Newbie Question: Widescreen Videos

Mike_the_Insane wrote on 12/5/2003, 6:24 PM

Hi everyone! This is my first post and my second video project using Vegas 4.0. I recently taped a children's theater production for two nights, and I'm using Vegas to cut the two shows together to produce a video for the parents. The trouble is, I used the 16:9 widescreen feature on my Digital8 camcorder when I filmed the plays, and I'm not sure how to maintain the aspect ratio when I transfer it to a VHS tape. My plan was to cut my project, burn it on a DVD, and then hook my DVD player to my VCR to tape off the DVD, but I honestly have no idea if that works! Also, I'm having trouble finding out what I need to do to make Vegas render the project in MPEG-2 format; when I clicked that format, it told me there were no templates availible. I'm sure there are easy solutions to all these problems, so if you all could give me some help that would be great. :-)

Comments

TheHappyFriar wrote on 12/5/2003, 9:14 PM

Why not use your D8 camera as a passthrough to VHS? That shold work with PTT. The DVD to VHS might not work. I belive some of the copyprotection code in built into your DVD player, so no matter if you want to copy something legaly, you can't. :(

With the mpeg-2 thing, you need audio AND video on the timeline for the templates to show up. I found that out a month ago. :)

Fuzzy John wrote on 12/5/2003, 9:21 PM

I had no problem burning my 16:9 project on a DVD and then transfering it to VHS. However I found out that I had to set my DVD player to 4:3 Letterbox before transfering to VHS, otherwise the image looked compressed horizontally when played back on most other TVs.