HDTV Preview (CineformHD+ParheliaAPVe) of stills just do not appear HD at DVinfo.net

Don Blish · January 5th, 2006, 11:12 AM

By this time I am running one Gateway HDP2185W panel as a monitor DVI at 1680x1050 and the second as a "feature" connected ComponentHD. I get large, steady overlay/monitor on the "feature" from PPro/CineformHD3.4 (and WMP and PowerDVD). Given the choice in Powerdesk of outputting 720p60 (which the screen scales up to 1680 across) or 1080i30 (which is scaled down), I have settled on the 720p since it eliminates a small amount display jitter.

Since stills are just as important as HDV (Sony HDR-HC1), I have experimented with a favorite still of achingly sharp fall foliage with a clapboard house at Sturbridge Village. The clapboard at a slight angle is a challenge for anti-aliasing and there are plenty of small, backlit leaves and twigs to judge resolution with.

I sized a copy at 1920x1080 for use in a PProCineform project (HDV, 1080x1440), put it on the timeline and rendered. Although I never had to render stills in Premiere6.5, at least in PPro, once rendered, the rendering does not disappear if the position or length of the clip is altered, so it’s a onetime inconvenience.

With the still on the HDTV, I minimized PPro and brought Photoshop7 and the same image up on the DVI display and sized it on-screen the same as the PPro preview. The PPro/AspectHD preview looks very soft by comparison. I had to knock the still down in Photoshop to 480pixels tall to get the equivalent softness. I know the HDTV is putting out 720p or 1080i because the menu on the Gateway allows me to check. I understand the preview is being converted digital to analog and back but it still seems too soft, almost like it is from an SD/720x480 surface and enlarged. The options arrow in the upper right of the monitor window and its pull-down menu shows that I have set the monitor quality to “highest”. That seemed no different than “automatic”.

As an experiment, I went to Powerdesk/Playback/PureVideo and changed the settings from “PreserveAspectRatio/VideoSource/16:9” to “Preserve Source Size”. When stationary on the timeline (in “scrub”), Cineform shows the still as about 770x1300 by measurement on-screen, but while monitoring video, it is presented squeezed to about 770 square. Repeating this with Matrox outputting 1080i, the image is about 500x887 in scrub and 500 square monitoring video. (720p wins!) You ordinarily don’t see the squeeze monitoring with the “Preserve aspect ratio” setting since Matrox would expand it.

So I am guessing that there are no more preview settings to tweak, that I’ll just have to wait a few months for a Blu-ray burner and player to see these images on a large display in their true 1920x1080 glory.

January 5th, 2006, 11:12 AM	#1
Don Blish Major Player Join Date: Oct 2003 Location: Portland OR Posts: 227	HDTV Preview (CineformHD+ParheliaAPVe) of stills just do not appear HD By this time I am running one Gateway HDP2185W panel as a monitor DVI at 1680x1050 and the second as a "feature" connected ComponentHD. I get large, steady overlay/monitor on the "feature" from PPro/CineformHD3.4 (and WMP and PowerDVD). Given the choice in Powerdesk of outputting 720p60 (which the screen scales up to 1680 across) or 1080i30 (which is scaled down), I have settled on the 720p since it eliminates a small amount display jitter. Since stills are just as important as HDV (Sony HDR-HC1), I have experimented with a favorite still of achingly sharp fall foliage with a clapboard house at Sturbridge Village. The clapboard at a slight angle is a challenge for anti-aliasing and there are plenty of small, backlit leaves and twigs to judge resolution with. I sized a copy at 1920x1080 for use in a PProCineform project (HDV, 1080x1440), put it on the timeline and rendered. Although I never had to render stills in Premiere6.5, at least in PPro, once rendered, the rendering does not disappear if the position or length of the clip is altered, so it’s a onetime inconvenience. With the still on the HDTV, I minimized PPro and brought Photoshop7 and the same image up on the DVI display and sized it on-screen the same as the PPro preview. The PPro/AspectHD preview looks very soft by comparison. I had to knock the still down in Photoshop to 480pixels tall to get the equivalent softness. I know the HDTV is putting out 720p or 1080i because the menu on the Gateway allows me to check. I understand the preview is being converted digital to analog and back but it still seems too soft, almost like it is from an SD/720x480 surface and enlarged. The options arrow in the upper right of the monitor window and its pull-down menu shows that I have set the monitor quality to “highest”. That seemed no different than “automatic”. As an experiment, I went to Powerdesk/Playback/PureVideo and changed the settings from “PreserveAspectRatio/VideoSource/16:9” to “Preserve Source Size”. When stationary on the timeline (in “scrub”), Cineform shows the still as about 770x1300 by measurement on-screen, but while monitoring video, it is presented squeezed to about 770 square. Repeating this with Matrox outputting 1080i, the image is about 500x887 in scrub and 500 square monitoring video. (720p wins!) You ordinarily don’t see the squeeze monitoring with the “Preserve aspect ratio” setting since Matrox would expand it. So I am guessing that there are no more preview settings to tweak, that I’ll just have to wait a few months for a Blu-ray burner and player to see these images on a large display in their true 1920x1080 glory.