Comments

Erk wrote on 9/12/2003, 3:44 PM
I can't provide a definitive answer, but I'll chime in to hold you over til someone knowledgeable shows up:

Yes, I think there is a problem with pure red text on DV. You're not alone, I've noticed it. You can help make all your text better by using san serif fonts. There's some other techniques that might help as well.

Greg
TheHappyFriar wrote on 9/12/2003, 3:55 PM
There's a problem with ANY pure color on TV (except black). Tone down your Red from 255 to 200. That should be good.

If you look at your waveform monitor, oyu'll see the reds are "hot." That's just TV. Sorry.
taliesin wrote on 9/12/2003, 4:08 PM
This is due to any dv-codec. A mixture of the color-downsampling and the special dv compression. DV ist not optimized for graphics but for real video only. Any pure color graphics with hard edges looks bad if rendered to any dv codec. Worst case for PAL DV is green graphics on red background.

Marco
BillyBoy wrote on 9/12/2003, 4:31 PM
While written for VHS, the following guidelines also have merit for any type of video project. Worth the five minutes or so to read, (add pinch of salt) if you're not aware of these problems.

http://www.llnl.gov/icc/sdd/img/guidelines.shtml#overview

Also, if you want crisper text on a TV, use larger sized fonts, no lower than 18 points and stay away from the fancier font famlies. You're not impressing anybody if you use a fancy font that ends up looking fuzzy on the TV screen. Also avoid overly strong contrasts. Surprise... it may look good on your computer monitor, it may look like sh.. on a TV.

If you don't know the difference between sans-serif and serif fonts, check out this page for some interesting history and how things came to be and why.

http://www.webreference.com/dlab/9802/sansserif.html
craftech wrote on 9/15/2003, 7:54 AM
You can download True Type fonts at sites such as 1001fonts.com. Some of them may appeal to you better. Just add them to the fonts folder in the Windows directory.

Also, you should display on an external monitor. That way you can drop down the menu in the effects filter you are using and use the Down Arrow key to scroll through the fonts and watch them appear on the TV/Monitor.

I have found that for virtually any font, using a shadow effect behind it improves its appearance on the TV screen. It's a common practice in the industry.

John
Jsnkc wrote on 9/15/2003, 9:52 AM
Also, use your scopes! They are a great way to see if your video levels are too high. Even on the default SoFo white text, the white levels are over 100%. You need to drop the levels down to about 90% to make it under 100.