Menu background size

[Lap795]

Hi, I want to start off by saying this program ROCKZ!!! It plays all my (s)vcds on dvd-r. But one thing I noticed is that the size of the background menu pictures is 720x576 and that I only have 21 images. In the SVCD2DVD walkthrough it says that it should come with 80 or so (if I can remember correctly). And do I have to resize the images manually since they are in pal size? Oh btw, I've tried uninstalling and reinstalling the program and I still have the same number of images. Thanks.

[Callan]

Hey, Lap!

See https://www.videohelp.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=198246.

Callan

[Callan]

But one thing I noticed is that the size of the background menu pictures is 720x576 ...And do I have to resize the images manually since they are in pal size?

Hi again, Lap!

If NTSC had the highest resolution, I am sure we would all be provided with NTSC background bitmaps. Even guys like me who have PAL TVs etc. It is just that piccies do not improve when enlarged. Making them smaller does them little or no harm, sometimes even makes them better. Which I assume the program does. It can "sense" whether your MPGs are NTSC or PAL.

Callan

[ChrissyBoy]

The images are resized appropriately for the standard of menu you choose (NTSC/PAL).

They are supplied at the larger res for the very reason mentioned in the previous post.

[kydar]

>The images are resized appropriately for the standard of menu you >choose (NTSC/PAL).
>
>They are supplied at the larger res for the very reason mentioned in the >previous post.

I'm having a problem with background sizes as well. I tried a 40x480 .jpg file as my background, and it was cut off (i.e., cropped) when played back on my Apex 1500. I tried a 1024x768 .jpg and the result was the same.

Interestingly, both .jpgs were of the same image, just at different resolutions. They were cropped not to the same number of pixels, but to the same visual size, i.e., if you looked at them on two TVs side-by-side,
they would look identical, even though they came from .jpgs which were
different resolutions.

Oh, and menu items were cut off as well, in both cases. This is what bothered me the most, not that the background image was cropped, but that I couldn't read the menu items!

Also of interest is that the backgrounds and menu items are NOT cropped when played with a software DVD player (PowerDVD).

To bo honest, the authoring portion of SVCD2DVD is kind of primitive anyway, and I might just use TMPGEnc DVD Author instead in the future. But it is an annoying little bug^H^H^Hfeature. Is there something I might try to fix this before I give up?

[ChrissyBoy]

To compensate for the overscan on television monitors, keep all important information and action within "safe" boundaries to ensure it will be viewed on every monitor. While "action safe" is
considered to be 5% from the edge and "title safe" is considered to be 10% from the edge, the general rule of thumb is to keep all crucial information 70 pixels from the sides and 50 pixels from top and bottom.

You can find many templates for photshop etc on this

[kydar]

To compensate for the overscan on television monitors, keep all important information and action within "safe" boundaries to ensure it will be viewed on every monitor.

I'm not familiar with this concept of overscan on televisions...are you saying that they crop the actual video as well as the title/menus as I mentioned? That kind of sucks. Is there any way to avoid it?

[kydar]

One other thing I should mention, even though I don't know for sure if this makes a difference or not, but I've authored dozens of SVCDs with Nero 5.5 using the same .JPG file as a menu background image, and it is not cropped or "overscanned" as you say when viewed on the same TV with the same DVD player. Are you sure there is not a bug with your authoring software here?

I think I am going to try authoring a DVD with TMPGEnc DVD Author using the same .JPG for the menu background and see how it looks on the TV. I'll let you know.

[ChrissyBoy]

No bug:

http://www.google.com/search?sourceid=navclient&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&q=%22title+safe+area%22+dvd+menu

Also look at dvd menustudio & dvd lab (and most other dvd authoing packages) & you will see the "safe area" as guideline on the "canvas"....

Some more info on overscanning & dvd menus:

http://www.google.com/search?num=100&hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&safe=off&q=dvd+menu+overscan