16:9 Widescreen Problems, Please help!
 

I have shot some footage in 16:9 on my Sony Camcoarder. I have finally managed to get the correct ration to work on standard 4:3 and widescreen 16:9. Now this works perfectly on either tv. However when i come to play the final DVD on my computer it appears like a standard TV 4:3 and not 16:9 as i have a widescreen montor.

I have used Aobe After effects and Premiere pro i just can get the widescreen look without any problems. I have basically drawn the letter boxes around the footage to get it to look right. Would anyone be able to offer me any help, or alternative ways.

Thanks for any help, much appreciated!

Chris

Just so I'm clear, the original footage you shot is anamorphic wide screen 16:9, not 4:3 footage with black bars at the top and bottom?

If that is the case, you must set the 16:9 flag for your video footage in your DVD authoring application, so that set top and software DVD players can correctly play back your footage. Have you done this? What DVD authoring application are you using?

Hi, thanks for the reply. I am using the basic Cyberlink Power Producer. Would you know of any professional DVD Authoring products that might be worth looking at purchasing.

Thanks!

Chris

Many people like DVD lab, http://www.mediachance.com/dvdlab/. There is also Sonic DVDit, http://www.sonic.com/products/professional/dvdit/. And of course the program I use, Adobe Encore DVD, http://www.adobe.com/products/encore/main.html. I'd recommend downloading the tryouts for each program, and seeing for yourself which you prefer.

Note that you will need to use an external application to encode video for DVD lab, as it does not include a built-in MPEG-2 encoder. The DVD lab folks are offering DVD Source Creator, which uses the excellent TMPGEnc MPEG-2 encoding engine, with a DVD-lab purchase for an additional $29.

I go from the Avid to a QT Ref file. I then import the QT ref file into Canopus ProCoder 2. Excellent results this way with anything short. Haven't done any 2 hour epics so I don't know how well it will squeeze 2 hours into a one hour DVD. Then I use Adobe Encore DVD to author the DVDs. In Canopus I simply tell it the footage was originally 4:3 (because anamorphic footage processes as 4:3) but that the stream will be 16:9. It correctly sets the 16:9 flag then.

Author as a 16:9 DVD and I'm good to go. Encore is really good. Great way of using Photoshop documents as custom menus too.

Sean McHenry

what are you using to play the video with on your PC? I know I had trouble playing anamorphic widescreen on VLC (I had to update to the newest version, then select 16:9 mode from the menu). Apparently Real player has some trouble with this too.

Thankyou all for those replies. I will download the demos to see which is best. I am currently using Blaze DVD 4.0 to play my DVD's on the computer.

Thanks again

Chris