Hi,
1) All your images are 978x650. What size are you uploading the original image at? 1024x682 ? If that is the case then you currently have 978 as a constraint because 978x650 is proportional to 1024x682. and Wordpress scales it down until 978 is hit. You need to open up functions.php file and find line 26 which looks like
$avia_config['imgSize']['featured'] = array('width'=>978, 'height'=>99999);
You need to change that line to look like
$avia_config['imgSize']['featured'] = array('width'=>1024, 'height'=>99999, 'crop'=>false);
Do not regenerate the images. Delete them. And upload the three images over again. For some reason regeneration doesn't work properly on a number of systems now, or at least it selectively works, so it is better to re-upload the three images.
If all 3 images have the same height and width before you upload them, that is proportional to 1024 x 682.
If you get an error. try this instead
$avia_config['imgSize']['featured'] = array('width'=>1024, 'height'=>99999);
However I doubt you will get 682 height ever based on the way the image is scaled. Most likely My guess would be 681 (75% chance) or 680 (25% chance).
Thanks,
Nick