Clean DVD Studio Pro menus?

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Level 1

106 points

Clean DVD Studio Pro menus?

I've never figured out how to get 'clean' DVD Studio Pro menus. It is as if the quality of the menu is sub-standard. Every year or so I ask in the forums about this ... if there is some way to get a quality that at least matches the MPEG 2 of the master that is being authored.

I've been through the app countless times to see if there is somewhere I can set the quality of the 'menu' ... nope, or I'm missing it somehow.

I've done my backgrounds the exact pixel size of the menu, I've included the text in the graphic, I've added the the DVD Studio Pro text, used their templates ... the end result is ALWAYS sub-standard.

I'm wondering if anyone has had similar issues ... and discovered a solution?

Or. If someone can recommend a Mac software DVD authoring app that can deliver nice clean menus ... ?

And that doesn't cost $2,500 if possible.

All ears,

Ben

MacBook Pro (15-inch Glossy), Mac OS X (10.6.8)

Posted on Nov 17, 2012 6:10 PM

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Answer 1

Best reply

Russ H

Level 7

22,432 points

Nov 17, 2012 6:39 PM in response to Ben Low

Suggestion: do an Adobe suite trial. See what you think the Encore menu quality. Or you can do a "rental" by choosing their Creativee Cloud product.

Good luck.

Russ

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Answer 2

Ben Low Author

Level 1

106 points

Nov 17, 2012 6:47 PM in response to Russ H

Hey Russ,

I was wondering about that. What is the rental thingie? I will go check it out. Not crazy about shelling out hundreds and hundreds of big bucks. Though once my FCP 7 (which I love) starts to not-work because of system upgrades, I'll probably move to Premier et. al. After being an utter fan and faithful since the inception of FCP. Sigh.

Much appreciated,

Ben

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Answer 3

Russ H

Level 7

22,432 points

Nov 17, 2012 6:57 PM in response to Ben Low

Certainly worth alook.

Russ

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Answer 4

Nov 18, 2012 5:53 AM in response to Russ H

I have never had issues with menu quality but I dont use the default settings.

how is the encoding preferences set up ?

try a few test builds to see the differences with your menus, changing the following:

use two pass VBR

reduce the max rate

test between better and best

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Answer 5

Nov 18, 2012 9:37 AM in response to Ben Low

Most DVD players will at some times (after a button is activated for example) only show a field rather than a frame of a menu. That's always gonna look nasty as your removing half the resolution.

I usually build menus in photoshop and bring them into dvdsp. You use the appropriate DV or DV widescreen format when you create a new document. Avoid thin and serif fonts and use simple hi-con overlays like underlines for button states. And use video safe colors and brightness levels. This should give you nice looking menus.

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