Scanned Article Render settings: Vegas Pro horrible vs. MSP8 almost perfect

[Ken Olson]

I was all set to completely abandon MSP8 (Ulead MediaStudio Pro 8), but thought I would try a quick comparison using an actual project I had in mind. I have an old news paper article that I scanned in at 600dpi. I want to do the typical newspaper flyin with highlighted text popping out.

The problem I have is getting readable print on screen. Only MSP8 is able to give quality near that of the scanned image. Vegas Pro v8.0c only gets half way there. I've tried all kinds of Vegas settings. The link below shows screen shots of each project settings broken down by program; UleadMSP8 and SonyVegas8.0c folders.

Access the Scanned Article Project here

"Italy Presta home (image sharp high 600dpi).png" in the parent folder is the scanned image in question.

The "Moving path.jpg" file in the UleadMSP8 and "Track Motion.jpg" SonyVegas8.0c folders show the only effects on the image. Each program folder also contains screen shots of the render settings.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[Seth Bloombaum]

I've been caught by this as well. Track motion is not the first choice for moving around on a hirez image, as it knocks the image down to project resolution before motion operations. Event Pan & Crop will preserve the resolution of the original media.

[Edward Troxel]

You do NOT want to use Track Motion to zoom in on an image. Track Motion zooms in on the VIDEO FRAME. So perhaps you dropped it on an NTSC-DV timeline - you now have a 720x480 image and you are zooming in on THAT 720x480 image.

Now switch to Pan/Crop. When you pan and crop using that (hence the name), you are using the FULL RESOLUTION of the image before it gets to the video frame.

So... Pan/Crop to zoom in on (i.e. CROP) an image.
Track Motion to resize smaller/position the image

ALSO, when using images make sure you render using "Best" mode instead of "Good".

Just a matter of using the right tool for the right job.

[Danny Fye]

Originally Posted by Seth Bloombaum

I've been caught by this as well. Track motion is not the first choice for moving around on a hirez image, as it knocks the image down to project resolution before motion operations. Event Pan & Crop will preserve the resolution of the original media.

Couldn't one set the project res to what the hirez image needs?

Danny Fye
VidMus Video - Music Productions

[Mike Kujbida]

Originally Posted by Danny Fye

Couldn't one set the project res to what the hirez image needs?

If you did that, everything that was lower in size than the hi res image would be scaled up to match and that probably wouldn't look too good.
Also, if you zoomed in on the image, it wouldn't look good either as it would already be at project resolution.

[Ken Olson]

Thank you both for your quick replies. I started a new project using only the Event Pan/Crop, but the results are pretty much the same. Could it be the project or render settings?

Would someone like to make a recommendation? The source image is still at the link I provided earlier in case anyone wants to try it themselves.

Thank you.

[Danny Fye]

Well maybe this page won't expire on me with this reply!!!!!!!!!!!

Makes me angry when I get a good reply all typed out and the site craps on it!

GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!!!!

Anyway, see if this is what you need or not.

I used 720p with a lower bit rate for test purposes so it can be made better.

www.vidmus.com/scanned.wmv

Danny Fye
VidMus Video - Music Productions

[Danny Fye]

Ok,

Here is a file that I rendered using the same WMV settings that you did.

Larger file but much better quality.

www.vidmus.com/scanned-2.wmv

Hope this helps,

Danny Fye
VidMus Video - Music Productions

[Danny Fye]

And finally,

Here is a file that is zoomed out a bit more so the letters look even better and is a closer match to your example of what I think you are wanting.

www.vidmus.com/scanned-3.wmv

Danny Fye
VidMus Video - Music Productions

[Edward Troxel]

Ken, you also need to make sure you use "Best" when rendering resized images.

Here's a typical process:

1. Drop the image on the timeline
2. Open Pan/Crop
3. Right-click the "F" screen and choose "Match Output Aspect"
4. Adjust the pan/crop size as desired (multiple keyframes if you wish it to move over time)
5. Render using BEST

[Jeff Harper]

I reduced the image to 1/2 size in fireworks and it works fine. Don't use track motion, do as Edward suggests and it will be fine.

[Ken Olson]

Wow, thank you again for taking the time to make those examples for me!!

Not sure what I had been doing, but I started over again and got a lot better results. However, both of your examples are still clearer then mine. Would you mind sharing the settings that you are using.

BTW, my intention is for this to be one of many Vegas project files that I will combine into a master project for DVD. Haven't decided if I will output master project to 4:3 or 16:9, so maybe recommend settings for both.

Thank you.

Ken

[Danny Fye]

Hello Ken,

Glad to help.

I put the project in a zip file and uploaded it.

Download it, un-zip and open the veg file.

One of the graphics is a bmp file that I used for the third one. I loaded your original into photoshop elements and saved it as a bmp file.

For some reason and a bit OT, your original file lookerd terrible when viewed with photo impact 10. It looks excellent when viewed with photoshop elements.

I kept it at the same res. If you still cannot get my results with my veg file then maybe there is some other setting in options that could be causing it.

Anyway, give it a go and see what happens.

www.vidmus.com/scanned.zip

Whew, I just typed this with one hand because I have potato chips in the other.

Danny Fye

VidMus Video - Music Productions

[Ken Olson]

Thank you very much for all your work!! It finally works perfectly on mine! It looks like the problem was my Project Properties, as when I switched to yours it worked. You can check the problem project properties here:
Index of /ken/ScannedArticleProject/SonyVegasPro8.0c

Curious what the recommended settings for AVI would be. I tried the AVI which defaulted to "HDV 1080-60i intermediate" that uses the "CineForm HD Codec v2.8", but quality was not there. In the past I've used AVI's with DVD MovieFactory Plus v6 with acceptional results. I'll probably continue to use it on some projects.

Also I've read that for DVD Architect it is recommended to use the MainConcept MPEG codec, but should I use 1 or 2? Should I accept the default settings?

[Edward Troxel]

DVDs are MPEG2. You don't want MPEG1 going to DVD Architect.