resize video in dvda2 possible?

gbugarin wrote on 5/1/2004, 7:46 PM
I'm mainly a V4, now V5+DVDA2 user, I just couldn't pass up the deal with the DVDA2 upgrade price.

Been playing around with the software, really nice, but can this be done?

I create 2 buttons, one button goes to a photo compilation page (this looks easy enough), and the other button links to a small video window on the same page. ( I can't figure out how to do this. Does anyone know how ?)

Regarding the photos, is there anyway to resize the photos once there in the compilation page, or should I have done this before importing any photo to DVDA2?

Can I resize the videos in DVDA2? Most of my vids that I've used overlap the safezone. Although I haven't tried the external preview yet.

Thanks,
GB

Comments

johnmeyer wrote on 5/2/2004, 10:28 AM
I suppose you could link to a menu with buttons, assign a video to each button, and then have them play in those buttons. I don't know what you'd do for audio, however.

DVDA is designed as an authoring application. This means it is designed to let you assemble and navigate video, audio, and still content you have created elsewhere. In this sense, it is somewhat like a desktop publishing program, where the assumption is that you created your text and graphics in another program.
SonySDB wrote on 5/3/2004, 4:40 AM
Although tedious, there is a way to resize your pictures within DVDA:
1. Create an empty picture compilation
2. View | Workspace Overlays | Show Action Safe Area
3. Insert | Empty Slide
4. In the Explorer Window, right-drag still image into workspace and release
5. Choose Insert Graphics
6. Edit | Editing Tools | Sizing Tool
7. In the Workspace, you can adjust the size and position of the pictures.
8. Repeat from step 3 for all other pictures.
bStro wrote on 5/3/2004, 12:48 PM
Resizing pictures in compilations:

DVDA automatically resizes photos in picture compilations to 720 x 480 (for NTSC). In an ideal situation, your image will already have the correct width/height ratio (16:9 for widescreen, 4:3 for standard) and it will fill the screen without distortion and without letterboxing.

On the other hand, if your image does not fit the ratio of your project, DVDA has to do something with the extra space left over on the screen. For your options, see the Compilation window after you've inserted photos. Select an image in the Compilation tab and experiment with the Stretch to Fit dropdown box at the bottom left of the Compilation tab.

Letterbox will keep your image its original width/height ratio, but will fill any extra space with black bars (top and bottom or left and right).

Zoom to fit will also keep your image its original width/height ratio, but will stretch it until the smallest side fills the screen. The larger side will be cropped, so you'll lose anything that was there.

Stretch to fit has your entire image fill the entire screen even if it has to wildly distort it.

Personally, I would use letterbox if I want my entire image to be seen exactly as it was meant to; Zoom if I don't want letterboxing bars and Zoom leaves the important parts of my image intact; and Stretch if my image was *pretty* close to the correct ratio and the distortion isn't particularly noticeable.

If these don't give you the results you want, then yeah, I would resize and/or crop them outside of DVDA. If they're the correct ratio, though, you shouldn't have any issues.

Rob
bStro wrote on 5/3/2004, 12:57 PM
Resizing video:
I woudln't worry about your video overlapping the safezones too much. Most videos will do that. In fact, if you captured a TV show or a movie and dragged it into Vegas or DVDA, I can pretty much gurantee that it will go outside the safezones. And, unless you're using a flatscreen television, you'll see stuff in the preview window that you didn't see on your TV. In fact, how much is seen can vary not only by television, but by age of the television.

Video producers have accepted that not *all* of their video will be seen by all viewers, and they simply do the best they can. Safezones are guides as to where to have your video content. They don't mean you can't have video there, they just mean that if you want something to be seen, you probably should't let that area of your video go outside the lines. ;-)

Any action you want to be seen should be within the action safezone (the outer box). Any text you want people to be able to read and buttons you want them to use should be within the title safezone (the inner box).

Now, you *could* resize your video (better off doing this in Vegtas) so that it's witin the safezones. But keep in mind that it will look weird on most TVs because you've basically inserted a large black border around your video.

Rob