[richardtallent]

My new 4040 is now connected and I'm playing with the photo software. I was disappointed that PNG files are not supported, but I'm more disappointed with the quality of the images.


I'm guessing I'll need to resample a copy of my library of family photos down to the native resolution of the photo viewer. My assumption is that this is likely 720x480 or so (like the video), can anyone confirm or deny this?


I'd also be interested in anyone's opinion on filters, etc. to batch through (smoothing, black and white point reduction for NTSC, etc.) before saving the final JPG.

 

[toots]

I think we're always going to be disappointed with image quality when trying to display hi-res images on an NTSC TV. It just ain't an SVGA (or better) monitor.


I forget what resolution I downsampled my pix to. I think I may have just done 640x480 and let the Replay do the appropriate non-square pixel conversions, but it's been so long since I've created images for the Replay, I'm probably just guessing.

 

[foundation]

I too would be interested to know. I'm also curious not just for NTSC but for the VGA output from replaytv (is that being run through a ntsc -> vga converter or is output directly?)

 

[Rich A]

I dunno guys. Frankly I'm VERY pleased with the photos I have set up for my RPTV screen saver. My cute as a button new grand daughter is the subject and it's nice to leave the tv to grab a cool one and come back and find dozens of my little pumpkin's photo's being shown.


Anyway .. I think maybe you get what you put in as far as quality goes. My pictures were all 1520 x 1008 Jpegs. In their uncompressed *.TIFF format they were 4.5 Mb. In their compressed JPEG form as loaded into the Replay they were 1.8 Mb. Just to make sure, I just "copied" oneback off the RPTV to my PC hard drive and checked it. It came back out of the Replay at 1520x1008 and 1.8 MB JPG. I'm sure the ReplayTV is of course re-sampling it down to TV resolution. I'd suggest you try inputting the highest quality and size you can ..


The pics on my TV screen are outstanding. In fact it has now become my preferred slide slow medium. Keep in mind I am using a professional digital camera. It's an oldie but a goodie. I often do 10 x 8 full bleed photo prints from it and you can't tell it's been taken by a digital camera.


What I'm saying is it could be the old GIGO .. thing. A 640x480 digitized picture is pretty low resolution to start with.

 

[richardtallent]

The input quality is indeed important (and a given), I'm more interested in tweaking the quality of the output:


- Any resampling done by the Replay is likely going to favor speed over quality, so images being resized (especially relatively small changes) will tend to blur or run jagged, depending on the method used. Thus, if I know the native output resolution, I can send my copies up to it ready to go having been resampled in high quality in Photoshop.


- NTSC uses the YIQ colorspace, but most computer-generated JPEGs will come from RGB sources. What I don't know is whether the VGA-to-NTSC converter on the back-end of the Replay makes this adjustment correctly to avoid overbright whites, etc.


- If the Replay tries to be smart and starts smoothing or sharpening the decompressed output before display, I don't want to apply such a filter the picture beforehand.


Anyway, just a random thread, I thought the topic had been mentioned before but couldn't find anything in a search of the archives.

 

[smhughes]

As the other guy said, I use the screensaver using high quality jpegs straight from my 2megapixel camera and they view perfectly on my 53" digital television. I am extremely impressed with this feature.


Sorry I can't help with the technical details