Have you seen this?!!

http://movies.yahoo.com/feature/piratesofthecaribbeanatworldsend.html

This is the most beautiful, vivid, online demo I've ever seen. Granted the cinematography is untouchable, but how do I get that picture quality for my HD online demos with such a fast load time? Here's what I've got currently:

http://legacyhdv.com/Tammy_and_Rowan_Low_Res.htm

The opening graphic is 300dpi, yet looks horrible both online and on DVD. The video itself looks second rate. Help!

-Dana

Using FX1s, Vegas 7, DVD Architect, rendering 720p at high quality. With what settings can I get the results of the trailer?

I downloaded the 720p version of Pirates and checked the specs. See attached.

They used H264, progressive 24P (23.98fps), @ 6.5Mbps, audio is AAC Stereo, 48Khz.

You can use compressor on a mac to set the same settings for your encode, or try Quicktime Pro on XP (http://www.apple.com/quicktime/pro/win.html). 2-pass H264 encoding will look the best and be the most efficient.

Windows Media HD is also very efficient when set up properly.
Progressive will look much better than interlaced, 24P will be more efficient than 60i. The 2.35/2.40 aspect ratio also makes the file more efficient because of no wasted "letterbox" space.

Thank you Tim!