Menu Aspect Ratio

cgsimone wrote on 5/23/2008, 2:17 PM
I've noticed a lot of users on this forum asking how to mix video of different aspect ratios. I was wondering if there is a way to author in DVDA so that all of the video is 16:9 and all of the menus are 4:3.

In other words, if my project is set to 16:9 how do I set my menus to display 4:3? I've only discovered the stretching options in the menu properties window but none of these options produce the desired result. If the menu is displayed on a 16:9 TV, it should have sidebars. If it is displayed on a 4:3 TV, it should fill the screen. The letterbox option gives me the sidebar with the 16:9 display, but it gives me unwanted vertical and horizontal bars on a 4:3 TV.

Comments

MPM wrote on 5/23/2008, 3:42 PM
The project properties sets the menu aspects, so if you set it to 4:3, then imported all 16.9 mpg2, no problem, you'll get what you want.

When you change the appearance of your menu background, the preview is what DVDA will turn it into, so if you see letter-boxing for example, if your project is 4:3, you'll get letter-boxing in a 4:3 frame. DVDA will just resize your background to match the preview and stick it in whatever size frame matches your project properties.

It's best to have your menus already at whatever size you want to work with, & the same with any highlight masks - in some circumstances & on some players, when DVDA alters the aspect of your background & highlight mask, they may not match.