One of my disappointments burning DVD's now is when I use dissolves, the the images break up a little because of the added compression. I work around this by minimizing my dissolves, but the work I do involves the use of many pictures which I put against moving backdrops. It's natural to use dissolves, particularly w/ slower music, etc.

My question is this: when we move to HD DVD burning, will this same problem persist? I look forward to seeing my stuff in HD on a DVD but I like to think that problem would be resolved somewhat. Is the amount of compression required going to DVD simply too much to overcome this?

Thanks.

What encoder are you using?

I use Compressor and choose DVD best quality MPEG 2, 2-pass. I'd love to know if there's a way to have the software compress less when the dissolves appear, but that seems a stretch.

Compressor is a lackluster MPEG encoder - especially earlier versions. Are you sure you're up-to-date with your install? Also, you may want to consider moving to a more discerning MPEG encoder. Both Main Concept and BitVice are superior MPEG encoders. I personally use BitVice for nearly every track encode.