Image File with text comes out "poor" when rendere

relaxingpiano · Post by **relaxingpiano** » Wed Apr 26, 2006 12:43 am

Project Settings: The same as listed in the post about recomended procedure for success with video studio

Output format (file, DVD, VCD, SVCD): DVD
PAL or NTSC: NTSC (United States)
Error Codes (if any): None

Nature of the problem:

I new at all of this so I'm learning and I've been going through forum posts, help files, everything I can find, but so far I'm missing something.

Here's my situation and hoping someone can help.

I'm creating image files with text which will become part of a larger project but for right now, I'm keeping this simple. The image files I'm creating in Adobe Photoshop 6 at 1200x900 with a solid background color and somewhat fancy text, with a small picture. That is basically what it is. If you go to http://www.worldsbiggestmusiclist.com/v ... 00x900.bmp you can see that image. It looks clear that way or clear enough for test purposes. I'm doing this at 96 dpi, also tried 300 and 600 dpi.

Now when I go to render that file "create a video file" and try just about every way I can think of through Video Editor, the image comes out very poor quality and distorted. I'm basically following the post on this forum about how to create a video file.

As long as the video file plays on my computer at like 50% of the size, it looks clear. But if you try to put it to full screen size or put it in a TV, than it doesn't come out very nice at all. Here's an example of the video file. http://www.worldsbiggestmusiclist.com/v ... 00x900.mpg

Hopefully I've given enough information that I need to give in order for someone to shed some light on this for me. I new at this stuff but learning and so I might be missing something very simple. I'm pulling my hair out trying to figure out how to do this.

Thanks to anyone for any help or suggestions you can give.

Don

THoff · Post by **THoff** » Wed Apr 26, 2006 2:42 am

The text looks fuzzy because the image needs to be resized in order to fit the DVD output format. Where the red text meets the green background, an intermediate color will be interpolated during the resize operation.

Either create your still images using the 720x480 output resolution that is needed for the DVD, or use an even multiple of that (1440x960 for instance).

Trevor Andrew · Post by **Trevor Andrew** » Wed Apr 26, 2006 7:22 am

Hi

Try using Video Studio to create your text.

You can put the text on a color background, (green) simply drag a color from the library.

Use an image of yourself in the overlay track Here you can position it where you like, but keep within the square outline. You may not be able to reproduce the vertical line.

Edit--------use vertical text and ___________ (shift + minus) is that underscore???

Trevor

relaxingpiano · Post by **relaxingpiano** » Wed Apr 26, 2006 3:12 pm

Thanks for the help. The 720x480 seemed to do the trick. Thought I had tried it already but for some reason when I tried it this time, everything comes out ok.

Appreciate the help,

Don

THoff · Post by **THoff** » Wed Apr 26, 2006 4:49 pm

With the BMP file you had, Videostudio had to turn 900 pixels of vertical resolution into 480 pixels, so every pixel in the still image was turned into 0.5333 pixels in the video. This doesn't cause any problem for the monochrome background, but as I said in my original reply, at the boundary between the background and the text, the color would have to be interpolated.

Finally, the MPEG2 encoding could then further degrade the quality slightly. If you apply the Antiflicker filter (using the checkbox in the Options dialog during Share -> Create Video File), Videostudio will apply a mild Gaussian Blur -- this will smooth out the edges a little.

relaxingpiano · Post by **relaxingpiano** » Fri May 05, 2006 5:53 pm

Thanks everyone for your help. the only thing I'm running into now is that when I burn a DVD, everything works fine on the computer. If I play the DVD on a tv, it is like it cuts off some of the edge all the way around the image. So the text and stuff runs almost past the edge of the screen. When I created the file, I left some space all the way around but it doesn't show up like this on the TV?

I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong here.

Don

THoff · Post by **THoff** » Fri May 05, 2006 7:44 pm

There is an area along the edge of the TV known as the overscan area, where the electron beam (or in the case of digital TVs the simulated electron beam) retraces its position to display the next half-frame.

Anything that is close to the edge of the image when displayed on your PC runs the risk of disappearing into the overscan area. The rule of thumb is that ~15% of the image around the edge should not be used.

When you create a title or overlay in Videostudio, it can draw a frame around the title-safe area, i.e. the area that is likely to be visible on a TV. If you create still images in a graphic program to be used in Videostudio, you unfortunately don't have this same guide, so you need to be looking out for this yourself.

relaxingpiano · Post by **relaxingpiano** » Mon May 08, 2006 1:29 am

Thank you to everyone for your help. It greatly has helped me get this project completed and the presentation is looking pretty nice now.

One thing I'm wondering about is it looks fine when I play the burned DVD on different computers and on our TV. However I tried to play it on a big screen TV of a friend of mine, and the text wasn't as clear. It sort of gave the appearance of a barber shop poll (with the colors that look like they are coming down the pole - hopefully that image means something because I don't know how else to explain it).

But what I'm wondering is, if it was just that particular TV or if I dont' have something set right in the burned DVD? The pictures with no text in my presentation come out beautiful and perfect. But it is just the text images that I have imported into this that didn't come out as clear.

Thanks
Don