Blurring of the Edius Preview Window

[Mike Truly]

I have been noticing this strange phenomenon and I'm wondering if there is anything I can do about it.

I have Edius running on a 2 display monitor with each monitor at 1280x1024. The preview window is small on one of the monitors (approximately in the neighborhood of 640x480 in size... haven't really measured it). I never change the size so if I'm working on a D1 project or a 1280x720p project, the video is displayed in the window.

The weird thing I've noticed is that the image is blurred. Lately I've been using only 1280x720 projects and footage. Naturally, I can understand partially why it's blurred because the image is being scaled to fit the window. But here's the weird part.

You know how Edius is funky when you change the focus of the app from Edius to another app (parts of Edius disappear, etc.). Well awhile back I noticed that at the moment of this focus change, the image shown in the preview window gets about 10% to 15% sharper the instant you change focus to another app and it looks great. It stays sharp until Edius gets the focus again. For example, I can switch to Windows Explorer and it gets sharp... switch back to Edius and the image becomes blurry.

This started me wondering why Edius can't show the image at this sharpness all the time?

Then something happened when I opened my current project awhile ago. I started playing the timeline and the image stayed sharp (this is the only time I've seen it do this). When I stopped playback, it got blurry again and has stayed blurry. This at least showed me it was possible for it to play back sharp.

Any idea how to make it stay sharp all the time?

Thanks!

[TonyB]

Check your overlay settings on your Graphics card.

[Mike Truly]

TonyB,

Is there a specific setting I should be looking for? The only setting I have adjusted on my QuadroFX 3400 is for overlay-the gamma curve... no others.

Is there a setting that blurs the image?

I'll investigate. Thanks!

[antonsvideo]

I think he meant to try all the overlay settings that are possible in the NX settings

try one at a time and remember that Edius needs to be restarted in order to see a change

http://www.videoproductions.com.au/edius3/overlay-settings.gif

[Mike Truly]

Thanks Anton. I will experiment.

[Mike Truly]

OK, something I just noticed while experimenting.

When the focus changes to another app and the Edius preview image gets sharp, you can then do a PrintScreen and capture the whole desktop and the Edius preview image shows in the capture! (It's usually black if you try to do a capture when Edius has focus).

This tells me the image is switching from overlay to some other mode. (I should also note that the image gets slightly darker since the overlay settings are not being used in this mode.

Well, at least I now have a handy way of capturing the preview image if necessary.

Thanks!

[Mike Truly]

Well I just tried all the various overlay settings within Edius as well as the settings in the NVidia controls but nothing changed the image shown in Edius to the sharp version that appears when you change focus to another app. I'm pretty sure it is related to overlay in that when it's blurry, that's when the overlay settings are definitely being used. When it's not, the overlay settings definitely are not being used.

Bummer. Oh well.

Thanks!

[antonsvideo]

I personally don't take much notice of the preview monitor since I look at the external monitor (42" Plasma) and the timeline, but I noticed that the preview monitor black level changes drastically when changing focus or between player and recorder preview

[GrassValley_BH]

What's your Pause Field setting at?

[Mike Truly]

Brandon,

The Pause setting is on Frame. I also tried it on the fields settings and it made no visible difference.

Attached is an image I created to simulate what the blurring looks like. The top image is an actual capture when the image looks sharp. The bottom image I brightened and blurred to simulate what it looks like in the preview window normally.

Thanks!

[antonsvideo]

that reminds me of the day I tried a matrox 650 card, it was as unsharp and I threw it out right away

btw, are your LCD monitors connected via VGA or DVI?

can you see what happens if you change desktop resolution to something like 1152x864

[Mike Truly]

Anton,

Thanks for the ideas. The display card is a QuadroFX 3400 (so I won't be throwing it out!) and works great in all respects. The monitor is connected DVI. A resolution change doesn't seem to change the blurriness, unfortunately. All of the area of the Edius app and desktop are sharp and crisp, only the video in the Edius preview window has the slight blur.

I'm sure this is related to overlay as the brightness I have set in the Nvidia overlay settings goes away when the focus is shifted and the image becomes sharp.

There are settings in the Nvidia controls for Anti-aliasing and Anisotropic filtering that are set to 'Application Controlled'. I thought for sure this was where the blurring was coming from so I tried setting both to OFF, but still no change in the Edius displayed image.

Oh well, not a big deal but it would be nice to have the preview image without this fuzziness.

Currently, I only have a nice SD production monitor for viewing output so it won't view HD stuff. Probably about time I get an LCD HD production monitor for my viewing.

Thanks!

[antonsvideo]

be careful with what you buy when it comes to LCD, they mostly have the shakes when a camera pan happens

The new Sony Pro Luma monitors have no shakes because of the very fast response

https://www.sony.com.au/production/catalog/product.jsp?categoryId=22389

also, Plasma screens are great

[Mike Truly]

Anton,

Thanks for the recommendations. I will probably go LCD as I am at 9000ft altitude and plasma has historically had a problem at high altitude. The 2450 Sony LCD looks nice!

Thanks again.

[GrassValley_KH]

This is a familiar picture - it has to do with the way the EDIUS software employs the video hardware overlay. I'm wondering if your PC's DirectDraw (DirectX) is up to date and fresh - 9.0c is the latest version.

This is somewhat moot now anyway - v4.5 sees a new system of video overlay reproduction, via Direct3D - the results are simply gorgeous! (it even emulates interlacing)