Black bars after 1920x1080 project renders to DVD

conk wrote on 9/3/2011, 10:02 PM
Hi, I have a Sony Vegas MS Platinum 10.0 project with these settings: HD 1080-50i (1920x1080, 25.000 fps). The timeline includes photos taken in 16x9 aspect ratio. When I preview it looks perfect - no black bars.

However, when I create a PAL Widescreen DVD using 720x576 (PAL) aspect ratio 16x9 using DVD Architect Studio 5.0 I notice 2 vertical black bars appearing.

I'm a little puzzled....the project is 16x9 and the DVD format is 16x9, so why do I get black bars?

Hoping someone has had a similar experience and knows how to resolve.

Comments

Marton wrote on 9/4/2011, 6:04 AM
I don't know why, either.
But you can remove it by selecting "stretch video to fill output frame size" at the render panel.
But anyway Vegas resize algorythm from hd to sd isn't very good. I personally use the frameserver, and resize with virtualdub more precise filters.
musicvid10 wrote on 9/4/2011, 7:05 AM
PAL Widescreen SD is 16.389:9

The advice to check "Stretch to fill output" is correct.
Chienworks wrote on 9/4/2011, 9:34 AM
Exactly right. SD "widescreen" is wider than 16:9 in both PAL and NTSC. 16:9 is an HD format that didn't exist in the SD days.

However, my own humble personal self-centered and useless opinion is that i would much rather preserve the original shape, so i would leave the black bars there. Stretching to fill the SD frame makes people "short-n-fat". Also, on most SD playback devices you won't see the left & right edges anyway so the black bars most likely won't be visible.
musicvid10 wrote on 9/4/2011, 7:48 PM
Not a "personal self-centered and useless opinion" at all, but a completely valid point of view. In choosing between a slight stretch or slight black bars, or even 1024x576 at 1:1 PAR if destined for web delivery, I would tend to look at a couple of things.

If there were graphic circles in my video, even as part of a splash or title, I would follow Kelly's advice and keep the aspect faithful to the source. I am particularly sensitive to such things; have been since my first exposure to television, which actually came at the age of nine or ten ( we had a "horizontal size" knob in those days).

On the other hand, if the only consequence of stretching to fill the screen aspect is to add a couple of pounds to my sister, I'm unlikely to bat an eye, although she might . . .

Seriously, a 2.4% horizontal stretch (as in the OP's case) in unlikely to be noticed except where there are geometric renditions in the video. The only thing worse than a vertically squished circle is one that is squished horizontally!
conk wrote on 9/5/2011, 4:42 AM
Thank you all for your informative (and entertaining) replies, which made me laugh!

I've tried ticking the "stretch video to fill output frame" during rendering and I don't like the horizontal stretching of people either. I would prefer to protect my family life and keep the black bars.

As someone has mentioned, they don't even show up when playing the DVD in my PS3 on my LCD TV....so all is good anyway.
Chienworks wrote on 9/5/2011, 8:34 AM
One other option is to use Pan/Crop to "match output aspect". This will enlarge the image proportionally to fill the whole output frame while cropping off a bit of the top and bottom. However, since most SD devices have more overscan than HD, this is probably not a good option.
musicvid10 wrote on 9/5/2011, 10:18 AM
Yes, since many videographers compose a bit tight, taking anything off the top is rarely an option for me. However, one can frame the image to only trim off the bottom while filling the sides, which has worked for me a couple of times. Although adjusting the frame scene-by-scene is tedious, it can be effective.