No way to force 16:9 in iDVD?
 

Our office just upgraded my computer to a G5 (nice!) and I've been playing around with iDVD. We have a lot of footage shot with an anamorphic lens that I'd like to burn to a DVD, but I can't find any settings to code it as anamorphic. Would encoding it first as 16:9 in FinalCut (so that iDVD will just recognize it as 16:9 automatically) be the only way to do this? Seems kind of annoying if that's true. I'll have to capture and reexport for every tape.

i dont think iDVD can burn in 16:9. if you bring 16:9 material into iMovie HD, it will automatically start letterboxing it. i've tried it, and it requires a rendering of all your captured widescreen footage.

note: iMovie and iDVD are meant for each other. so i assume that if iMovie wont let you do true widescreen, then iDVD cant either. just use dvd studio pro.

The current versions of iMovie and iDVD support 16:9, older versions did not. Unfortunately I don't use either....

http://www.apple.com/ilife/imovie/import.html
http://www.apple.com/ilife/idvd/
You might find some help at Apple's support forums for these programs:

http://discussions.apple.com/categor...categoryID=141
http://discussions.apple.com/categor...categoryID=128

R.P., your info is incorrect...iMovie will letterbox automatically *unless* you set your project as widescreen. to do this:

File>New Project

a "Create Project" screen will appear with a small pulldown menu. click on "DV" and you will seen a range of choices. you must set this before you capture footage or the NLE will do as you describe....

iDVD supports 16:9 automatically, as long as it is correctly set up in your original project, whether it is Final Cut or iMovie....

good luck!

i apologize, i was mistaken.

Thanks. Big bummer. :(

marco, i don't know if there isn't a workaround...was your original project in 16:9 in a different NLE? if so, isn't there a way to output it to tape, then re-input it into a Mac-based timeline? or does your NLE allow you (Mac does this...) to output it to a full DV version that you could then import into a Mac NLE then to iDVD (or even, perhaps straight to iDVD?)...there must be some easier way to do this which scales back on your need to re-import everything.

i have never used this, personally, but open your iDVD and at the opening Create Project menu, there is something called OneStepDVD, which i think allows you to bypass capturing, editing, etc. in the NLE and go straight from tape to DVD. it may be the solution you need....again, good luck.....