6 replies to this topic

[Bradford Caslon]

I've created personal menu backgrounds (JPG files) that I want to use. I've made them in various sizes (from 2000 px wide to 800 px wide) trying to find a best match for MyDVD10 Premier. When I change out the menu, I right-click on the image and then select "change menu background". My image comes in but is very low quality (appears to be maybe 320px wide at 100%). Is there any way to improve this? See my crop below, where I show a sample of each image.
The only difference between each image is that one is screen captured from photoshop and the other from MyDVD10 Premier.

Edited by Bradford Caslon, 15 May 2011 - 12:45 PM.

[myguggi]

Bradford Caslon, on 15 May 2011 - 12:40 PM, said:

I've created personal menu backgrounds (JPG files) that I want to use. I've made them in various sizes (from 2000 px wide to 800 px wide) trying to find a best match for MyDVD10 Premier. When I change out the menu, I right-click on the image and then select "change menu background". My image comes in but is very low quality (appears to be maybe 320px wide at 100%). Is there any way to improve this? See my crop below, where I show a sample of each image.
The only difference between each image is that one is screen captured from photoshop and the other from MyDVD10 Premier.

menusample.jpg

Resolution of source photos is immaterial - they all get converted to a resolution of 720x480 if you are creating a standard HQ DVD.

[Bradford Caslon]

myguggi, on 15 May 2011 - 01:07 PM, said:

Resolution of source photos is immaterial - they all get converted to a resolution of 720x480 if you are creating a standard HQ DVD.

You can't take an image and reduce its size, then take it back up again and hold the detail. As an experienced Photoshop user, I disagree with this hypothesis. I contend that when the background menu is changed, the resolution has been reduced way down.

Here's someone explaining the phenomenon. See paragraph "Resizing and Image Quality".

[myguggi]

Bradford Caslon, on 16 May 2011 - 07:40 AM, said:

You can't take an image and reduce its size, then take it back up again and hold the detail. As an experienced Photoshop user, I disagree with this hypothesis. I contend that when the background menu is changed, the resolution has been reduced way down.

Here's someone explaining the phenomenon. See paragraph "Resizing and Image Quality".

I don't understand the point of your post. I know you can't get the quality back after you change the image size.

What I said is that myDVD changes all resolution to the DVD standard of 720x480 for NTSC and 720x576 for PAL. It doesn't matter what your source size is. I don't know where you got your 320  pixel width.

Edited by myguggi, 16 May 2011 - 07:53 AM.

[Bradford Caslon]

When one changes the menu background image, the quality of the new image is not good. Notice my images above--one version of the image is taken from the menu screen in MyDVD10 and one has not. The background image now showing is obviously less resolution, at that point, BEFORE finalizing a DVD. Some process has reduced the quality of the background menu image when one chooses to use their own image.

The estimated 320px was a guess.  Click on "Change Menu Style" on the left hand side, then pass the cursor over any of the choices. Notice that for all choices the attributes are 160px by 120px, 72dpi. Why such lousy resolution? If you want to use the menu in 720px mode the quality of the menu will still be awful. My guess is that it was done in an effort to keep down the byte count.

So what can be done to have a "bigger" menu?  Anything?

[sknis]

Bradford Caslon, on 16 May 2011 - 05:59 PM, said:

When one changes the menu background image, the quality of the new image is not good. Notice my images above--one version of the image is taken from the menu screen in MyDVD10 and one has not. The background image now showing is obviously less resolution, at that point, BEFORE finalizing a DVD. Some process has reduced the quality of the background menu image when one chooses to use their own image.

The estimated 320px was a guess.  Click on "Change Menu Style" on the left hand side, then pass the cursor over any of the choices. Notice that for all choices the attributes are 160px by 120px, 72dpi. Why such lousy resolution? If you want to use the menu in 720px mode the quality of the menu will still be awful. My guess is that it was done in an effort to keep down the byte count.

So what can be done to have a "bigger" menu?  Anything?

You are relying on the preview - don't.   It is not representative !   Your are also over analyzing the process.

Use the image that you have on your computer without reduction of size or pixel.

For a test, add an  image as the background  and  add one movie or image to the menu.  Burn (encode)  the test project to an image file (ISO).  Don't forget to name it  and select as easy place to have it made.   Download the free VLC player (Cnet.com) and play that ISO file.  You will see that it is the same resolution as the movie.  720 by 480.

Any higher resolution  (720 or 1080) would require you to make a AVCHD or a blu-ray disc.  Will you be doing that?

The images I use are typically  PhotoShopped  adjusted,  ca 3mb, at the resolution that came out of the camera.

Edited by sknis, 17 May 2011 - 03:52 AM.

[Bradford Caslon]

"For a test, add an image as the background and add one movie or image to the menu. Burn (encode) the test project to an image file (ISO). Don't forget to name it and select as easy place to have it made. Download the free VLC player (Cnet.com) and play that ISO file. You will see that it is the same resolution as the movie. 720 by 480."

I did that, and the image appears to be better--I used Zune HD (720p) as my output choice for the menu and movie file. Perhaps if I upgrade the output to a 1080p file it will work OK.

Thanks for the suggestions.  As an aside I was able to play the file by creating an emulated disk (Tools, Load disc Image), selecting the .iso file, then in Windows Media Center(WMC) selecting DVD under Movies Menu. Also it worked when I went through Windows Explorer and copied back the VIDEO_TS files off the emulated drive to a folder I'd added in WMC.