Scanned text for DVD looks horrible. at DVinfo.net

Darryn Carroll · December 24th, 2015, 09:18 AM

Scanned a musicals program and looks perfect on computer but crap on DVD. Files scanned at 400 dpi and resulting images are 2206 X 3400 and 2.5mb. I imagine the rendering and compression is causing this. I can rescan or resize if this may help. Thanks all.

Jeff Pulera · December 24th, 2015, 10:01 AM

DVD is always 720x480. Do you have movement on the image, like panning down the list of names (motion effect and keyframes), or is it just a still?

If still only, better off to take scan into Photoshop and make it match the video frame size, then the NLE is not scaling which can look bad when starting with hi-res source. If editing 1080, then use 1920x1080 pixels for the still.

Thanks

Seth Bloombaum · December 24th, 2015, 11:49 AM

Was it you who is editing in Vegas?

When scaling video or pix up or down, it's important to hit the custom rendering settings in Vegas and select "Best" rendering quality.

This has to do with what scaling method is used for the render. ("Good" is perfectly adequate and much faster when rendering at the same resolution as the source video.)

Noa Put · December 25th, 2015, 07:33 AM

Eventhough I don't use vegas I do the same as Jeff, resize in photoshop to match my project settings which is always 1080p and stills always look good that way.

Chris Harding · December 29th, 2015, 08:12 AM

I think that a lot of people who started using HD don't realise that SD footage does not have a 1:1 pixel aspect ratio as the pixels are actually rectangular so this would also distort the text ... as an example you need to make sure that you resize the image with the correct aspect otherwise any text will distort ...I can't remember the PAR for NTSC SD but with PAL footage the 720x576 video is actually stretched by the player to resolve a 1048 x576 picture not a 720 x 576 one ... the video frame has a physical aspect of 1.25:1 yet it needs to display at 1.777 : 1 hence the "non square" pixels. Darryn's image as large as it is, has the normal 3:2 aspect so it will be distorted on a DVD.

If you simply resize the image so it has a 1.777 aspect (assuming you have other 1920x1080 or 3840x2160 footage on the timeline) it will render correctly ..even to a DVD .... so cropping the still to 3400 x 1913 will stop it becoming stretched and the letters looking weird. That's why stills meant for NTSC DVD's were never 720x480 but actually 853 x 480 or any bigger image with the same ratio. If you crop and lose some text then it's best to drop the image onto a blank image that has the correct aspect as a new layer and then merge so you get all the text in with a small border around it.

December 24th, 2015, 09:18 AM	#1
Darryn Carroll Major Player Join Date: Nov 2009 Location: Norwood, MA Posts: 255	Scanned text for DVD looks horrible. Scanned a musicals program and looks perfect on computer but crap on DVD. Files scanned at 400 dpi and resulting images are 2206 X 3400 and 2.5mb. I imagine the rendering and compression is causing this. I can rescan or resize if this may help. Thanks all.

December 24th, 2015, 10:01 AM	#2
Jeff Pulera Major Player Join Date: Jun 2008 Location: Milwaukee WI Posts: 691	Re: Scanned text for DVD looks horrible. DVD is always 720x480. Do you have movement on the image, like panning down the list of names (motion effect and keyframes), or is it just a still? If still only, better off to take scan into Photoshop and make it match the video frame size, then the NLE is not scaling which can look bad when starting with hi-res source. If editing 1080, then use 1920x1080 pixels for the still. Thanks __________________ Jeff Pulera Safe Harbor Computers

December 24th, 2015, 11:49 AM	#3
Seth Bloombaum Inner Circle Join Date: Sep 2003 Location: Portland, Oregon Posts: 3,420	Re: Scanned text for DVD looks horrible. Was it you who is editing in Vegas? When scaling video or pix up or down, it's important to hit the custom rendering settings in Vegas and select "Best" rendering quality. This has to do with what scaling method is used for the render. ("Good" is perfectly adequate and much faster when rendering at the same resolution as the source video.) __________________ 30 years of pro media production. Vegas user since 1.0. Webcaster since 1997. Freelancer since 2000. College instructor since 2001.

December 25th, 2015, 07:33 AM	#4
Noa Put Inner Circle Join Date: Jun 2007 Location: Belgium Posts: 9,510	Re: Scanned text for DVD looks horrible. Eventhough I don't use vegas I do the same as Jeff, resize in photoshop to match my project settings which is always 1080p and stills always look good that way.

December 29th, 2015, 08:12 AM	#5
Chris Harding Inner Circle Join Date: Jul 2009 Location: Perth, Western Australia Posts: 8,441	Re: Scanned text for DVD looks horrible. I think that a lot of people who started using HD don't realise that SD footage does not have a 1:1 pixel aspect ratio as the pixels are actually rectangular so this would also distort the text ... as an example you need to make sure that you resize the image with the correct aspect otherwise any text will distort ...I can't remember the PAR for NTSC SD but with PAL footage the 720x576 video is actually stretched by the player to resolve a 1048 x576 picture not a 720 x 576 one ... the video frame has a physical aspect of 1.25:1 yet it needs to display at 1.777 : 1 hence the "non square" pixels. Darryn's image as large as it is, has the normal 3:2 aspect so it will be distorted on a DVD. If you simply resize the image so it has a 1.777 aspect (assuming you have other 1920x1080 or 3840x2160 footage on the timeline) it will render correctly ..even to a DVD .... so cropping the still to 3400 x 1913 will stop it becoming stretched and the letters looking weird. That's why stills meant for NTSC DVD's were never 720x480 but actually 853 x 480 or any bigger image with the same ratio. If you crop and lose some text then it's best to drop the image onto a blank image that has the correct aspect as a new layer and then merge so you get all the text in with a small border around it.