blurry still photos in MEP 2014+ when changing output size

tacoholic2006 wrote on 11/29/2014, 10:50 PM

If I start a project that includes still photos in 1080, and export a movie in 1080, everything's fine. But when I drop the output size to 720 or 320, the image files look blurry. The video still looks fine. What I noticed:

* It doesn't matter what type of container I export to (I've tried .wmv, .mov, and .mp4)

* It doesn't matter how large the image file was, nor what type (e.g., .jpg, .png, .psd,. tif)

* The video player doesn't appear to be expanding a sub-1080 size to fill a 1080 screen.

* It doesn't matter whether or not I change my movie settings from 1080 to the size I'm exporting to, or simply change the output size at the export stage.

Comments

terrypin wrote on 11/30/2014, 12:38 AM

Hi,

Difficult to help without seeing the source material and results at various resolutions.

Can you make a small, (non-confidential) project exhibiting the problem and use File > Backup > Copy project and media into a folder, zip it up and upload it to a hosting site (I use Dropbox, for example) so that we can run the project and see exactly what you mean?

I'm puzzled that "the video still looks fine" at low resolutions? Do you just mean it looks 'acceptable' given the low resolution and significantly better than the stills?

 

Last changed by terrypin on 11/30/2014, 12:38 AM, changed a total of 1 times.

Terry, East Grinstead, UK. PC: i7 6700K, 4.0 GHz, 32GB with Win 10 pro. Used many earlier versions of MEPP, currently mainly MEPP 2016 & 2017 (Using scores of macro scripts to add functionality, tailored to these versions.)

johnebaker wrote on 11/30/2014, 3:44 AM

Hi

. . . . But when I drop the output size to 720 or 320, the image files look blurry . . . . expanding a sub-1080 size to fill a 1080 . . . .

That is to be expected, the video will also be more blurry however it will not be so obvious.

IIRC images are effectively resized to 720 or 320 before they are rendered as video, therefore your starting image for rendering is not the original size but a down sized version.

How good it looks depends on how good the upscalar is in the player, however you are effectively 'magnifying the still image and so it looks blurry at 1080 full screen.

There are several 'tricks' you can do to get a better quality - 

Resize a copy of the still images to the correct resolution in an external image editting software and use these on the timeline.

Apply sharpening to the whole movie - Effects, Effects settings movies and select the Sharpen tab - try a setting of between 75 and 85.

On the export dialog, select the Advanced button and increase the video bitrate - I generally use a setting of 18000. Note do not do this if you are exporting for a website, Youtube, Vimeo etc - see below

If you are exporting for use on a website - see exceptions below:

Use the mpeg4 format and select the Flashplayer 1280 * 720 setting.  This gives a decent quality image and keeps the file size relatively small.  The mp4 does need to be made streamable - you can do this by selecting the Advanced button and check the Export as website option - this will give you a folder with the video and all the html, players etc - you can use the mp4 and delete the rest of the created files if you do not need them -

Or

Export as mp4 then use a program like MP4 Faststart to make te video streamable.

For exporting to Youtube, Vimeo use their recommended settings - Youtube, Vimeo

HTH

John

 

 

Last changed by johnebaker on 11/30/2014, 3:45 AM, changed a total of 2 times.

VPX 16, Movie Studio 2025, and earlier versions 2015 and 2016, Music Maker Premium 2024.

PC - running Windows 11 23H2 Professional on Intel i7-8700K 3.2 GHz, 16GB RAM, RTX 2060 6GB 192-bit GDDR6, 1 x 1Tb Sabrent NVME SSD (OS and programs), 2 x 4TB (Data) internal HDD + 1TB internal SSD (Work disc), + 6 ext backup HDDs.

Laptop - Lenovo Legion 5i Phantom - running Windows 11 24H2 on Intel Core i7-10750H, 16GB DDR4-SDRAM, 512GB SSD, 43.9 cm screen Full HD 1920 x 1080, Intel UHD 630 iGPU and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 (6GB GDDR6)

Sony FDR-AX53e Video camera, DJI Osmo Action 3 and Sony HDR-AS30V Sports cams.

tacoholic2006 wrote on 12/1/2014, 7:56 PM

Gents, thanks for the replies. Here are some examples of the video in question, in their various incarnations:

 

http://jeffglasser.com/video/test1080a.wmv
http://jeffglasser.com/video/test720a.wmv

http://jeffglasser.com/video/test720b.wmv

http://jeffglasser.com/video/test320a.wmv

http://jeffglasser.com/video/test320b.wmv

Here, you can see that the full-size photo of the model looks great in the native 1080 format but loses resolution in the smaller sizes; yet the video still looks good. I noticed that the four reduced size pictures (:48) look OK.

 

John, this video is going to be sent as an e-mail attachment (the 320 pixel version), shown at auditions (1080), and linked to YouTube or perhaps another service (720). I tried sharpening the entire movie and although it had some effect on the full-size still, the rest of the movie looked too harsh.

terrypin wrote on 12/2/2014, 3:18 AM

I was unable to play or download any of those files.

