Making DVDs from HDV projects

[Alex Thames]

I go to the 16:9 pan/crop preset with my DVX-100 footage, and now there are no more of the grey (black if viewed alone) bars on top, but now there are slight black bars on the side similar to that of my rendered HDV widescreen footage. But I don't understand why since DVX-100 footage is SD, so shouldn't it have an pixel aspect ratio of 1.2121 instead of the HDV one of 1.3333?

Interesting, the DVX-100 when cropped to 16:9 and with a project template of 720x480 DV widescreen and PAR of 1.2121 shows the slight black bars on the side, but a HDV project template with 1440x1080 and 1.333 PAR does not show the black bars on the side in the preview window.

Then, when I render the HDV footage (without stretch to fill output) using a DV widescreen template, I get slight black bars on the side.

Do I need to also stretch to output my DVX-100 widescreen footage when I render to get rid of the black bars? If so, then why do I see black bars on the preview monitor with DVX-100 footage, but not with HDV footage? And why do I need to also stretch DVX-100 footage to fill output if DVX-100 widescreen has a PAR of 1.2121?

Lastly, does doing this cropping for the DVX actually make it lose resolution?

[Alex Thames]

Hey guys,

I just tried re-rendering my DVX-100 project. I cropped to 16:9 so now the grey/black borders on the top and bottom are gone, but now there are those slight side borders. I checked the stretch to fill output frame box when I rendered, but as it was rendering, there were still the black side borders and the final render file also had the borders. What's wrong? How do I get rid of it?

[John Rofrano]

If the black bars are there after using stretch, then the black bars are part of the video. You’ll need to crop them instead. Stretch only works when there is an aspect mismatch. I think you may have a cropping mismatch.

~jr

[Gian Pablo Villamil]

Originally Posted by John Rofrano

If the black bars are there after using stretch, then the black bars are part of the video. You’ll need to crop them instead. Stretch only works when there is an aspect mismatch. I think you may have a cropping mismatch.

~jr

I have this issue as well going from HDV to MPEG2. Only with batch render however. I think batch render does not respect the "stretch" setting.

[Alex Thames]

I don't do batch render, and it still has the black bars. Even DVX-100 widescreen footage has the black bars on the sides.

[Michael May]

I didn't want to post this twice so please look at my first post: http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showpost....1&postcount=25

Also, here is a little trick I came up with that requires a little HTML or web design knowledge.

1. Create a new folder.
1. Render your HD video to a HD wmv file to the folder you just created.
2. Create a web page with links to your wmv file(s). Then save the web page in the same folder.
3. Create an autorun file that opens your web page when you run the DVD in a PC. Save this file to the same folder.
4. Open up project properties in DVDA and select the folder you just created as the extras folder.
5. Prepare and burn your DVD as usual.

What you get from a little hard work:

1. Your DVD plays like a normal DVD when played in a standard DVD player.
2. When you put your DVD into a PC with a DVD player, it will automatically spin up to your web page with the links to your HD wmv files. Sweeet!! This works like the extras you get on a store bough DVD except that there is nothing to install. Whats cool about this is you can create a website on the DVD, or a link to your website, or whatever else you want such as mp3 files, Flash presentations, etc.

If you don't feel comfortable using HTML or using the autorun file, you can just add the wmv files in the extra folder and just browse the DVD to find and play the wmv files.

As far as DVD media, I have had good results with brand name DVD-R's. A friend of mine has had bad luck with generic media bought at an electronics superstore.

I hope this helps, have fun.

Michael

[Kevin Shaw]

Originally Posted by Alex Thames

I'm wondering though, is DVD inherently standard definition or is it possible to put a hi-def project onto a standard DVD?

You can put high-definition video files on a standard DVD, but they won't play in standard DVD players. If you do it right they can be played on the HD players listed on the Divx web site at the following link, and also on the new Toshiba HD DVD player. But for now the most practical thing to do with HD video is downconvert it to widescreen SD, as discussed in preceding posts.

http://www.divx.com/products/hw/browse.php?c=7