How to do 16:9 menus?

nolonemo wrote on 4/29/2007, 7:37 PM

I have my first 16:9 project, rendered in Vegas 6. I created a test DVD using DVDA3, and noticed that the menus are 4:3 (I have an SD TV that displays the menus in 4:3 and letterboxes the 16:9). What happens if the disk is shown on a 16:9 set? How can I create true 16:9 menus (if this can be done)?

Thanks,

Nolo

Comments

vidter wrote on 4/29/2007, 8:03 PM

in dvda go to file properties video format change to ntsc widescreen 16x9 drop down menu

nolonemo wrote on 4/30/2007, 9:11 AM

Thanks, vidter. One more question....

I have been creating my menu backgrounds and text in photoshop and pulling those into DVDA. Do I just need to do my Photoshop files in 16:9 aspect ratio, and DVDA figures out pixel aspect ratios etc, or do I need to do need to something different in Photoshop if I'm doing 16:9 menus?

Thanks.

MPM wrote on 4/30/2007, 7:52 PM

"Do I just need to do my Photoshop files in 16:9 aspect ratio, and DVDA figures out pixel aspect ratios etc, or do I need to do need to something different in Photoshop if I'm doing 16:9 menus?"

DVDA is going to include or create wide screen anamorphic video for your menu backgrounds.You have a choice in v.4 (not sure about 3) to stretch your background to fit the 16:9 frame, letter (actually pillar) box it, or zoom to fit. Ideally would want your P/Shop graphics at widescreen frame size, so that it fills the video frame without distortion. Video backgrounds should be encoded as a wide screen DVDA stream, which will get your anamorphic frames.

bStro wrote on 4/30/2007, 10:56 PM

By default, DVDA stretches all menu backgrounds to fill the menu's framesize. (This is true for all versions.) As MPM mentions, you can change this on the menu's properties window so that DVDA zooms or letterboxes the image, though I'm guessing you don't want to do that.

To avoid having your background image distorted, though, you should create still images with compensation for pixel aspect ratio in mind. For NTSC widescreen, image backgrounds should be about 872x480. Photoshop includes templates (or whatever it calls them) for various video formats -- including NTSC widescreen. Some of them even include standard guides you can use to stay within safe zones.

EDIT: Regarding the guides, I should've said that you can use them to keep titles, etc within the safe zones.

Rob