How to Burn 16:9 (Widescreen) Video?

pepsi_cola40 · Post by **pepsi_cola40** » Thu Mar 03, 2005 7:06 am

Hi,

I have a 16:9 (Widescreen) AVI file. I burned a DVD with it, like I do for 4:3 (Letterbox) videos. But: when I play the DVD on my TV -- a normal TV, not widescreen -- the picture looks "stretched". i.e. instead of a black margin on top and bottom, the video is resized to a 4:3 ratio and looks really ugly.

Is there an option in DVD Workshop 2 to change to 16:9 format? I noticed that the Preview window has a 16:9 button, but this does not affect the way the video is burned.

Thanks!

htchien · Post by **htchien** » Thu Mar 03, 2005 10:52 am

When you right click on the clip and select Output Display Options, what do you see??

What's the CODEC used in the wide-screen AVI file??

Regards,
H.T.

pepsi_cola40 · Post by **pepsi_cola40** » Thu Mar 03, 2005 2:48 pm

htchien wrote:When you right click on the clip and select Output Display Options, what do you see??

Under "Display aspect ratio" it says "4:3" and it's disabled (grayed). Under "On standard TV" it says "Letterbox only" and it's disabled too. "On widescreen TV" is enabled but is useless to me.

htchien wrote:What's the CODEC used in the wide-screen AVI file??

XviD. The movie's precise frame size is 576 x 240 pixels.

pepsi_cola40 · Post by **pepsi_cola40** » Fri Mar 04, 2005 4:51 am

pepsi_cola40 wrote:The movie's precise frame size is 576 x 240 pixels.

Actually, when I looked at the frame size, I realized it's not a 16:9 ratio, but rather 12:5. That explains why DVD Workshop couldn't handle it. In case someone's interested, here's how I solved my problem. (It took me quite some time to figure out, so I hope it helps someone.

) This solution converts all non-standard ratios to 4:3:

1/ Open the file in VirtualDub (I personally use VirtualDubMod).
2/ Go to Video > Filters...
3/ Add a "resize" filter.
4/ Under "New width" and "New height" put the original width and height (because we're not really resizing). So, in my case, it's 576 by 240.
5/ Check "Expand frame and letterbox image".
6/ Under "Frame width" put the original width. So, in my case, 576.
7/ Under "Frame height" put your original width multiplied by 0.75 (in order to obtain the standard 4:3 ratio). So, in my case, 576 x 0.75 = 432.
8/ Save the new file.