I have revisited and investigated more closely the known problem of degraded picture quality in standard-definition DVD menus that have a still image background.

The menu having a still image background is degraded in two distinct ways:

(a) The menu becomes slightly pixellated; from the grabbed stills I took of the menu it appears that the pixellation is down to the rendering being performed at half-resolution in both the horizontal and vertical directions. So the resolution of the image produced (for PAL) actually seems to be only 360 x 288; this is then upscaled back to 720 x 576 for output and you can see the pesky little squares.

(b) The menu is darkened somewhat when compared with the original background graphic file and buttons etc.

When looking carefully in the preview within Studio's Edit window (play the menu full-screen with full-res previewing enabled) - the darkening of the menu does occur in the preview, but the reduction in image resolution does not. The image darkening effect is not new - I checked in Studio 10.8 and 11.1 and it's there in those earlier versions too.

I have attached two enlarged screen grabs from a small area of the Studio 12 stock menu "Seasons Fall main" - cropped from exactly the same area around the the start of the heading "Your Text Here". Both files were grabbed as bitmaps and then enlarged 4x using pixel resize so that the original frames' pixels are easier to see - and hopefully distorted as little as possible by the grabbing process.

i. In the first image - attached to this posting, the grab is from the menu after rendering; the pixellation gives the image a "coarse" look.
ii. In the second image - attached to the second posting, the grab is from exactly the same menu, but rendered after applying the workaround method of giving the menu itself a transparent background and putting the background on the title overlay track. The image shows no "coarseness".

Download the two images and place then side by side in an image editor and the darkening in image 1 also shows up nicely.

Regards,
Richard

And here is the second grab - exactly the same menu but rendered after applying the workaround.

Thanks for your efforts in explaining this to us I'm in the process of collecting these kind of issues to run it down with QA.

You probably already know this (I just came upon this thread) but the menu templates are horrible grainy in standard definition. My work-around is to create my own menu from scratch and then the quality is 100%. Create a text screen with at least one text box, move it up to the main video track, add some buttons, more text, a background still, etc. until the menu is complete. It is a little more work than dragging a pre-made menu to the timeline but my clients just wouldn't stand for that menu quality as it is today.

Larry

Studio 12 Ultimate build 12.1.3.6605

PuterMan:

...add some buttons, more text, a background still, etc. until the menu is complete...

How/where do you add your background still?

(a) By dragging it onto the overlay video track or title overlay track "underneath" the menu?
or (b) By setting the background while inside the title editor, editing the menu template (i.e. click 2backgrounds" (cactus) button, browse for backgrounds and pick the one you want from the gallery)?

If (a) - you are already applying the known workaround (even if you weren't aware that you were)
If (b) then that is potentially more interesting as you may have discovered another (different?) workaround
i. Is it a 4:3 or 16:9 menu?
ii. What kind of background image (.BMP, .JPG etc.) and what pixel dimensions?
iii. What kind of chapter buttons (normal or thumbnail) - and if thumbnail are you using motion thumbnails?
iv. Have you applied any video filters to the menu?
v. Is there anything on other video/title tracks that overlaps with the menu?

I'm pretty sure that the problem is not specifically to do with the stock menus; rebuild one of them using exactly the same assets but build it in the same way as you built your custom menu, and I think you'll find that it is no longer degraded...

Regards,
Richard

Might be a silly question or statement?  But why do we have to use work arounds or tricks to make this program work right???

That's sad!  The program should have the problems fixed before selling the product???????????????

 

My menu  NOW  PLAYING appears all grainy, but why don't the fix the product?

coolhanlder54:

Might be a silly question or statement?  But why do we have to use work arounds or tricks to make this program work right???

That's sad!  The program should have the problems fixed before selling the product???????????????

 

My menu  NOW  PLAYING appears all grainy, but why don't the fix the product?

The workarounds are there to allow you to use the program until the official fixes would come out.