Blurry overlaid text

kunal wrote on 10/5/2009, 7:36 PM

I'm overlaying a couple of lines of text on video using the ProType titler. Source footage is 1080-60i. Frame size for the Titler is 1440x1080.

I've tried the default font size of 2.0 with the Candara font and various combinations (drop shadow applied, font weight set to normal/bold, sharpen filter of 0.0/0.2 added to the titler) but the resulting font is extremely blurry and out-of-focus when the MPEG-2 SD DVD is played on a 720p projector. The font is crisp when the DVD is played on an LCD monitor. I also tried the old text media event but got roughly the same results.

Any ideas what to try to improve sharpness? To see if it's something with the projector, I tried a different DVD of my earlier movie (shot from SD footage and edited on FCP by a friend) and the fonts looks crisp on that one, so I think I'm somehow not having the right settings.

Thanks for any help...

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kunal wrote on 10/7/2009, 10:34 AM

Hi Laurence,

Not sure if I understood your note about text render.

"The text should not be going through any sort of deinterlace filter. It should just be rendering out at the target resolution. For example, if you render an HD 1440x1080i version, load that into a new Vegas timeline, and downrez that to DVD resolution, your text won't be nearly as sharp as if you rendered the SD mpeg directly from the original timeline."

What I'm doing is -
1) In a 1080-60i project, I have my video clips. I insert a new track above the video clip and insert generated media on that new track. This generated media is 2880 x 2160. On that media track, I use Protype to overlay my text.

2) I render the .veg project (video + text) as one .mpg file using the MPEG-2 template for DVD NTSC widescreen with interlace set to blend in the project properties.

3) I import that .mpg into DVDA to burn a DVD.

I think I'm doing what you're suggesting (rendering the SD mpeg directly from the timeline) but just want to make sure. Thanks..

Laurence wrote on 10/7/2009, 10:56 AM

Your workflow sounds fine.

Laurence wrote on 10/7/2009, 11:15 AM

How about this for an idea: give up on the downrez and buy yourself a http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=8993217&st=wd+media+player&lp=1&type=product&cp=1&id=1218008588808WD media player[/link] to use with your projector.

If your projector has an hdmi input you can see the video in high definition. If it doesn't the WD media player downrez looks really good through component. If you still want HD and all your projector has is VGA inputs, you could buy an http://www.consoleshop.com/product.php?productid=20586#votesHDM to VGA cable[/link]. I am seriously looking at getting one of these myself.

As far as the WD Media Player goes, it really is fantastic. I have a couple of them: one on my living room TV and one velcroed to the base of a portable LCD HD TV I use when I need to show a video in an average sized room somewhere. The WD player has two USB inputs. In the living room I have one USB port connected to a 500GB hard drive and I can pop a thumb drive in the other to check renders. On the portable setup I just use a thumbdrive.

kunal wrote on 10/7/2009, 11:23 AM

My projector has an HDMI input, so I could test the video on the WD player in hi-def but I'm really testing the DVD on the projector so as to get an idea of how it would look on other projectors (I'll be submitting it to film festivals).

Regarding your earlier idea of displaying the laptop on the projector, I was thinking of getting a VGA cable for that display (I don't have an HDMI port on my laptop but I guess I could get a VGA-> HDMI cable...). I think it would help me decide which variables make the font look relatively less blurry.

Laurence wrote on 10/7/2009, 11:40 AM

Well the WD player would look extremely good connected to your projector over HDMI for your own showings.

I am pretty sure that HDMI to VGA connectors are a one way conversion and won't work in reverse.

For film festivals I can see why you would want as good a DVD as possible. You might still want to see what formats they accept. If they would accept a data mp4 on a DVD-R that would looks a heck of a lot better than the best SD DVD render.