 

Last changed by terrypin on 12/2/2014, 3:18 AM, changed a total of 1 times.

Terry, East Grinstead, UK. PC: i7 6700K, 4.0 GHz, 32GB with Win 10 pro. Used many earlier versions of MEPP, currently mainly MEPP 2016 & 2017 (Using scores of macro scripts to add functionality, tailored to these versions.)

tacoholic2006 wrote on 12/4/2014, 9:02 PM

 

I was unable to play or download any of those files.

 

What happened when you tried? I just did a test and it worked.

terrypin wrote on 12/5/2014, 2:13 AM

 

 

I was unable to play or download any of those files.

 

What happened when you tried? I just did a test and it worked.

Not too surprising as the files are on your own site!

What happened on trying again was similar to three days ago.

1. I get a message asking me to activate a plug-in of some sort

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/4019461/MEP-ActivateWMP-DLL.jpg

which (somewhat against my better judgment) I did.

2. Nothing happened after doing that and waiting a couple of minutes so I returned to your post and tried the first 1080 link again. After two minutes I was still seeing this:

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/4019461/Transferring.jpg

so I once again returned to your post and tried the link to the smaller file test320a.wmv.

That eventually opened in my default player for WMV, MPC-HC, with the message 'File not found'. It then unceremoniously crashed both the player and Firefox.

Needless to say, I won't be trying again!

Last changed by terrypin on 12/5/2014, 2:13 AM, changed a total of 2 times.

Terry, East Grinstead, UK. PC: i7 6700K, 4.0 GHz, 32GB with Win 10 pro. Used many earlier versions of MEPP, currently mainly MEPP 2016 & 2017 (Using scores of macro scripts to add functionality, tailored to these versions.)

johnebaker wrote on 12/5/2014, 2:17 PM

Hi tacoholic

I have played all the examples you have posted and cannot find anything wrong with quality of the images / video when you play them at the correct video window sizes.

By that I mean for the 720 wmv the video windows is set to 720 wide and so on.

As you go down the resolutions there is some loss of sharpness as you would expect with not having so many pixels available.

Here are some examples (in the Blurry images folder) of 1080p, 720p and 360p without and with sharpening - as you can see there is a difference when overall sharpening ( Shift+Ctrl+H ) is applied to the movie especially at the lower resolutions.

NOTE: download these then play them - if you play them in a browser they may play at the correct size.

@ Terry

Try using the VLC plugin it works fine.

HTH

John

Last changed by johnebaker on 12/5/2014, 2:17 PM, changed a total of 2 times.

VPX 16, Movie Studio 2025, and earlier versions 2015 and 2016, Music Maker Premium 2024.

PC - running Windows 11 23H2 Professional on Intel i7-8700K 3.2 GHz, 16GB RAM, RTX 2060 6GB 192-bit GDDR6, 1 x 1Tb Sabrent NVME SSD (OS and programs), 2 x 4TB (Data) internal HDD + 1TB internal SSD (Work disc), + 6 ext backup HDDs.

Laptop - Lenovo Legion 5i Phantom - running Windows 11 24H2 on Intel Core i7-10750H, 16GB DDR4-SDRAM, 512GB SSD, 43.9 cm screen Full HD 1920 x 1080, Intel UHD 630 iGPU and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 (6GB GDDR6)

Sony FDR-AX53e Video camera, DJI Osmo Action 3 and Sony HDR-AS30V Sports cams.

terrypin wrote on 12/5/2014, 4:33 PM
@ Terry

Try using the VLC plugin it works fine.

 

Thanks John, specifying the VLC plug-in for windows media video did the job.

@tacoholic2006: They look fine to me too. Here's a JPG screenshot at 00:44 of test1080a.wmv:

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/4019461/VLC-snapshot-1080.jpg

Last changed by terrypin on 12/5/2014, 4:33 PM, changed a total of 1 times.

Terry, East Grinstead, UK. PC: i7 6700K, 4.0 GHz, 32GB with Win 10 pro. Used many earlier versions of MEPP, currently mainly MEPP 2016 & 2017 (Using scores of macro scripts to add functionality, tailored to these versions.)

tacoholic2006 wrote on 12/27/2014, 3:53 PM

Gents, a thousand pardons for not responding sooner but things have been kind of hectic the last few weeks.

I appreciate all the time and effort you've devoted to this. I have a few more options now, it's something I'm going to have to experiment with to find the look I'm seeking. I'm about to start work on my annual 'year in review' video for my photography business, we'll see what happens!

In the mean time, a Happy New Year to all!

tacoholic2006 wrote on 1/10/2015, 1:54 PM

Argh! I'm such a poopy-head! The solution to my problem was so simple, it was right under my nose all the time!

All I had to do was increase that little number in the bit rate box from 10K to something closer to the cost of a Volvo. Presto -- beautiful pictures!