Crispness of Image

[Ossie]

Hello
I've had MSP 8 for a few years but have never used it as well as I could have and not sure I have all the settings correctly configured between capture and editing.

Now I've been asked to make a digital signage display for a local community center. They will use a laptop connected to a plasma TV. As no capture is involved, my first thought is to use MSP8 because it is flexible and has a good array of titles, moving paths and transition effects.

I'm just doing some text and photoshop images at the moment but I'm still not getting the quality I need for the finished product because there seems be an overall fuzziness (i.e. the text lines do not look crisp). It is not terrible, like an interlacing problem, but it just detracts from the overall experience.

My OS details are in my profile but the project settings I'm using are:

PAL (25 fps)
Microsoft AVI files
Non-Square Pixel Rendering
24 bits, 720 x 576, 16:9, 25 fps
Lower Field First
Data Type 24-bit RGB
DV Video Encoder -- type 1
DV Audio -- PAL, 48.000 kHz, 16 Bit, Stereo

I plan to export to Mepg 2 when authoring to DVD or maybe save a hard copy in Mpeg 4 to their HDD (because the center I'm doing this for has connected a laptop to a widescreen TV).

Can any of you more experienced guys help me with some advice. It seems whatever I do I cannot get that broadcast sharpness I really want to achieve.

[Gorf]

Why are you using the DV template as your workspace when your project doesn't involve DV at all?

In your situation I'd use the default 16:9 PAL DVD template (listed under MPG templates not AVI) but before you start, change the field order to frame based. Then you need to remember to switch it back to your preferred field order before you render to MPG.

The reason for doing this is simply to ensure the stills that you put on the timeline have the correct field order of "frame based". You can manually change it, but it's tedious if you have a lot of them.

If I were doing this task, I'd also use the cinemacraft encoder as it's better than the one MSP already had built-in.

You might also look at the resolution of your stills. MSP is terrible at resizing images. If the images are static onscreen, resize them yourself in an image editor capable of resampling.

[Ossie]

Many thanks Gorf
The dumb reply is I clicked keep previous settings...

I'll try all your suggestions. One question came to mind; the PAL 16:9 properties (576x720) are the same as 5:4. Shouldn't/ couldn't they be higher def (e.g. 1280x720)? If so how do I change them? I can alter AVI settings but the custom settings in Mpg are greyed out.

[Gorf]

Both regular and widescreen are 720x576 for PAL SD. The pixels are different shapes - neither are square. That's why you get a numeric ratio of 5:4 in terms of how many pixels there are, yet the size ratios are 4:3 and 16:9.

If you are creating a DVD these ratios are correct. You should set your aspect ratio to the one matching the prevailing type of screen your audience will be using...