16:9 Questions

[Nerfboy]

Ok...I shot everything on PAL widescreen...which shows the footage letterboxed in Eduis 4.6

When I convert to an MPEG2 and select 16:9 ratio in the Advanced Tab it makes it even smaller...keeping at 4:3 in that same menu, makes it the way I see it in Edius.

The problem is, when I make the DVD through DVDWOrkshop2 by Ulead...the final DVD doesn't fill up my widescreen TV, it's letterboxed in the 4:3 area. So I am stumped.

Trying to convert it into 16:9 makes it look even smaller on the TV (in Edius). So is my problem the footage import, Edius' output, or Ulead.

Anyone have any suggestions?

[THoff]

Shot it with what, and using what settings? It is possible that you shot 16:9 within a non-anamorphic 4:3 frame. Are you using a widescreen preset in Edius to match your recording?

If your image is not distorted (the height vs, width proportions are correct), then you probably messed something up in the camera settings.

If the image is distorted, then for some reason Edius is not picking up the widescreen flag -- just go into the Bin, right-click on the clip, bring up the Properties, go to the Video tab, and change the aspect ratio there.

[Nerfboy]

I shot the footage on my Sony Z1 in PAL widescreen. It fills up the whole screen in the camera...and I have done the conversion before and it worked. Back then I used Edius 3.75 or something. SO I am wondering if it's the new Edius.

[Nerfboy]

Doh, my Edius video frame size is set to 720 x 576.

Should have known better. I guess I have to go back and edit the project again, is there a way to convert it?

[Nerfboy]

Hmmm...Edius only shows that you can have a video size of 720 x 576, but you can change the output setting on it...I have mine to the same aspect as above. I am assuming changing the preset of the project to an output of 16:9 would fix my problem.

[jaegersing]

Hi nerfboy. Both 16:9 and 4:3 projects have the same 720x576 resolution. Edius refers to 16:9 projects as Widescreen so you have to make sure this is shown in the project properties if your footage is 16:9.

Richard

[Rusty]

Gosh guys... he had the answer in the first sentence! Letterboxed in Edius?

This means one thing only... he has 16:9 footage in a 4:3 project!
Unless you are making a 4:3 DVD (which I'm guessing you're not) Simply change your Edius Project Settings to 16:9 and all is well!

16:9 and 4:3 are always 720x576 in DV land. Only an aspect ratio flag causes them to display differently.

[THoff]

That's why I asked if he's using a widescreen preset...

[Nerfboy]

Ok, I changed the project settings to widescreen.

Now, I have tried this two ways. I converted one to MPEG2 clicking the 16:9 tab in the Advanced Menu, and one with 4:3.

The 16:9 MPEG when put through DVD Workshop looks great and fills up the widescreen TV i have, but when I change the aspect to 4:3, it squeezes it and looks aweful. The 4:3 disk letterboxes the footage on a reg TV but stretches in wide mode...I know this sounds pretty "duh."

But is there a way to make one DVD that will will do both? Conforming to the TV it is played on?

[Nerfboy]

And by that I mean, can I have a DVD that fills up a widescreen in 16:9 mode and letterboxes the footage in 4:3.

[Rusty]

Yes! Letterbox is added by the DVD player.

So make your video and DVD menus 16:9 and it will work on a 4:3 TV (provided the player knows (through settings) that it's hooked to a 4:3 TV)

Be aware that you can't mix 16:9 and 4:3 footage on a standard DVD.

[THoff]

Be aware that you can't mix 16:9 and 4:3 footage on a standard DVD.

That's not true.

You can't mix aspect ratios within one VTS, but you can have multiple VTS's on one disk. You can therefore include both a 4:3 and a 16:9 version of your movie on one disk, although the usefulness of that is questionable given that a DVD player will automatically letterbox a widescreen DVD on a 4:3 TV.

[Nerfboy]

Well I guess the instance where I am thinking that would be useful is that I do a lot of weddings, and since I give a certain number of copies to the client, it would be nice if both setting could be on one DVD. Who knows who gets the copies and what TVs they have.

So I know this is a dumb Q, but two VTS files on one DVD would be twice the space? That wouldn't work out since most wedding DVDs are around an hour to two hours.

[antonsvideo]

a 16:9 DVD will look great on 16:9 TV and it will look letterboxed on a 4:3 TV (this is also great)

why would you wish to chop off the sides to make it fill the 4:3 screen? I would want to avoid that

[Imagine Video]

Anton is right leave it at 16:9 it will be great on a 16:9 tv and nice letterboxed on a 4:3 tv Relax and don't worry about your clients TV's and setups.........not your problem! UNLESS the client has asked for the ability to play full screen on 4:3 tv............

You cant please everyone ALL the time ONLY some , some of the time ;-)