Text that is created in menu titles, button titles, etc. and even subtitle text must correspond to the original project quality they are authored in - Blu-ray full screen for example.
If you start authoring in one mode, and then bastardize the mode by switching to another - your text info will be very poor.

As for text in media, it must also correspond to the proper mode of render in VegasPro project which goes back to your earlier questions about delivery of the 4:3 frame within the 1920 x 1080 boundary. Be careful to make renders correspond to what you want in the final delivery within the authoring.

Thanks a lot VideoITguy.
I actually rejoiced too fast - the render on the TV looked poor again, it just looked good inside DVDA. I'll have to redo the text as you say, as I had started the project in the wrong mode and did not update the graphics when I switched to full HD.
Will give it another go tomorrow.

DVDAPro previews can tell you very little about the final authoring outcome.
1) Misleading audio play
2) Misleading mouse click navigation
3) Misleading hardware player navigation
4) Representation of text displays
5) Color fidelity and contrast can be off

When using 4:3 media ( like 8mm film transfer) it should be embedded in a full frame compatible Blu-ray format - occupying about 75% of the frame area and preferably centered. The resolution apparent of the film transfer will be finally relative to the quality of the transfer, but should look fair in this framing on Blu-ray.

Jeez, this is driving me nuts... my last burn seemed OK, but I had to change a coupla minor things in the chapters, and the templete background that DVDA 6 uses is not 1080, so of course it looked pixelled up. So I redid another one, and changed the background to a different 1920x1080 jpg, and the font of the buttons to courrier new 8p, inside the same full HD BD project and settings.
Now everything is totally pixelled again, the pics inside the buttons as well as the font, and the second menu page, for some obscure reason, is not there anymore on the disc. The media inside the buttons are jpgs taken as snapshots from the V13 timeline. They too are now extremely pixelled.
Strangely, DVDA tells me now that it needs to recompress my menus...when using a full HD jpg, why on earth does DVDA recompress it o SD ?
To clarify, my video is a full HD export from V13 using the BD 24 template, and everything inside the project is set to 1080 HD. The project is a new version created from scratch directly inside a new full HD project setting.


Again, all looks good and works perfectly as long as it's previewed inside DVDA.
Really don't know how to resolve this, as it just worked fine on the last burn. Any ideas?
thanks!

Here we go:

1) Every visual element in a DVD/BLu-ray authoring project is actually created as video. Meaning that a menu is created and authored into video even though it appears to be a static visual element, same with button graphics, etc. The lesson learned here is that what you HAVE turned into video had better be pure quality to begin with. Creating still frame captures out of a video from the VegasPro timeline is asking for trouble, because the still frame itself will be of poor quality on the outset.

2) Since the menu graphics are created as video - they have to be authored with the final destination in mind. That begins with authoring the project in the correct desired mode to start - for example creation of full screen Blu-ray. While it is tempting to author a project with re-purposing in mind (say to DVD after Blu-ray or vice-versa) - DON'T do it. You need to start with one intent and provide all media elements to fit and be contained within that authoring mode.

3) Again DVDAPro preview can be very mis-leading in the sense that I have stated before. Always consider the error messages received during authoring to be of higher priority than just what the "preview" does.

ThanksVideoITguy, I really do appreciate your help!

Ok, so this is what I did:
This is a full HD bluray 23,97p widescreen 16:9 project from the very start, I had already redone it from scratch as I had used the wrong mode the first time. So all is set right in the project properties.

OK, so I created a totally new menu, using one of the supposedly "HD theme templates".
Redid everything, chose a frame, a new font. Slightly enlarged the frame.
Remade the PITA 40 locator positions for 40 clips of one big video file.
Preview on my HD monitor: looks excellent. No pixelling, the snapshots inside the button frames look very good - why shouldn't they? Although being snapshopts from the V13 timeline, they still are SD sized 72dpi frames reduced to small buttons, maybe 1,5 inches square. I opened them in photoshop and they look just fine full size. I see no reason for DVDA whatsoever to pixel them up. I've used stills from the timeline in HD projects before, and they looked great full size.
As I said - things look great.
Burn disc - go to BD player and TV, everything, including the clips (!) now has square pixelations. The menu looks like ****.
Seriously, I don't get it anymore. My last BD project , a 2 hour jazz band gig with 4 cams, exact same procedures, complex menus, custom made buttons and whatnot, went well from start to finish. But this is just a complete mess.
This is what it looks like on my HD monitor preview: ( screenshot)

https://www.dropbox.com/s/6etq36ijnzlfxxq/menu-dvda.jpg?dl=0

it clearly shows that all the graphics have no trouble looking clean in full HD.

This is an iphone pic of my TV screen ( can't think of a better trick right now):

https://www.dropbox.com/s/hfndsleyuhz4gh6/photoTV.JPG?dl=0

So I don't understand what DVDA is doing to the graphics to degrade them so badly when it turns them into video. If DVDA actually thinks somewhere in the chain that this project is to be DVD sized , where in the chain is that info and why can't I seee or change it?

I seriously cannot think of any way I could do things differently to get a better result. I redid the whole menu from scratch.

