16:9 For Dummies

groovedude wrote on 10/15/2003, 12:12 PM
Hi I'm an ignoramous!

After reading through this forum I ended up more confused on how to produce a 16:9 project for DVD. So, I had to break down and actually figure it out for myself. I won't tell you how long it took.

1. Start a new Vegas project and select Widescreen 1.2121

2. If your footage or images aren't 16:9 animorphic already make sure your frames are a 16:9 dimension, such as 854x480. In a program of choice, squish the content to 720x480. It should now look too tall.

3. IMPORTANT--When you bring this squished content into your Widescreen project; left click on it, go to Properties then Media and select Widescreen 1.2121 as its pixel aspect ratio. This is a step I kept missing.

4. IMPORTANT--Your preview window lies! After setting all these things it will still look a little too tall. It won't after you burn it to DVD.

5. When you render out, set it to DVDA Widescreen mpg. Power DVD will open the resulting .mpg and you can see for yourself that everything looks correct.

6. When you start a DVDA project to burn this mpg set the DVDA project to Widescreen. DVDA's preview also lies! It will look too tall.

7. Burn your project, see looks fine.

Comments

PAW wrote on 10/15/2003, 4:42 PM

If you right click on the Vegas preview window and select simulate device aspect ratio the on screen preview should look OK.

In DVDA if you choose options -> select simulate device aspect ration all should be good there as well

Does that help?

Still images are different to DV - if the DV is taken in 16:9 the project setup and simulate device should be fine as long as the media properties recognise it as 16:9

If it is 4:3 the Pan/Crop tool should be used to crop the frames.

Regards, PAW
groovedude wrote on 10/15/2003, 5:02 PM
Hey looky there, things look right, thanks PAW!