DVD Authoring Question: 16:9 Source

[morgandawn.livejournal.com]

Some DVD authoring programs (IDVD, Ulead) cannot handle both 4:3 and 16:9 (widescreen source).

On some m2v files, the 16:9 screen images are squished vertically to fit the 4:3 format. In the past I was able to manually import the m2v file into my editing software, adjust the widescreen (make the image smaller) so it fit back down into a 4:3 frame and render, then re-export. This takes too much time to do for each vid.

is there a setting we can shoot for (Final Cut or Adobe Premiere or TMPEGEnc) that will export 16:9 images so the widescreen source is pre-adjusted to fit into the 4:3 TV screen?

Comments

[sisabet.livejournal.com]

I have no idea - really - what I am talking about, so feel free to ignore me if I make no sense - but...

I have found when clipping from source that is widescreen, that the DVD rip is actually anamorphic - it does not have those nice little bars at the top and bottom to smoosh it into place when I pull it into the time line and as a result every one is very tall and skinny. In the case of Buffy, this is just disturbing as all get out.

So to add the bars to the source, I have tried a number of things - the one trick that works the best (using Premiere - cause I gave up on figuring it out in VDub) is to go to the effects palette, pick transform and set the height adjustment at 75% for each anamorphic clip. This is, of course, with in 4:3 project settings. This just adds bars to the final avi so that it is actually a 4:3 project, but looks widescreen. I think. I could be totally wrong here.

[killabeez.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure that I completely understand what you're asking, but what I've done with 16:9 source is, within FCP, double click on the clip and go into the Motion tab. There, click on Distort. Enter the values so they look like this:
-360, -180
360, -180
360, 180
-360, 180

Save as a motion favorite, and apply to anything that's 16:9. If I'm doing this for a whole vid, I've just edited it all in squishyvision, then exported the sequence, reimported it as a single clip, and applied the Distort at the end of the process.

[uluviel.livejournal.com]

TMPEGEnc can change a widescreen to a fullscreen:

Click on "Settings", go to the "Advanced" tab. In the "Source aspect ratio" box, select 16:9 NTSC or 16:9 PAL. Then, in the "Video arrange Method" box:
- Select "Full Screen (keep aspect ratio)" if you want to add black bar at the top and bottom of your screen.
- Select "No margin (keep aspect ratio)" to cut the sides of your movie.
- Select "Fullscreen" if you want to stretch the image into a 4:3

Of course make sure your output format (in the "video" tab of the settings) is actually 4:3.