Generating a 576x768 bitmap/JPG picture

DarrenD · Post by **DarrenD** » Mon Jan 16, 2006 8:03 pm

I have searched these forums with the keywords 576 and 768 since the Ulead website says .BMP and .JPG images need to be this size (I am in PAL-land) and looked at the 6 items found but none address my questions, hence this post.

I have tried to use MediaStudio Pro and its titler/overlays to create a one frame 768x576 picture that I can insert into DVDWS as a .BMP or .JPG.

I am unsure of the necessary settings. I currently have a project as DV-PAL, video compression is None which allows me to set video size as 768x576, I have Frame based, non-square pixel is UNTICKED, once I get everything right in the preview window I right-click and save as image and then paste this image into DVDWS. However, I noticed that 24-point Comic Sans MS is pixelated(?) when saved as image while it is perfect in DVDWS. Am I missing some obvious setting? I do not want to install a photo-editor as I am trying to keep my video editing system as small as possible.

Thanks

Devil · Post by **Devil** » Tue Jan 17, 2006 8:46 am

Are you calling "staircase" effect as "pixellated"? IOW, are the character edges on non-vertical/horizontal lines a progression of minute verticals and horizontals, aka as jaggies? If this is the problem, then it may be because of the lack of anti-aliasing.

You don't say which MSP version you have and the titlers are very different. However MSP8 does allow anti-aliasing (can't remeber off hand for earlier versions). I suggect you try selecting it.

DarrenD · Post by **DarrenD** » Tue Jan 17, 2006 12:50 pm

Hi Brian

First off my signature says I am using MSP8, no longer using MSP7 VE DVD edition

I am not sure whether staircase, pixellated or jaggies are the best way of describing the problem. I just know that in DVDWS on a menu entering text at Comic Sans MS 24 ponit the words "The laughing policeman" looks fine, no jaggies/staircases. In MSP8 titler in the titler window with anti-aliasing turned on the same text looks different, more "fuzzy" without being "soft"-edged. It seems I need to do some screen captures to best describe it. If I turned off anti-aliasing the text looks terrible.

I tried starting from scratch again and entered only the above text ino the titler and placed the default 2 second clip in Video1. The preview window then scaled the text to fill the entire preview window (70% coverage of the viewable video). I was expecting the text to stay the same proportions as in the titler window (I had it centered and there was only about 10% of the viewable video area used by the text).

I am confused as to how the source/preview window operates in MSP8. In MSP7 I could set it so it was Half-size (in my DV-PAL projects) but in MSP8 the half-size and full-size only seem to be ungreyed if I undock the window. Can I get a docked window with half-size or full-size and to be locked such that moving other windows about does not change the size of the source/preview window?

Thanks
Darren

Terry Stetler · Post by **Terry Stetler** » Tue Jan 17, 2006 5:43 pm

To increase the size of a docked preview/source window first make sure Resize is checked in the preview window menu. Now drag its edges until it's the size you want. Repeat for the other windows if desired then save this setup as a custom layout in the Layout Manager. Give it a name and define a hotkey and you can call it up at will.

DarrenD · Post by **DarrenD** » Tue Jan 17, 2006 10:34 pm

Here are some pictures of what I am trying to achieve

My static menu in DVDWS 2.232 which I wanted to turn into a .BMP or .JPG

Note the font and font-size of "The laughing policeman" is Comic Sans MS, 24 point, no bold, no italic, no underline

My first step is to re-create the text "The laughing policeman" in MSP8 titler

In the MSP8 titler with anti-aliasing turned on

same text attributes as the one in DVDWS
And with anti-aliasing turned off

and this looks horrible

The anti-aliased one was then OK'd and inserted into Video1. I found that if I set the titler to solid background then inserting into Video1 made it re-scale to fill the full preview window. If it was simply Transparency background colour I got what I required. I then clicked the Preview Window Menu and did Save Image To -> and created the .BMP file

I then loaded this .BMP into DVDWS as a title and got

I repeated the titler but made the text black on white and loaded this .BMP into DVDWS as another title and got

As you can see the imported titles in DVDWS look a lot worse than the static menu generated within DVDWS, especially the "m" on policeman.

Does anyone have any suggestions as to why the .BMP files look awful? What am I doing wrong?

Thanks
Darren

Note, the images you see are .JPGs of the .BMPs since my photo upload site does not take .BMP

Devil · Post by **Devil** » Wed Jan 18, 2006 9:01 am

Sorry, your ISP does not allow access via img tags, so the pics do not display for me. I tried pasting one of your URLs into my browser and it requires registration. I don't wish unnecessary cookies etc. from unknown sites so I let it slide.

DarrenD · Post by **DarrenD** » Wed Jan 18, 2006 12:31 pm

Brian

Whoops, sorry about that; the website photos worked for me obviously

. I tried at work and got the "you are not logged in" message as well. I fully understand your desire for no cookies.

Things might get superceded by events though; whilst the .BMP titles in DVDWS look awful ("less good") than the static menu in DVDWS I went ahead and burned a test project to see what it looked like on my TV/DVD player. My TV is getting fixed at the moment but playing in WinDVD the .BMP title looks good, similar to the static menu. I will be able to prove this later this week when my TV comes back.

This got me thinking, did the static menu always look good in DVDWS since it is a 720x576 image (video being non-square pixels) scaled into the DVDWS window while the .BMP is a 768x576 image (pictures being square pixels) scaled into the same DVDWS window? When encoding to DVD the .BMP will be automatically squashed to 720x576 just like the static menu so both look about the same? Does that sound right?

Cheers
Darren

DarrenD · Post by **DarrenD** » Wed Jan 18, 2006 6:25 pm

Two pieces of good news...

First, my TV got fixed the next day (dry joints)
Second, when I played the .BMP titles on my DVD player/TV they looked OK, certainly a lot better than in the title window of DVDWS

So my only questions now are...

Why does the .BMP titles look so bad in DVDWS?
Why did the MSP8 titler scale the text to full preview screen when solid background is selected?

Cheers
Darren