Need help with image specifications for a BASIC dvd menu

[cirving]

I made a lot of menus in the past grabbing stills from the movie I was creating a DVD for. Now I really want to make menus that don't look like garbage.

I have a friend who took a lot of pictures for me in Camera RAW format, and he's asking me what DPI I want them in, and what resolution size. What should I tell him?

720x480? I'm NTSC? I just want something that will plug in nicely to DVD-Lab. I don't care how big the file is, I want the image to look great on a TV. I see a lot of discussion about resolution all the time, but not about DPI. What do you guys suggest?

[thecoalman]

720x480 is all you need. DPI has nothing to do with images as far as video is concerned.

http://www.nepadigital.com/bb/viewtopic.php?t=140

[cirving]

Oh wow, thanks for the quick reply....

So what's the standard DPI then? Does there have to be a value or is there a checkbox to turn that sort of thing off?

(I know these are probably dumb questions, hehe).

Also, does 720x480 just have to do with dimensions of the image? Or is that also an indicator of quality? Is there a way to increase quality for a 720x480 image if you're coming from a raw file?

Does that make sense?

[thecoalman]

Oh wow, thanks for the quick reply....

So what's the standard DPI then? Does there have to be a value or is there a checkbox to turn that sort of thing off?

Follow the link above and all will be revealed...... 8) The quick explanation is there is no practical purposes for dpi except for scanning and printing. A 720x480 image at 72 dpi is the same image at 600dpi.

Also, does 720x480 just have to do with dimensions of the image? Or is that also an indicator of quality? Is there a way to increase quality for a 720x480 image if you're coming from a raw file?

720x480 is the actual size in pixels, it is not that big by digital image standards but it is the size of standard ntsc video. Image editors do a better job resizing images because that is what they are made for so resize it to 720x480 before you import it into your menu.

[cirving]

Thanks again!