Menu test looking ugly on TV

[Ad_astra]

Hi,

I have this problem when what looks great on the computer looks ugly on TV. I use Photoshop to design menus and ReelDVD to author. The font is Times New Roman. I know that this may not be the best for menus, but san serifs are too minimalist for what I'm trying to do. Font sizes are from 24 to 90. The 24s look so small on TV that they are almost hard to read, and both sizes are kind of jagged at the edges. Some text is plain, some has styles such as drop shadow and outer glow to make it stand out better against somewhat spotty background (a b/w photo), some is warped. All look pretty bad. Other things that I have on the screen (such as scanned artifacts) look pretty decent. After doing searches on this here is what I've done to fix the problem (to no avail):

- render down each text layer individually to flatten the styles;
- use anti-aliasing on text;
- use smooth text from the character palette;
- re-size the image to 720x480.

There was hardly any difference. Would someone please help?

[guns1inger]

Post a shot so we can see what you are starting with.

[hexxisoft]

thats weird. i frequently use small font sizes on menus and can see them just fine. Sometimes I do white letters with 2 pixel black outline, and it sharpens it.