Creating DVD match frames for menus

[johnhess001]

I want to create a seamless transition from a video that will dissolve into the menu frame of a DVD. But the last time I did this, I got a noticeable pop between the video and the match frame of the DVD menu.

Now I'm using Adobe Encore CS3 for my DVD mastering. I'll be moving to CS4 once the 4.0 finishes downloading but not on this project.

I think the issue is Encore uses DV settings (720x480) whereas Axio uses D1/DV settings (720x486). When I pull a frame from by video, I get 6 extra horizontal lines.

My question is how do I treat this to get a seamless transition from video to still menu?

Any suggestions on what workflow would work to get a pop-free transition?

John Hess

[johnhess001]

I think I've figured it out, the trick is when you export the video using Matrox media encoder, you want to crop off the top six pixels and make sure you enable "Resize to fit screen".

You will also crop off the top six pixels of your frame that you export to make the menu.

[bandito]

I believe the correct way of doing it is to crop off the top 2 and bottom 4, or vice versa. 3 and 3 will be wrong because it inverts the interlacing, and 6 from top is okay, but it recenters your image higher than necessary.