DVDauthorGUI gifMasks transparency?

[chewie8008]

I'm trying to create my own gif to be used as a button on the menu of my DVD. Obviously it's a very simple process to create one and just throw in the folder. My problem is that I want the image to have no background and cannot seem to get it to do so. I have Photoshop, and when I save the file(that is transparent and has no BG) as GIF it will only let me 'save as copy' and includes a background. All of the options are unselectable. I read the help file for DVDauthorGUI and it says you can do it, and says to just save as GIF w/o bg, but my Photoshop will not allow it. I have checked the settings within Photoshop and can't find anything to adjust. I know it's possible, what am I missing?


Whenever I save as GIF on Photoshop the only option is 'Compuserve GIF' is that some sort of different varation? There is no save as format that is labeled simply GIF...

Also, one other thing, does DVDauthorGUI produce final menus as a movie file? I noticed whenever I clicked on preview, it seemed to change my background(which is just a jpg image) into some sort of lossy format, it seemed very blurry and not as clean of a look as I had created. Maybe that's just for preview only???

[chewie8008]

Ok, just figured it out. Just in case anyone ever comes across this and is wondering how to do it. Go to image>mode>indexed color and that should solve the problem...

Thanks!

[borax]

Hi chewie8008,
I'm glad that you could figure it out yourself. I don't have Photoshop myself, therefore I would not be able to help you.
Concerning 'final menus as a movie file':
Yes, menus are just mpeg2 movies and are created by an encoder (HC/Quenc for animated menus and png2yuv/mpeg2enc or muxman for still menus. GfD (from the described problem I can assume that GUI for dvdauthor is meant, not DVDauthorGUI which is a different program) also shows animated menus in the preview as 'final encoded movies', still menus are handled internally. If it is really very blurry, it could be that you have enabled Blur and the Blur parameters are to high. See: http://download.videohelp.com/gfd/Help/UsingBlur.html

[dphirschler]

FWIW, Compuserve is the owner of the gif file format. All gif files are "compuserve" gifs. It's the same as Zsoft pcx file format.

In Photoshop, when you go to save a file as a gif, it should automatically prompt you to reduce the colors to 256/indexed. The indexed palette simply means that each of the 256 colors defined for that image are in a table within the gif file. In a gif with transparency, one of the colors is flagged to be transparent. So there is physically a color painted there, but it should not display.


Darryl

[dadrab]

I noticed whenever I clicked on preview, it seemed to change my background(which is just a jpg image) into some sort of lossy format, it seemed very blurry and not as clean of a look as I had created. Maybe that's just for preview only???

Follow Borax's advice and check that Blur setting, of course. I always save my background images as bitmaps. JPEG is, by design, a lossy format meant to reduce the size of a picture file for ease in web posting and emailing. To get a nice crisp picture for a background, you'll need some good resolution to your photo. I tend to use VirtualDubMod to make screenshots and save them as bitmaps. They will import into GUIforDVDAuthor very nicely.

[chewie8008]

Yes, GUI for DVDauthor is what I have. I tried some of the suggestions here and had little result. I checked the blur settings, the box for blur was unchecked, meaning no blur was used. I also went back and saved my background image for the menu as .bmp and it still looks about the same. It just has a lot more noise than the original image I have created on Photoshop.

Another problem i'm having is, I created a final dvd and when I play it on certain DVD players the audio for the main menu loops over and over at 6 seconds into the song... I have a little cheap Sanyo DVD player and it works as it is supposed to on it. I also tested it on Windows Media Player on my PC and the audio for the menu works perfect. However, I have tried it on two other DVD players and the audio will loop 6 seconds into the song, over and over. I checked my settings and can't figure it out. I have a still image background w/ audio. So I have it set at 1 frame. The time for the menu to run is 124 seconds(the length of the song). Double checked everything and can't figure it out...

Any ideas?

[borax]

No idea. Are you using dvdauthor or MuxMan as engine?

[chewie8008]

Well, I fixed the problem with the looping audio on the menu. Not sure what I did exactly, just changed around the preset options so much, i'm not sure which one did it. Anyways, so I fixed that.

Still not sure why the menu is kinda grainy like that, but I guess i'll have to live with it. It's not horrible, but definetely isn't as clear as the original image I created for the background.

I am using DVDauthor as the engine.

Thanks for all the help.

[borax]

As it is 'compressed' (to mpeg2) during encoding, it can't be as clear as the original image. Mpeg2 is just a kind of jpeg compression and even with the highest quality you will have some loss.

I'm glad that you could fix the looping audio problem.

[chewie8008]

So then is that the only way GUI for DVDauthor does menus(mpeg2) format?

That kinda sucks, but then again, you can't expect the best for free.

[borax]

No, every (normal - not DivX) DVD is in the mpeg2 format (independent if it is a menu or a movie and independent from the authoring application)! The only way to improve quality is to use a very good encoder and a high bitrate (set up your own HC ini file and use animated menus to get the highest possible quality).