Disregard this:
If it helps, importing a highlight mask at other than the final aspect ratio has given problems for quite some time -- before 4b anyway... When doing motion backgrounds found that taking a timeline snapshot soloing the overlay to png seems to work.

[Edit] I had problems in the past but can't get anything to act up now that I've seriously tried.

I'm at a loss re: why some menus & not others -- haven't thankfully seen that, but I suppose the player setup makes sense in a way: many (most?) players obey the flags in the mpg2, regardless the aspect in the IFOs etc. - the mpg2 might be rendered according to embedded flags.

Edit: Still not sure why some and not others, but checking further DVDA 4 doesn't go a long way towards handling multi-aspect menus....

Retail DVDs sometimes include menu versions for F/S & W/S, just like they have more than one version of subs to prevent distortion when/if stretched.

[Edit this:] If I remember correctly according to early DLP docs you need a VMG menu, & the Pro version gives you options to control it a bit better, but then DLP is designed that way. I haven't played with it, but I'd guess setting the background media stretch type in DVDA 4b might let you do both menu aspects.

DVDs can only have one aspect per Title Set. For true multi aspect need to place menus in separate VTS, which DVDA will not do -- otherwise just a stretching routine with auto letterbox the default in DVDA 16:9.

Like with multi-language DVDs, scripting to query the right player SPRM should let you have the correct menu appear automatically, or can use a selection menu. That said, *might* have to use something like that -- creating different aspect menus using the stretch option [assuming it works] I have no idea what the underlying code in the IFOs looks like, &/or how it compares to DVDs authored in the really high end authoring software. In other words I have no idea if the player would automatically use the correct menu on it's own, the way it should select F/S & W/S subs.

This is a really confusing problem, I've authored 1000s of DVDs starting with DVDA2 and a lot of them 16:9, never saw this problem in DVDA 2 or 3 and they're all created the same simple way:

Background is 1049x576 PNG (that's 16:9 PAL with 1.00 PAR).
Main Menu and one scene selection menu, same background png file. Background set to Strecth to Fit. Menu items are just text links created by DVDA and highlight is Text Mask Overlay, all created by DVDA, doesn't get much simpler than that!

On playback on 16:9 TV everything is perfect, as it is in DVDA4 preview and PowerDVD. Problem ONLY appears when STB player is told to letterbox the output for 4:3 TV.

The Main Menu is perfect, the Scene Selection menu only has the problem. The Text Highlight is aligned correctly i.e. the LHS lines up with the underlying text but it looks like the PAR is wrong, by the end of a long line of text the highlight is over one character to the left of the underlying text.

Given the large number of simple, low cost authoring jobs we do there's no budget for building everything in PS or fiddling with scripts, so it looks like we'll have to stick to using DVDA 3.

Bob.

I sent the following to tech support on February 28, 2007:

DVDA 4.0a

You definitely should submit a bug report. While your problem is not exactly the same, it seems like it has something to do with switching between 4:3 and 16:9 portions of the same project, and DVDA not handling the switch correctly.

FWIW until I can finish loooonger post on multi-aspect menus...

John, video has to be the same aspect in a title set -- shouldn't be a problem as DVDA seems to create a new one for every title clip entered. All menus have to conform to project aspect - probably because DVDA puts them all in one title set rather than with the associated video. Not saying that this is what happened to you, but as above FWIW & in case it helps.

farss, not sure how far you want to pursue it, but for grins might try opening up the VTS_01_0.IFO in IfoEdit, going to the _MAT table in the upper window, & see what it has for display mode options in the lower window -- double click on: "Video attributes of VTSM_VOBS", comparing the results from a v4 render that didn't work with a v3 render that did. Might even check the Video_TS IFO. If either's different & changing it helps, I'd think it a minor thing for Sony to change.

Unless there's a difference, I don't have a clue. Playing around with it the only time I get what you're describing is using pan&scan on 16:9 menus, & then it's across all of them, though certainly more noticeable the closer one gets to the left and right edges. Suppose it could be something odd to do with the rendering of the sub-pic stream for chapt menus, maybe a wider frame? Then again I'm not in PAL land & haven't anything lying around I can do a quick test on.

While it does not really address any problems posted, just wanted to mention that I *finally* got the longer post up re: multi-aspect menus in case it's of any interest.

I think there's an issue with the subpics -- you can see them slightly off on a regular 16:9 menu with thumbnails using rectangular highlights. The highlights tend to be off by a few pixels (using PowerDVD). It sounds similar to your text highlights being "short" of the actual text???

The text highlights start at the correct point on the screen, they're just at the wrong PAR so by the end of a long line of text they're off several characters.

Yes, with the DVD player outputting 16:9 all looks perfect. Set the DVD player for a 4:3 TV so it letterboxes THEN you see the problem. Looks perfect in Power DVD on a PC.

Problem has been referred to tech support.

Bob.

In case &/or If it helps anyone...

Testing NTSC only, DVDA 4 produces two sub-pic streams for 16:9 menu highlights, & the default auto modes in the rendered IFO files is VMG: pan&scan, VTS1: letterbox -- this is the same whether DVDA 3 or 4. The streams should be identical re: width placement, but the letterbox stream (021) is more towards the center or higher up. You can check placement before burning by using DVDSubEdit [DL at videohelp] with DVD rendered to hdd -- it lets you preview all 3 display modes, both button coordinates and highlights.

If there is a width placement difference between widescreen and letterbox it should be apparent & saving the individual sub-pics should give you concrete documentation. IF the sub-pics are the same except for height, then the video must be getting stretched where the sub-pics aren't (or vice versa). That said, not at all sure what the difference would be between v 3 & 4 -- perhaps the overlay frames are different sizes, but that's a wild guess.

Viewing NTSC I would expect some slight misalignment in Power DVD as George posted because it stretches the frame height [exact figures depend on version] to simulate square pixel aspect. Sub-pics are not always stretched the same way as video content, particularly since they may not be full size D1. As it lacks the electronics that actually modify the signal to the TV, it probably is not a great test in this case.

Totally FWIW, testing NTSC as mentioned, fullscreen (not P&S) & letterbox 16:9 both look OK so I again wonder if it's something PAL related, or maybe even something that only shows up on PAL because of the different geometry involved?

Whatever it is, it's been confirmed as a bug. Not a very nice one either as you need to check under specific conditions to catch it. Needless to say it was a client who confirmed it before I was sure it was a problem but that's Murphy at work.

Bob.