On Fri, 25 Jan 2002 13:11:19 -0000, D and M wrote:

>I wonder if Adobe Premier (6) is notoriously bad at reproducing titles
>using its built in title editor and functions?
>
>I capture my DV footage from my Sony Digital 8 camera using Premier on a
>Sony Vaio laptop (via the iLink socket using Microsoft drivers), edit the
>footage and then output it again without problems to my Philips DVDR1000
>via the iLink input. I know this is pushing the Vaio to it's limits, but
>I don't think this is the cause of the problem because it is with the
>rendered quality of titles in the production of the video.
>
>It is most noticeable when I want to put smallish (24 point) captions and
>
>subtext overlayed on video clips. The edges are rough and in some
>instances render the text virtually unreadable. I've experimented with
>different masks and such like, but it doesn't appear to make any
>difference.
>
>As a final test this evening on one particularly difficult piece, I
>attempted to put white text in black box overlayed on the video clip. The
>white text was far from smooth with much pixelation, diffusion and jagged
>edges and the edges of the black box weren't cleanly defined either.
>
>This is supposed to be a digital end to end process so I can only assume
>it is due to extremely poor creation and manipulation of the data in
>Premier?
>
>Can anyone comment or help?

Mebbe.......;-)
Part of the problem is with Mini-DV itself, great as it is
in most ways. Getting clean keying is a bit of a challenge
with it, though... With text, it helps to select "screen
fonts", making them as large as possible, edging them
in black (using the drop-shadow at "2", repeated for at
least two opposite of the four possible directions), and
using colors that produce the cleanest text (avoid red
and orange). Other "tricks": avoid keying over motion-video,
(unless you use Ulead's CG Infinity, and import motion-video
into the titler), place titles over black (as you tried),
and import title panels from a drawing program (made
double-sized) instead of using Premiere's titler (though I
have had good results with the Premiere titler...).
BTW, if you are using software overlay on a computer
monitor for judging, the results may look softer for
everything than they will appear on a TV...