Grainy Still Images and Titles

[G***@adobeforums.com]

I've just completed about a 10 minute film utilizing still images and video clips. It was made with the Adobe Premiere Elements 3 that came with my Sanyo Xacti camera, running on Windows XP. The video looks great all the way up until the end. I have two still images that I use that I have overlayed titles on them. The first one is a rolling title from bottom to top (like movie credits) and the second one is a still image where the text just appears and then disappears. The problem is that the pictures are extremely grainy and pixilated. Other still images that I use in the movie do not look that way, and they were taken with the same settings as the pixilated ones. When I pause the movie the picture looks normal, but when I hit PLAY it goes back to being grainy. I can only assume that the word overlays have something to do with it.
Has anyone else experienced this problem and is there any way to make the background pictures sharper and crisper with the text overlaying it?
Thank you.

[P***@adobeforums.com]

Did you render your movie? Hit the Enter key on your keyboard and this should render your movie... regions of your movie with red lines above them in the timeline should turn green and your movie playback quality should improve.

[g***@adobeforums.com]

Also, instead of "hitting" the Enter key, you can just push it. ;)

[B***@adobeforums.com]

Steve,

You know that a well-placed "hit" keeps the Enter Key in line!

Giles,

If rendering does not solve your problem, and it should, you might consider adding a tiny touch of Effect>Gaussian Blur to these stills. They are basically backgrounds for your Titles.

I often Keyframe in Blur for background visuals, when the Titles roll.

Hunt

[G***@adobeforums.com]

Thank you for the suggestions. I both pressed and hit the Enter key to render the film. Although it drastically improved the quality of the playback in the editing window it, unfortunately, did nothing to improve the quality of the still images. The pictures are sharp and clear when I hit the pause button, but as soon as PLAY is pressed and the little marker line begins moving along the timeline they become grainy and unfocused again.
The two with the titles rolling over them are the worst by far. I would really like to make these a lot sharper since the titles running over them directly correlate to what is going on in the photo.
Do you have any other suggestions as to what may be causing this and what I can do to correct it? Thank you once again.

[g***@adobeforums.com]

Is there a red line on the timeline above your stills or is it green, Giles?

[B***@adobeforums.com]

Giles,

I'm wondering if the problem is just in your Preview, or if it'll be there, when you Export.

What is the workflow to get these two images into PE? What size/format did they start out as? How did you get them to where they are now?

If you have a DVD RW disc, you might want to do a test Burn, and look at the images from that. I'd also check to see if there are newer video drivers for you vid-card. However, this should not just affect two of many still images.

I'll poke around PE to see if there are settings for Preview quality, like in P-Pro. It *could* just be a problem that exists only in the Preview function.

Hunt

[G***@adobeforums.com]

Guys, thank you so much for the help so far. I really appreciate it.

Steve - The line above the stills is green. I have rendered the film and it looks fine in the view window except for the pictures in question.

Hunt - I exported the movie to a Windows media player file and played it on that. The results for those two pictures was the same.
I imported the images through the PE "Get Media From" tab. They were on a thumbdrive that I had imported the to from my camera.
They are both JPEG images. The first is 2816 pixels in width and 2112 pixels in height. With a vertical and horizontal resolution of 72 dpi and a bit depth of 24. The focal length was 6mm.
The second is 2112 pixels in width and 2816 in height. The rest of the info is the same.
The pictures look fine when it is paused, it is only when it is playing that they are grainy and unfocused.
Thanks for the help. I am continuing to work through the Help topics in search of an answer.

I'm making this as a gift for my girlfriend back in the states while I am deployed here in Iraq and I am trying to make it perfect. Thanks again for all of your help.

[B***@adobeforums.com]

Giles,

Did you re-size those two images (in Photoshop, or similar), before you Imported them? If not, please try that. The FAQ has the exact guidelines for size. If you use Photoshop, re-size, than Save_As PSD (instead of another JPEG compression step), for Import into PE. You could also use TIFF format, as well, especially if you use another image manipulation program, than PS. I have found that PS's re-sizing algorithms to be visually better than those in Premiere Pro. I have no reason to think that PE's would differ from PP's. I'm talking slight, but then you are looking to get the best possible visuals, so slight might make a difference. Try doing this re-sizing for both, and let us know the results.

Good luck,

Hunt

[G***@adobeforums.com]

Gentlemen,

Sorry for the long delay in response. I have been away from this project for a while. I resized the photos in photoshop and they look great. I really appreciate you taking the time to answer my questions. The movie is perfect. Thanks again.

Giles

[B***@adobeforums.com]

Giles,

That is great news. Thanks for reporting back.

Hunt