My text on a dv progressive output isn't clear

Question

Ok I got in an editor for two days because I was insecure about outputting myself and didn't know how to work with compressor. I have a dv progressive 4:3 letterboxed feature 24p. It's edited down from an earlier version where the output didn't have this problem. I believe post person at that time output an uncompressed QT file then put it thorugh a 2 pass dvd mpeg 2 and the text didn't look I don't know interlaced? Aliased?
So the person I hired in for two days insists you don't want to do two outputs because I'd lose quality...however, he output the entire project (he did this twice and each time it took about an hour and a half) without just testing a clip that had the type on it like the credits or opening and each time the text came out terrible and he said this is probably as good as it gets and I said no this is not as good as it gets as I already had outputs of the exact same files I've pressed as earlier dvds in its longer format that didn't have this problem...we were working on an earlier version of fcp on a much less powerful computer.
this footage as well is pristine shot on the dvx100 at 24 frames progressive and in my regular fcp timeline there's no fuzziness on the type.
So, anyway, once this guy left for the day, I took a small clip that has some of the type face on it in fcp, I made a short sequence and I imported into compressor and I've been testing now that I figured out how to import into compressor. I'm doing a batch output now of this short sequence inclusive of an mpeg2 2 pass with best quality and choosing progressive source in case for some reason the compressor is seeing interlaced. I'm doing a dv ntsc output an sd 8 bit uncompressed and an apple pro res for progressive for fun at 10 bit instead of 8 bit.
I read to get type to look really good to put it through an animation codec first then run the output back through the mpeg2 compressor. I haven't tried this yet.
The average bit rate is 6.2 and maximum is 7.7 to get it to fit on a dvd-5 with everything else on there...it's coming out about the same size as the original film which was 104 minutes (this version is 90 minutes)...so in other words, there should be more information on this new version and I believe these bit rates are not the reason we had output a much higher bit rate and had the same problem.
I've ruled out settings on my monitors as I can see in compressor preview everything looks great, but on output when I look at my computer monitor, I can see the fuzziness of the type though the picture itself looks very nice so I know this is an issue with my compressor output or the way it's reading the input from the final cut pro sequence.
I even reset a couple of things in output like I brought up the contrast a little and a hilight color and the output colors look really matchy to the source. The type fuzziness is the only problem so I'm frustrated and have to get a dvd out this week and don't want it to look amateur with the lettering and credits looking fuzzy.
This is frustrating any suggestions? right now i'm trying also a 2 pass mpeg 2 turning on frame controls and putting the anti-alias up to 70 percent and outputting where I'm choosing progressive output and "source frames play at 23.98" in duration.
HELP PLEASE?

Answer 1

You are doing great working through this on your own. You may even have solved the problem at this point.
Output, and more specifically, compression, is a bit of a dark art, part rules and science, and part just knowing from experience what will work well on a particular video with a particular compression tool.
Here are some thoughts and background that may help.
1. The best first step would have been to call the post person who did the first output. He/she got it right the first time. I assume it wasn't practical to call this person.
2. Using FCP and Compressor, my work flow is two steps, the same as your original post person, ie I output a self-contained movie with the same codec and frame rate as my edit sequence. I send this to Compressor.
Though the person you recently hired is correct in theory, multiple outputs does degrade quality, using FCP and Compressor it is faster and the quality is the virtually the same using the two step method as long as your self-contained movie uses the "current" settings of the sequence.
The other advantage of this method is in trouble shooting your problem. Look at the text after you export the self-contained movie. If it looks bad at this stage you know your issue is not being caused by Compressor. If it looks good at this stage, move on to Compressor.
3. As mentioned above, I prefer to use a self-contained movie. It does take up more space on a drive, which is the only down-side. Having the self-contained output has saved me, and saved clients dozens of times over the last five years. It is a terrific back-up/archive of your finished work that you can use for outputting into the future.
4. It sounds like you've got things sorted, and you are happy with the output, so your settings in the frame controls must be OK! However, during trouble shooting, I suggest turning off the frame controls. This limits the problem so you will have better luck tracking down the problem. Frame controls are great, but I suggest experimenting with them on short clips to find out what will best enhance your footage.
5. AIFF is for all intents and purposes uncompressed audio. For stereo material, Dolby 2.0 is a good choice when you are compressing for DVD in Compressor. The files sizes of Dolby 2.0 are much smaller than AIFF, and the quality is fine.
6. Your compression settings sound a bit high in Compressor. No doubt, the resulting files will look very good, however I've found in testing that older DVD players sometimes choke on DVDs with settings in the same range you are using. If I'm not sure where a DVD might get used I keep my average down near 5.0.
This might just be confusing to you, and if that is so, just TEST your DVD on the players it must play well in. If there is a high stakes playback (like for a client meeting or a screening) make a back-up DVD, and perhaps another back up with lower compression settings.
7. You are doing a great job of sticking with this problem. It sounds like the person you hired made the mistake in FCP on the sequence settings, and you identified these mistakes and corrected them.
I just wrote what is above as more background for the next time things go awry. And they will
Best,
Tom
Message was edited by: Tom Meegan
Message was edited by: Tom Meegan