Posted by nobody special on 04/03/06 21:26

Scan converters come in prices ranging from under 100 bucks to over six
thousand. I have access to some at each end of the scale, and for the
ones at about a grand and up, you do get what you pay for, in terms of
superior qality, better scaling, superior flicker-compensation for
where the lines are too thin. My guess about your Sony is, if it was a
high-dollar unit, then you may have had the flicker compensation turned
up too far. It reduces flicker from parts of the lines and text that
are less than 2-3 scan lines thick, by applying a dither or blur. A
little of that goes a long way. Then too, too many generations of
digital/analog transfer will take their toll as well.

As to preserving the cheesy powerpoint animations, there is not one
such powerpoint provides that you couldn't do with better quality
motion and resolution in your NLE program; it's simply a matter of
taking the time to break the graphic down into the same elements, then
applying motion paths and perhaps rendering, depending on your system.
Yes, it takes more time, and you have to gauge whether the extra time/
money is worth the additional quality. Sometimes the project doesn't
rate the effort, that's hard for us to bear, but it's true. You may
want to cook them a steak, but they are only asking for tater tots, and
a good chef gives the customer what they want. Save the steak for the
next client with better taste. If a PPT file is particularly bad, and
I have the luxury of time, I do a cut/copy/paste of the textual
information into a "real" CG program. Other times, I will just go back
thru the file and tweak the slides to increase the font sizes, color
scheme, and add drop shadows on the text wich seems to help a lot with
readability.

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