Mosaic Menu Video and Compressor Settings

I have 2 projects encoded the exact same way. I import them to dvd studio pro and built a menu using one as a part of the main menu. The other i used as the dvd content.

The content on the dvd is gently blocky ( at times you can see seemingly interlaced lines though the encode was progressive). Not horrible but it deserves another run thru.

The menu vid however is XTRA Blocky/Mosaic. Its almost like there is a stationary grid slightly distorting the lighter colors as they move. I.E. a man in a black suit with white shirt his collar appears to be jagged where it meets the jacket, and also seems to be effected to by this stationary clear grid.

I used the dvd template with the blue satin sheet and one drop zone.

Now these questions that could be ether in dvdsp forum or here.

In compressor

1. Is there some other type of aspect application or compression i would need to do if i know i am using it as a tile in a menu.

2. the footage is progressive scan before it gets to compressor in compressor3 i set it to mpeg2 to and on the quality tab i do best everything and progressive scan. One of the settings is line adaptation. Is there a such thing as too much line adaptation?

3. would jumping the anti-alias from 0 to say 3 help this?

DVDSP4

1. would the drop zone effect the quality of a 4/3 (720x480) movie due to the shrink to fit that happens?

2. Does dvd default to hd?

""" What you do with what you have, is more important than what you could do, with what you don't have."

> > > Knowledge + Action = Wisdom - J. Corbett 1992 """"

I have tried some different bit rates but its not helping.

""" What you do with what you have, is more important than what you could do, with what you don't have."

> > > Knowledge + Action = Wisdom - J. Corbett 1992 """"

Was compressors alga rhythms changed? Is it encoding differently than the previous version?

""" What you do with what you have, is more important than what you could do, with what you don't have."

> > > Knowledge + Action = Wisdom - J. Corbett 1992 """"

What was you encode target bit-rate?

5.2 with a 7.2 max in compressor

In dvdsp it is default preset.

I see the mosaic/jagged edges as soon as i add it to the menu. The main content is that way also but not as bad even though they were encoded the same.

looks the same after the burn.

i am sure that it is in compressor that i am having the problem.

""" What you do with what you have, is more important than what you could do, with what you don't have."

> > > Knowledge + Action = Wisdom - J. Corbett 1992 """"

In my opinion, you are causing this by letting the bit-rate swing WILDLY. Setting between average and max should only go 1.5 max swing.

The mosaic you are talking about is some device cannot decode the MPEG stream fast enough. While you can play ANY stream on a computer, you can not do the same on a DVD Player.

Lots of DVD Players will do this with content encoded above 6.0 Mbps because the hardware decoder can not keep up. This is when the mosaic pixel loss starts happening.

Dropping pixels in digital video is the same as getting lines in the video in analog video. Loss of information to display.

Using Compressor properly will give you the best MPEG content.

You are correct. I am seeing what could be described as accented interlaced lines. i.e. a man wearing a black suit with a white shirt. The suit looks ok but the collar looks like a mess of lines around the edges that met the fresh tones.

i was thinking about antialiasing and everything but bit rate.

In the old compressor2 the average bit rate was 5.0 with a max of 7.5 and i got supreme results from that.

The new compressor3 is default to 5.1 average and 7.2 max, But not nearly as good as elegant of a result.

what would you suggest as the average and max bit rate to get a better result from compressor3?

also would the anitalias bumped up a to say 3 help?

""" What you do with what you have, is more important than what you could do, with what you don't have."

> > > Knowledge + Action = Wisdom - J. Corbett 1992 """"

I usually go with average of 5.5 and Max of 6.0 using 2 pass along with exporting audio as ac3.

This is if the content is under 1 hour. Over 1 hour I would drop the average to 4.5 and max to 5.5 or less depending on the final size of the MPEG-2 file. Encode bit-rate determines the final size of the files. slower = smaller,etc.

You see, the bit-rate speed doesn't always guarantee better quality. Encoding is a balance between quality and file size, without overloading the decoder hardware. IE: Set Top DVD Player