I have some lower thirds with text (Franklin Book in regular and bold, 28 point) and a title (also Franklin but in 36 point).

When I view the timeline output on the PC screen or a production monitor, and when I render (either to AVI or WMV) and view through WM Player, it looks stunningly crisp. However, when I then burn it using DVD-A and view on a TV the text comes out horribly grungy. I've never noticed this happening before and I'm disappointed that it's happening on the most important project of my career to date!

Is this a hangover of first rendering to AVI then further converting to mpeg for the DVD (if so it's the first time I have detected any problems as severe as this) or are there other things I should be looking at in order to render perfect text?

As I say, it is ONLY when I'm viewing the DVD on a TV screen that the text looks so bad.

Project settings are DV PAL widescreen, a mixture of 25p and 50i footage, about 25 stills in various formats, rendering best, 8-bit. There are no effects on the text and it is static over a 35% composite lower third (with a fade up and down). Other effects in use in places on the project are Neat Video, MB Looks 3 beta 6, Color Curves, but none are used on the text.

Any thoughts, anyone?

Many thanks,

Ian . . .

An extremely handy trick is to double the resolution of your text in the now classic text generator. E.g., for PAL, change the Frame Size in the Generated Media dialog to 1440x1152 (1440x960 for NTSC) in an SD project. Same approach in an HD project - double the frame rez.

I've not worked through this stuff in ProTitler, but for the older text generator, which you may well be using on lower thirds, it's a lifesaver.

Another thing to avoid is very fine lines. Sans Serif fonts are best. If you must use a font with fine lines, make them as large as possible so the lines won't be so thin.

Thank you both.

I had never considered changing the frame size in the generator itself (in fact, after so may years with Vegas, I didn't know you could!). Great tip.

Seth - perfect! That did it. Many thanks.

Ian . . .