Scale to frame size quality tests

[JohnnyO]

Like I have done with past versions, I compared the quality of the video and photos with scale to frame size on and compared it to scale to frame size off.

With scale to frame size on, the photos and video clips are automatically scaled to the size of your video.

So if you have a SD project using HD video, the video clips will automatically be scaled down to fit the screen. If you use 2 Mpixels photos for example, they will be scaled down to fit the video. This is an example and similar results should happen with HD projects.

The test I ran was to zoom in on the scaled photos, and do the same zoom on a photo where scale-to-frame size was un-checked. I used the motion effect to scale the photos.

I did a similar test with the HD video. The project settings I used were set to SD.

The results were the same as with previous versions. It is definitely better quality without any doubt if scale-to-frame-size is un-checked. It was mostly noticeable in the photo zoom, because I zoomed in further than I did with the video clip. Although the quality diffidence was also noticeable in the video clip.

So the collusion is, for best quality, leave scale-to-frame-size off. Then use the motion effect to downsize 1 photo to fit the project, and then copy that effect to all the other photos. Same for the video if your video is larger than the project settings.


The one con to this is that the themes work best with scale-to-frame size set to on. You can manually override this setting.

[Steve Grisetti]

Thanks for the report, Johnny!

[Bob]

If you enable scale to frame size you are resampling the image to fit the frame size and images larger than frame size will become smaller. If you then change the scale, you are scaling the resampled image and enlarging substantially will always show degradation compared to the original image.

Here is a before/after shot illustrating the degradation caused by scale to framesize for an 800 pixel image in a SD 480 pixels high project when zooming in to original size: viewtopic.php?f=57&t=5845&p=51660#p51660

[George Tyndall]

If you enable scale to frame size you are resampling the image to fit the frame size and images larger than frame size will become smaller. If you then change the scale, you are scaling the resampled image and enlarging substantially will always show degradation compared to the original image.

Here is a before/after shot illustrating the degradation caused by scale to framesize for an 800 pixel image in a SD 480 pixels high project when zooming in to original size: viewtopic.php?f=57&t=5845&p=51660#p51660

Bob, I create all my slide shows with PSE using 2280 x 1520 HD images, then I typically send the shows to a 1920 x 1080 HD timeline in PRE, where I generally keep Scale to Frame Size selected for most of the frames.

Correct me if I am wrong, but one advantage of saving my slide shows for possible future re-opening in PSE is that I can always send them to a variety of PRE presets that include Scale to Frame Size, but my original 2280 x 1520 stills remain intact and untouched. (This is one reason I keep multipe versions of PSE Organizers, including their saved slide shows, on my HDD as I discuss elsewhere.) This is also one reason I prefer to create my slide shows in PSE rather than PRE. Is my understanding correct? Is there a better way to create slide shows?

[JohnnyO]

If you enable scale to frame size you are resampling the image to fit the frame size and images larger than frame size will become smaller. If you then change the scale, you are scaling the resampled image and enlarging substantially will always show degradation compared to the original image.

Here is a before/after shot illustrating the degradation caused by scale to framesize for an 800 pixel image in a SD 480 pixels high project when zooming in to original size: viewtopic.php?f=57&t=5845&p=51660#p51660

Bob,

Excellent explanation and illustration. Thanks