Safe Color Range for TV

[Bob]

Here's the main web site: http://download.videohelp.com/r0lZ/pgcedit/

It's hard to say how hard it will be for you to learn. The more familiar you are with DVD internal structure, the easier pgcedit is to understand. Pcgedit pretty much lets you modify the structures any way you want. There are links to documentation, tutorials, and guides on the site that will help. You should be able to pick it up.

I tend to not use pgcedit much because I mainly work with my own dvds and prefer to work with a higher level authoring program. But, depending on the authoring program, there are some things you just can't do. Just as I use a word processor to correct documents instead of a hex editor, I use the higher level tools until I need to go to a lower level tool. But, It's sure nice to be able to go to the lower level when you need it. It's good to have pgcedit in your toolkit.

To be honest, until RJ mentioned it, I hadn't thought about using pgcedit to modify the highlight colors. But, you certainly can do that. Thanks, RJ.

[Stregga]

Ok Bob, now you got me thinking with the talk about the colors and all that I really don't know much about DVD structure. I played around with a program in the past called DVD Lab Pro 2.0 in the past and it had a very detailed interface for dvd structures and how they worked. I realy liked the program, only thing is that it didnt have a robust dvd burn engine. Otherwise I was pretty happy with the program. Easy to understand and a rather easy user interface.

However my dilema is that I have the CS3 Production Suite and want to realy learn that and use it to its fullest potential if that's even possible for me to do. Premier Pro is somewhat intimidating to me, so I can't imagine what Encore has in store. So what I am trying to say is how can I learn DVD structure and these two great programs without frying my brain. Are there tutorials or something you can direct me to for me to learn and better undersatnd DVD's, their structure, etc. so I could better use the programs I have? Any direction would be appreciated.

[Steve Grisetti]

You mean aside from my two articles, "How to edit DVD menu templates with Photoshop Elements" and "Customizing a DVD Template, Step by Step", which you can find here, Marcos?
http://muvipix.com/products.php?maincat ... ubcat_id=7

(Although written for Photo Elements, the principles and most of the workflow are identical in Photoshop CS3.)

[Stregga]

Of course Steve, other than those two. I mean think about it, I wouldn't have even been able to start making changes to the menus had it not been for those two tutorials.
As a matter of fact, it was because of those tut's that I became a member of Muvipix, and I've been learning ever since.

That's just like me, not being clear on what I am asking.

The more familiar you are with DVD internal structure, the easier pgcedit is to understand.

See Bob said that the more familiar I am with the "internal structure" of the DVD the easier it will be for me to use PCGEdit. So that is what I meant.

Maybe I am understanding it incorrectly, but it seems to me as though her were implying the inner workings of the DVD itself and by better undersatnding that I can better undersatnd what I can or can't do with it. Or at least that's how I understood what he was saying, and that was the information I was looking for.

[Bob]

DVDs are quite complex beasts. They are not just a file system with mpeg files and menus, authoring a DVD is like writing a computer program that will be executed by the DVD player. The DVD specification details all the structures, commands, and capabilities that can be used to create a DVD. However, that is a proprietary document and not available to the general public -- there's also a licensing requirement if you actually want to use it for something other than as a reference. You generally don't need that type of knowledge unless you are programming authoring software or working for a major studio and using very high end authoring software such as Sonic Scenarist.

High end authoring software which gives you virtually complete access to the entire specification is very expensive and very complex and you do need a detailed knowledge of the specification, how it's accessed in the authoring software, and how you would use it. Fortunately, that degree of complexity isn't always necessary. Consumer level authoring software hides the structure and complexity trading off ease of use for functionality. Adobe Encore, since version 2, is intermediate and falls in the prosumer/corporate/small studio category. It won't let you do everything Scenarist or other high end authoring packages will do, but it's got a lot of functionality, it's a lot easier to us, and you don't really need to know the DVD specification to use it. Once you learn how to use Encore, I think you will be quite happy with it.

Pgcedit is a utility, an editor actually. It's fairly low level and allows you to work with the DVD structures and commands that were created for a DVD using authoring software. It's not an authoring tool per se. Obviously, when working at the nuts and bolts level, a knowledge of the rudiments of the DVD specification is helpful. However, pgcedit doesn't provide you with full access to everything you can do in the Specification and it definitely doesn't do everything you might want to do. Most of the time, you are going to be doing very limited tasks. The link RJ pointed you to on this site details one such use to get around a limitation of the Premiere Elements authoring capability. You can find loads of tutorials for other uses. You can probably learn enough of what you need know by reading the documentation on the pgcedit site and the various tutorials on the net.

[Stregga]

Well, I have to say in a way I am glad that the DVD structure is something that I don't need to learn at my level. Quite frankly, my brain is still smoking from all the other information you've provided me. Thanks for clearing that up Bob.

So here is where I am at. I have my DVD menu and had everything working just fine. I was pumped, I applied all the learnings and it was finnaly paying off...then Screeeeeeech. To a grinding halt.
Everything was working fine my highlights, the color, aspect ratio I was happy! However, as soon as I put a moton background (purple satin motion bg from the members section) to the menu the highlights all but disappeared. I had selected a web safe color of "990099" and it worked exactly as it should on the still bg, but when I used the motion bg it turned into a very light vanilla colored highlight that was almost completely transparent.

Any idea what the deal with this is?

Here are some of the things I've tried:

I masked the part of the motion bg where the highlight appears thinking that it was the color of the bg causing the problem. Nope, didn't work.
Changed the highlight to a white, nope.
Changed it to almost completely black, nope.

Yet all of these work just fine without the motion background.

I am confused again.

[Bob]

I don't see a purple satin motion background in the member's section. I do see several purple motion backgrounds. Which one did you use?

Does the same thing happen if you use a different motion background? (one that is less saturated and possibly less purple)

[Stregga]

Bob,

Here is the link in the members are with the "purple med motion" background that I called a satin background. You will find a few. They are the 5th, 7th, 8th, 9th & 10th ones down from the top.

http://muvipix.com/products.php?page=5& ... ubcat_id=5

I did try a few different saturation settings with this with no success, however I noticed there are a few different levels of saturation with the same color so I will try these and see what I come up with.

[Stregga]

Bob,

That did it! I either wasn't setting the correct saturation values or something for the "purple med" motion background because I change the bacground from the purple med to the purple lite2 and it works as intended. As a matter of fact, I was able to change the color from the stale gray that I was using to get out of this mess to my intended deep purple.

Thank you for sticking with me on this one Bob. I know it took me a while but you finally got me through it. Thanks!!

[Stregga]

Well Bob,

Being that you gave me all that assistance I thought it only fair to give you a detailed discription of what my settings were that created this problem.

Highlight layer color = 642964
-----------------hue =-----300
---------saturation =----59%
--------brightness =-----39%

---------------------------Brightest-----Darkest
Purple med bg color = 8e21e3-------2e0a48 (Problem Color)

-----------------hue =------274------------275
---------saturation =------85%------------86%
--------brightness =------89%------------28%

Purple Lite2 bg color = a85ae6-------37204f (Good Color)

-------------------hue =------273------------269
-----------saturation =------61%------------59%
-----------brightness =------90%------------31%

So I don't know what the threshold is with the saturation, but it was obvious that if background saturation is greater than the highlight color that is chosen problems will occur with the highlight. In my case the bg that worked had a saturation value that was within 2%-3% of that of my highlight saturation value. In any case it's working and I am happy.

[Bob]