creating widescreen DVDs

mgipe wrote on 1/1/2004, 9:01 PM
I'm confused and could use a little guidance. I'm just learning how to use Movie Studio 3.0a and MyDVD.

I captured video recorded on a Sony MiniDV camera in 16:9 format, edited it successfully in MS 3.0a, and the .avi file previews fine in 16:9 using MicroSoft Windows Media Player.

I used MyDVD to render and write a DVD to play on a regular DVD player (Panasonic) on my widescreen TV. Unfortunately, it plays zoomed -- expanded vertically so the top and bottom of the image are cut off. The DVD player and TV settings are the same that I use for viewing commercial widescreen DVDs and HDTV. No combination of other settings will make the home-made DVD show correctly.

Does anyone have any ideas of what I should do when editing and creating a widescreen DVD in order to make it play correctly on a DVD player with a widescreen TV?

Thanks for the help.

--Mike

Comments

GerryLeacock wrote on 1/1/2004, 9:35 PM
I have a Panasonic 47 widescreen. I can cycle though the 4 settings with the TV remote: 4:3, 16:9, zoom and "just" (whatever that means). If you have the TV set to 16:9, it should play in that format regardless of what orma it was rendered in. Are you cycling thought the settings with the remote to settle on the one you want?
mgipe wrote on 1/2/2004, 7:26 PM
Gerry --

Thanks for the suggestions and questions.

I've tried all the combinations on both the TV and the DVD player (both Panasonic). The only useful settings give a picture which is zoomed in on the middle section of the frame, or a picture which is stretched vertically so that a portion of the top and bottom of the frame is lost. This latter setting is the one that I normally use to view commercial anamorphic widescreen DVDs, and they look fine.

I'm certain that the problem is in the selections that I used for either the initial rendering or the creation of the DVD. For both operations, I chose what seemed to be the right setting for 16:9, but it's obviously not working. I'm hoping that someone on the forum will have experience making 16:9 format DVDs and can guide me towards the correct choices of settings for Movie Studio and MyDVD.

Any suggestions?

--Mike
allyn wrote on 1/4/2004, 12:31 PM
i have figured out a pretty easy way to do this, please see this thread:
http://mediasoftware.sonypictures.com/forums/ShowMessage.asp?MessageID=241236&Replies=2&Page=1
mgipe wrote on 1/4/2004, 5:29 PM
Thanks Allyn. I figured it had to be something that I was doing wrong, but it turns out to be a problem with the software!

Good investigative work!

I'll download the tool and try it out.

--Mike
djcc wrote on 1/4/2004, 7:06 PM
Just so I have this correct.....

Although I have no current need to create 16:9, it is inevitably on the horizon.... is the conclusion that MS has an option to create, but the option does not, in fact work????
allyn wrote on 1/5/2004, 1:03 AM
movie studio has all of the features to create 16:9 videos throughout the entire process until you get to the very last step of rendering to MPEG-2 and then the needed feature is missing.

but i found an easy workaround. :-)
mgipe wrote on 1/12/2004, 6:51 PM
Allyn --

Well I finally got time to try out your workaround with the patch utility. The utility seems to work OK, but when I try to use MyDVD to write a DVD, it insists on re-rendering the video, obliterating the format patch that I so painstakingly made. Arrgh!

Have you successfully made a properly marked widescreen DVD? What am I doing wrong?

--Mike
allyn wrote on 1/12/2004, 10:12 PM
yes, i have successfully created an anamorphic 16:9 widescreen dvd using movie studio, dvdpatcher, and mydvd using the technique described in this thread: http://mediasoftware.sonypictures.com/forums/ShowMessage.asp?ForumID=12&MessageID=241236

DVDPatcher could be easier to use in that it doesn't set the radio buttons for bit rate and horizontal size automatically. you need to set these manually to be the same as the clip you are modifying. i suspect you may have not set the horizontal size correctly, which would force a re-rendering. also make sure you patch the entire file. when you click "patch now!" you get a summary screen of what dvdpatcher is about to do. make sure that nothing is changing other than the aspect ratio (4:3 -> 16:9) and that "patch entire file" is YES.

i just sent a message to the author of dvdpatcher in germany to see if there is a bug in dvdpatcher that he could correct to make it easier to use.