Blurry Text

DNBVideo wrote on 8/22/2008, 6:15 PM
I am working on my first project on this program so please bear with me. My text is turning out blurry, inlcuding on the final project on the DVD playback on TV. The text methods I am using are credit boxes, text boxes and text overlay and all are turning out blurry. My husband's project turned out clear. I have searched the help on the program as well as this forum and am not seeing anything addressing this. Any thoughts or ideas on this?

Comments

Chienworks wrote on 8/22/2008, 6:57 PM
A few things to check/try while we're waiting for the better text brains to contribute ...

Are you using strong color contrast, such as red text on a blue background? DV and low resolution MPEG don't handle color contrast well. Pick more compatible colors or reduce the saturation.

Are you using a more delicate font? Thicker, bolder lines will seem less blurry in video than thin traces will.

You could try setting the properties for the text events to double the project resolution. If your project is 720x480 try setting a text event to 1440x960. This gives Vegas more data to work with so it can render the text more accurately.
richard-amirault wrote on 8/22/2008, 7:35 PM
I don't know about the "better brains" bit ;-) .. but ..

You are not giving us much to work with. How about telling us what font you are using, the font size, and the "frame size" at the top of the box where you enter the text?
DNBVideo wrote on 8/22/2008, 9:21 PM
Sorry about that. Let me clarify that this is a slide show only, no video.

Credit Box:
Arial 20
Frame Size 320X240

Text Box:
Arial 20 & 36 Bold
Frame Size 320X240

Overlay Text
Arial 14
Frame Size 320X240
This one alternates from white words with black words with white outline and white words with black outline.
The feather is on 0 and width .o72
The Shadow is on .018 - both X is 0 Y offset is .030

I have played around with the size and feathering hoping to make a difference. I looked only at one or two other fonts, perhaps I need to explore more with that.

OKAY! We are playing with the resolution. It seems to make a little bit of a difference. This is probably a dumb sounding question, but how do I determine the project resolution?

Thanks, I'll play around with the information I have so far.

Chienworks wrote on 8/23/2008, 5:02 AM
320x240 <-- that's your culprit! That's web video resolution, not DVD resolution. Under File / Project Properties tell us what you have it set for. When you're making DVDs you should probably start with either the NTSC DV or PAL DV template, depending on where on this planet you are. NTSC is 720x480 and DV is 720x576. If this isn't what the project is set for then please change it now.

Unfortunately changing the project properties won't change the settings for text events that are already on the timeline. You'll have to open each one up individually and change them one at a time to match the project resolution, or twice the project resolution.
DNBVideo wrote on 8/23/2008, 10:01 AM
My Project Properties shows the Template to be: Custom (320x240, 29.970fps). I changed the project to NTSC DV Widescreen (720x480, 29.970 fps) and then I changed a text event and see a HUGE difference. So, I'll go through and change each text event individually as you suggested.

I'll be out of town for the next few days and will continue to work on it when I return. I appreciate the help.