HD down to SD Epilog...

First off thanks to Ronny & Alexander for all the help!.

I have been spending the last few days trying out new things, based on the settings provided.
The main issue I seem to have is the text created in DVDSP - which appears on screen as 'low-res', 'blotchy'. There are even some artifacts around the outside of the text elements. So I guess that would be a problem in the authoring.

I followed your instructions to the letter Ronny, even created a project from scratch. When I play the end DVD in my good player (Panasonic), I get the aspect ratio matched (16:9), but blotchy text on the front menu.
When I play the dvd on an older dvd (SONY DVDR-890), the picture goes to somewhere between SD & 14:9. text is blotchy and over-lapping.

I am using compressor 4.1.3. Please find attached my settings

Basically I shared the edit from FCPX as 1920x1080, with apple's 422 pro-res.
Placed that QT file onto Compressor, with the above settings.
Imported the resultant files into DVDSP, authored the disc using Build & Format.

When I import the files into DVDSP and place them onto the relevant menu & track elements, they automatically go to 16:9 aspect, so that is good.

As mentioned the quality of the text created in DVDSP is the main issue.

Thanks again,


Pete

- Your settings are good and I'm sure your DVD is fine. But the player you use and especially the tv connected to it can do weird things with aspect ratios (and with everything else). There is not much you can do about all this, you are working with old technology here.

- Text in DVDSP is indeed not really high-quality (no anti-aliasing), and obviously this won't change anymore. That's why some people create their fixed DVD menus in Photoshop or similar. Animated menus can be created in Motion quite easily. If you google for "create DVDSP menu in Photoshop/Motion" you still should find some tutorials on how to do this.

Best wishes,

Ronny

Hi Pete,

Happy to hear all turned out well.

The Compressor settings I gave were for Compressor 4.2, which produces .m2v files when you use the DVD preset (see screenshot). Settings have changed a lot with different Compressor versions, so you might have used the wrong preset in 4.1.3. The .mpeg extension is not something you would get from a regular DVD preset.

Why is the quality of a self-produced DVD in most cases lower than that of a commercial DVD? For many different reasons.

To start with, commercial DVDs are mostly created from very high quality video masters (feature film, tv program, high-end events...). The better your source, the less quality you will lose in your end product.

Second, the hardware used to encode commercial DVDs is very high quality (and very expensive). Most of the times the encoding is done in many different passes and it takes a lot of time and tweaking to achieve the best encoding results for every shot or movement. It is not uncommon to divide a master in many different elements and to encode every element with different settings to achieve the best results.

Third, many studios and independent video producers will choose to have two DVDs (or one dual-sided disc) to maintain a higher-quality encode of the main project, with extra bonus features found on the second disc.

All these elements allow for a better end result but they require much more time, budget and encoding skills.

Best wishes,

Ronny