeived from them was non-existant. I was finally able to see my project alot better than before, not spectacular, but livable. Don't get me wrong they finally did provide me with an answer, but now I'm trying to decipher that code. How do I set my settings so my newly burned project can play AVCHD on my bluray player ? I changed to AVCHD, but does not play...Any help with setings would be greatly appreciated !

Thanks,Scott

dizpark wrote on 1/13/2012, 2:04 AM

denvachowd44

I am glad I could help. That Anti-flicker checkbox was an eureka moment for me, because I was truly puzzled by the soft dvd, because if I chose to make an mpeg2 file from the third tab (export), the picture was sharp. For creating MPEG2 the same encoder is used as for making the DVD. So I was puzzled about this quality difference. It turns out that for DVD Anti-aliasing (anti-flicker) is ON by default, when for making a MPEG2 file it is OFF. I guess that Magix thinking is thath MPEG2 files is for playing on the PC, while DVD will be played in standalone player and displayed in TV.

I am sorry but I cannot help wth AVCHD and blu-ray issue. For HD I make MPEG4 files and play it on TV through my media player.