DVDSP Button Activation and TV playback quality loss

[Filip Kubiš]

Hey,

Is there any reason to create menu in FCP? I do not know about any good reason to do this. You shpuld create your menu in PS for instance. There you can set the picture settings do DVD NTSC and it will automatically set the defaults for a DVD authgoring. Than also have a look at the PS plugin in my signature (the anti-aliasing)…

I do believe this is how you get the est quality for the menu (but thats me). You can use the buttons from DVDSP, the should work, but if you want to be more PRO 😉 you will create a PS psd in which you will have one layer with the overlays. This you should really find in a manual I do not want to explain basics…

As far as best quality is consirned, when going from HD to SD (7D, 5D) you should definitelly finish editing in FCP with export to Apple Prores 422. Putting that to compressor will give you best results (or lets say best downscale). What kind of bitrates you shloud use for the video, once again have a look at my signature for a bitrate calculator wich will advice you what is safe to use…

Good luck and RTFM 🙂

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________
DVD bitrate calculator: HERE
DVD Bit Budgeting tool: HERE
Dual-Layer Break tutorial: HERE
Anit-aliasing PS plugin: HERE
Other very useful stuff: HERE

[Kirk Lito]

Thank you Filip! All very valuable info.

See the image I have attached of my main menu? The image in the center is clips from my movie playing on a loop.
I created the menu in FCP cause I figured it would be the easiest way for me to size the screen in the middle of the menu and also dial in the audio I want playing in this menu. So that was my thinking, that I will have the video and audio functionality already built into the menus that way they are ready to go when I import them into DVDSP. It worked quite well aside from the buttons being unrecognizable to DVDSP. would the simple fix be to simply set buttons on top of “Play Movie” “Chapters” etc.so that the buttons speak DVDSP’s language?

If I were to go the PS route and create my same menu skin with multi layered buttons as you advised, how would I then plug my video image into that in DVDSP and have it framed the same way I had it in FCP?
If I’m missing large portions of the basics that would explain that process, can you please the best resource/manuals that break that process down best?

I completely understand your info on exporting to Pro Res and selecting correct bit rates. I will look closely at that and I’m sure it will improve quality like you said. Is there any particular reason why Pro Res 422 is the way to go vs. MOV. full res?
Once exported in Pro Res, do you feel like the Compressor presets are good for DVDSP compression?
The bit rate adjustment is made in DVDSP correct?

Thanks you for you patience Filip! I have a lot to learn but am very motivated to do whatever it takes to educate myself where needed. Thanks for the advice.

K

[Filip Kubiš]

[Kirk Lito] “See the image I have attached of my main menu? “

To be honest not really good. Please try to upload somewhere and send me the link. But from what I see, I would still do it in PS.
1. Create a psd in PS with the background, menu “buttons” (Play Movie, Chapters) and a rectangle for your menu-video ALL IN ONE LAYER.
2. Create another psd in PS with only the overlays ALL IN ONE LAYER. By overlays I mean the graphical shapes showing where the selector is pointing at. I suggest using very simple shape such as simple underline. But for this have a look at DVDSP menual a bit more… (lookup overlay menus in DVDSP manual)
3. In DVDSP create a drop zone (it is in top right pannel) and drop your video there.

Now I am not sure if the dropzone will take care of the audio aswell but if not, than in the MENU settings you can set an audio file to play in background of the menu.

There you go. You ve got visually what you want but technically sane solution 🙂

[Kirk Lito] “Is there any particular reason why Pro Res 422 is the way to go vs. MOV. full res?”
With Apple Proress 422 you will get .mov aswell. MOV is only a container. The important thing is what codec you use. And I do not know exactly why, but many people will confirm that when downscaling from HD to SD you will get better results using Apple Proress 422 codec to export the video from FCP and than encoding it via Compressor (not directly from FCP to Compressor, but exporting first).

As far as educating yourself, that will only do you good. What I can recomend you is Lynda.com. It is very fast course of the simplest things you will do in DVDSP. Than just read alot here at COW you will find EVERYTHING here. Really even if you google anthing as far as DVD Authoring if consirned the first result will mostly be COW 😉

Good Luck

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________
DVD bitrate calculator: HERE
DVD Bit Budgeting tool: HERE
Dual-Layer Break tutorial: HERE
Anit-aliasing PS plugin: HERE
Other very useful stuff: HERE

[Kirk Lito]

Thank you Filip, very helpfull stuff. I will pursue all of those options.

The Pallete in my DVDSP has no library of templates, buttons, etc.
My Company installed it legit but not sure why there is no library.
Is there anywhere to download the default contents of the palette library?

I posted a low res version of my current MOV menu here
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yyoxGHCa8Xo

Please let me know if any of your previous instructions would change now that you’ve seen it.

Thanks a ton!! All this is a lifesaver.

K

[Filip Kubiš]

Yep, what I sayed still is what I believe to be the way to do it correctly.

This should be your psd 1 with backgrounds etc.

This should be the other one. just a layer in solid colour.

But really do lookup this one in a menual or at Lynda.com as I sent you before. It is a good investment.

I will not be explaining you how to do a menu in DVDSP, you should do that one 🙂

As far as drop zone is consirned I really do not know if it is a built-in part of DVDSP or some content pack. But I do believe it is…

And above that I do not want to anyhow isult you really, no bad blood, but you should maby hire someone with to do experience to do authoring. It is not that simple. I just dont like people getting into any kind of trouble 😉

Good luck!

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________
DVD bitrate calculator: HERE
DVD Bit Budgeting tool: HERE
Dual-Layer Break tutorial: HERE
Anit-aliasing PS plugin: HERE
Other very useful stuff: HERE

[Kirk Lito]

Filip

All this was solved by simply importing my MOV into PS3, switching to window>animation, adding my overlays (2 per button, same color as background), turning off all overlay layers, file>export>render video as pro res 422 out of ps3, into compressor for DVDSP ready settings. Then go back into PS3 turn on only the overlay layers, rasterize them all, and save as jpeg.

I then imported the compressed MV2/AC3 and overlay jpg into DVDSP.
This allowed everything to work perfectly and keep the same formatting that I set up in FCP.

Only weird thing is PS3 made my 45 sec MOV only 10 sec.
Is there a duration limit for MOV imported into PS3?
Mine seam to be getting cut off at 10 sec. I’ll dig around in settings to see if its adjustable. I can live with it as is but it would be epic to have my whole MOV.

Anywho this seems to be the exact solution I was looking for all along. This link is what clued me in to even trying to import video into PS. Hope it helps someone else in the same boat.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TRiaik8eYfU

I couldn’t be more stoked but please do let me know if there is a way to un restrict the MOV duration imported into PS

Thanks!
K