Bleed issues - image distortion - starting to panic!

Hi all -

I posted earlier this morning with this same problem - I apologize for posting again but I'm getting nowhere and I'm starting to freak. I've also read more throughout the day and believe my earlier post isn't accurate.

After Googling my brains out, I think the problem might be an issue with levels, but I cannot seem to figure it out.

Here's the short version of the issue:

I have graphics with a white background created in PhotoShop. Some have an alpha channel square hole, under which I have moving video. Others are just the plain white background. Both versions have thick colored lines on the left side.

With either version, when viewing through my TV monitor, there is a light shadow/band that emanates from the alpha box or from the text/images that are over the white background.

For example, when the text moves on, I see a sort of ghosting, and it distorts the graphic. It pushes the lines over so that they look warped.

If I display the plain background graphic with nothing over it, everything is fine. When I add text or images, the ghosting appears and the lines warp. The graphic with the alpha box always displays the ghosting, whether there's video under it or not. So can this be some kind of level/black issue? I've read so many posts about it my head is spinning.

I've tried the changing the sequence settings, rebuilding the graphics, changing the levels and the aspect ratios - nothing's working. Of course I'm running short on time.

I have noticed this distortion on other projects where I have no background as well - if there's moving text and a cropped box of video or still images, the image will have a warp in it.

I know this is probably not explained well enough - if anyone has any ideas, please contact me. I'll try to better explain it if I can - I'm just so sure I'm missing something obvious, and this whole video is based on these graphics. Hence the panic. =)

Thank you, thank you!!
Malyssa
lyswood@earthlink.net

have you tried changing the alpha type (modify > alpha type)?

and what app did your graphics come from?

You can also get this kind of distortion with a really bad or old, tired TV.

Make a DVD with your work and play it on Somebody Else's TV or go down to the Crazy Eddie's TV Emporium and make them play it there.

Koz

The graphics were made in PhotoShop - I've seen it happen without graphics as well, so I'm not sure it's them.

I've edited several things with "chapter breaks," if you will, where I take a photo and crop it/resize it, then have moving text - all on just a black background. A few times I have seen the upper corners of the resized image be distorted in this fashion.

Not sure what the heck that means or if it helps - thank you for your response!

Thanks for the response, Koz - I'll check on a third TV, but I've already tried 2 TVs, 2 players, same result. It's maddening. Seems like I'm missing something pretty simple, but I just can't figure out what. It looks fine when played on a computer screen - I went to show someone at work what it was doing and it was fine on the laptop. If I thought most of the end users would view on computers, I wouldn't worry about it, but most will use home DVD players. Ugh.

Any more thoughts?

ok here are some more fundamental questions. are the images RGB? are they more than 72 dpi?
ithe there a lot of pure (255,255,255) white in the images? that can cause similar symptoms

Any way you can post a screen capture of what it looks like? Even if we can't see the problem on a computer monitor.

Did you already try a Flicker filter? Anti-alias? De-interlace?


www.derekmok.com

I lean toward Wayne's suggestion. I see that on TVs whenever white levels are excessive. Try setting your white levels down a bit (less than 100% opacity or with a small amount of gray) in the graphics and see if that helps.

bob rice
frameworx media

I'll try it - I think I brought them down using the procamp, which probably isn't the way to do it. The gfx are RGB, 72 dpi and while I didn't think they were true white, perhaps they are. I'll check on that.

It does seem to be a contrast issue - maybe bringing down the white will do it. I thought I had tried that, but I bet I didn't.

I'll try that and if no luck, I'll try to get a screen shot of it somehow. I'm at my "real" job at the moment...it'll have to wait until tonight.

THANK YOU ALL for your suggestions!!!!

Fingers crossed...

Malyssa