How to make high resolution menus in DVD Lab Pro

[caesarhawy]

Hi there...
could any body please tell me if there's a way to keep the menus in high
resolution..I mean when I was authoring a dvd in DVD Lab-Pro I used a very high resolution pics in the menus..but when I played it on my dvd player and on my pc...the menus were so noisy and seemed very low in resolution
so what am I doing wrong..

THANKS IN ADVANCE..
CAESAR

[lordsmurf]

Menus are encoded to DVD spec video.

[guns1inger]

Resize your images in photoshop to 720 x 540 for dvd lab pro

[caesarhawy]

Do you mean that I have to resize my 1200×1600 image to 720 x 540 and they will seem better in DVD Lab-Pro???..

THANKS

[mats.hogberg]

If you resize the pic to the apropriate size yourself, instead of letting DVD-Lab do it, you at least have a chance to see how it will look before the deed is done...

/Mats

[thecoalman]

Apply a soft blur to it too, TV's don't like sharp edges. Avoid using any "pencil thin" lines.

[caesarhawy]

Well..I got it..but I still have big problem in the resolution of the image when it's compiled into a dvd menu..I mean it doesn't look like the image before I compile the dvd,not at all..
THANKS

[thecoalman]

..I mean it doesn't look like the image before I compile the dvd,not a

In what way? Realize that the image you are woking with as a source when resized to DVD spec is going to be a lot lower resolution than the original resolution you are using. You are going to lose a lot of detail. That's why it's prudent to work with images that are within the specs you need to begin with so you can get an idea of what it's going to look like.

To put it into perspective for you this is a representation of what 720x480 (the grey area) compared to the resolution you have mentioned above which is the entire image. Note that this image is not full size.



If you are referring to the aspect (bals are no longer round) you have to resize keeping the aspect.

The noisness you mention can be alleviated by blurring the images slightly as I mentioned above. TV's don't like hard edges, thew like soft edges.

[mikiem]

"I mean it doesn't look like the image before I compile the dvd,not at all.."

Well, besides any size/noise issues it often won't, because TVs are a distant cousin of the PC monitor, & that's what DVDs were designed for.

If the problem is related to color changing, you might try NTSC/PAL filters in P/Shop etc.. For the best shot at using your image as is, maybe resize and encode as a few second m2v using full PC color range, and import that into DVD authoring app. -- but it may not play correctly on your TV, and even your software player may alter it a bit anyway.

Until everything's HD, perhaps better to design to/for the medium rather then try to force it the other way around?