DVD Menu backgrounds

[Chronic]

I have a problem finding the right size to make my background picture for my DVD menu's evertime i find a picture that i like and place it on the menu, it looks good on the computer, but once it gets on my DVD player it looks really bad. What do i should is there a program i can use to change the resalution with. It not what is a good resaluttion i should use as DVD back ground i am using a 60'' big screen btw

[reboot]

The bigger the better.
Homemade backgrounds I try to start at 1152x864 and go up.
If it's extremely clear, and not compressed too much, a jpg or png of 640x480 can be OK.

[wayne421]

Assuming you are authoring your DVD in standard 4:3 format, images used for menu backgrounds should be 640x480 pixels, 72dpi.

I think both Irfanview and Picasa (both freeware) can resize images.

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Good luck!

W

[thecoalman]

For 4:3 try 720x480, dpi is irrelevant. Try applying a soft blur to the image, especially if it has a lot of hard edges like text. It helps to have an image editor that will also convert to NTSC or PAL safe colors.

Try and make all your changes in an editor as opposed to having the authoring app apply them.

[zanos]

Isn't the standard size suppose to be 720 x 534?

[guns1inger]

DVD Lab uses 720 x 540 for both NTSC and PAL. It just changes the pixel ratio to suit.

[themichael]

-Start with 768x576 and then resize to 720 by NTSC-480 or PAL-576. That way circles will be round.
-A one pixel vertical motion blur helps stop any flicker that might show up.
-And limit the color range to 16-240. Can be a filter or just adjust the levels manually when you are done.

Mike

[OmegaSupreme]

4:3 NTSC - 720x540 resize to 720x480
4:3 PAL - 768x576 resize to 720x576
16:9 NTSC - 960x540 resize to 720x480
16:9 PAL - 1024x576 resize to 720x576

[themichael]

Omega:

Where did you get your numbers from?

Mike

[dvd3500]

They're the DVD standard.

[thecoalman]

If you really want to do it correctly for images of varying sizes and maintain the correct aspect ratio the easiest way is using an image editor that supports cropping by ratio.

For example using photoimpact you could open up an image of any size select the crop tool, select the 4:3 or 16:9 preset making sure to lock the crop box so it maintains the correct ratio, drag and resize the crop box on the picture, crop it, then resize to 720x480 making sure you deselect maintain aspect ratio when resizing if you have used the 16:9 preset.