These are the error messages concerning the menus:

Media is not compliant with disc format ( which media? where? why? how? )
Video format doesn't match project ( ??)
Media is cropped or adjusted ( well of course it is...)
Asset contains composited graphics ( well it's DVDA's own graphics... )

OK so I made a test: start new project, set to BD, HD etc . Choose random theme from menu.
Go do "optimize disk". Exact same error messages.

Post screen shots of the Project Properties within DVDA

here you go:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/9n7nj3h88grqlj9/projprop.jpg?dl=0

Mindmatter, you should be listening very very carefully.

Preview pipe from computer and the software to a big screen LCD display is NOT a big deal - no bag of tricks here. Consider a low-res .jpg file will look just fine!

BUT, BUT, BUT!!!!!

VERY DIFFERENT animal to consider - when you create a disc format - you are counting on the correct formula of authoring to get back thru a hardware (aha, and firmware) manipulation to display over an HDMI pipe from set-top player to a very large screen display. That is why you need to consider what we all have been telling you so far!

OK, so do I understand you right in that the issue is between my BD player and the TV and that I don't really much influence on that in the end?
So what is the solution in this case? My other BD project looks good , with the same workflow, using snapshots as thumbnails etc .

You only have control of the authoring process - nothing else.

Get rid of the thumbnail presentations and choose some other button master method - even text will even be better than what you are pushing.

I did the text in DVDA, with fonts from inside DVDA, as well as the buttons. They are not exterior imports.
I'll find something new, but I still don't understand why this is not turning out as it should .
tbh, I'll get another authoring software and give it a shot, just to see if it's DVDA's problem or not. I find this hard to swallow.
Thanks for taking the time to help tho, much appreciated.

If you are doing the same thing, but getting different results, something is wrong along the way. I don't see anything obvious though, so I don't know that I can help anymore at this point. Sorry.

Thanks Donald, your help was appreciated anyways.

Ok new situation...guess what? the menu is now clean.
I changed the font from 8p courrier new to 8p century schoolbook. and slightly resized the frames to smaller size. Looks perfect on TV now, the thumbnails are clean, so is the HD background.
When I go to "optimize disc" , I get the same old error messages, BUT, when I burn the BD and go through the steps, they don't appear anymore. Go figure.
I should add that i now burn in DVDA 5.2, not 6.

BUT...!

Now the menu doesn't work anymore in the player. I navigate to a button and press OK, and the player returns to its start / home page or the disc turns forever and nothing happens. I'll now try something I read somewhere, namely not to burn at 6x but 4x or 2x. I have a feeling there's something physically wrong with those verbatim discs or the way my ASUS burns them. A couple of BDs did not play at all in the player.

To be continued I guess.

UPDATE:

same project, burned at 4x in DVDA 5.2:
menu is clean, chapters now work...BUT:
they now don't return to the last played chapter on finish anymore, but to the first clip on page 1, or the link to page 1 on page 2. Although all is properly set to return to the last played clip on finish, and it worked before.

Can someone make sense of all this...because i can't. DVDA is seriously flawed IMHO.

No need to blame DVDAPro at all in the process of authoring discs for CD, DVD, and Blu-ray. It does have some long-standing bugs, but in fact it is not "flawed" in the least.

When the proper navigation, menu builds, with correct media imports are followed, and then the result of a good burn on good media played with a compatible set-top hardware/firmware combo - you will get exactly what you paid for.

There is no other DVD/Bu-ray authoring software that comes even close to the options and customization possible with DVDAPro for the price. NONE!

I guess you're right concerning DVDA and its competitiveness and options.

Just curious - what do you make of my issues described above? It's the same media, the same buttons, the same snapshot jpgs, the same video - I just changed the font and the whole menu quality changes?
Might the severe fluctuations in the menu functionality actually be a burn / disc issue?

Changing the font can change proportions of the menu and be careful of the button layout....

Gaining confidence with QA in burn disc issues:
1) Establish that the firmware of your burner is compatible with the disc media selected..
2) Always burn two discs for every critical test process - at ONLY 4x speed
3) Always test burn discs against a variety of set-top players - using one player / one test is not an adequate QA process
4) Recall what I have stated numerous times - DVDAPro preview is not an adequate process for any QA of any type...always set-top player ....

Will do from now on !

Thanks a lot for the advice and your help.

You will have more control if you do your text and graphics in Photoshop.
That said, some text aliasing is inevitable, but on BluRay it shouldn't be as bad as you decribed.

Definitely not...
I still wonder about the inricatcies of the whole BD authoring maze...how a font choice can force a total recompression and mess up a whole layout, why functionalities suddenly quit working from one burn to the next, why error messages aren't more specific etc etc...well now I got a second player for QC purposes, as well as rewritables from different makes...I'll see how the whole project evolves and I'm curious if I'll get everything to work properly.

There is an option in DVDA to save time, that will save previous temp files created during the burn DVD process. If DVDA does not recognize a change in a graphic or asset, it will use the previously created temp file. It could be that DVDA was still trying to use the files created at DVD specs until you changed the font. Then it recreated it correctly.

You can turn this option off.