Formatting in 16:9

Bob Maynes · Post by **Bob Maynes** » Wed Mar 09, 2005 1:57 pm

Any suggestions for changing output to 16:9? My video was shot in this aspect ratio, yet DVDW2 only allows 4:3 or smaller AR. I am unable to change the setting, even when I go to settings/disc template manager/edit/general. The button for "user defined" is inactive.

maddrummer3301 · Post by **maddrummer3301** » Thu Mar 10, 2005 6:23 pm

Hi,

While displaying the icons of the video(s) on the timeline screen.
Right-Click on the video icon on the time-line and the options for
aspect ratio will be displayed .
Options: Such as Letterbox or keep the same will be there.

Hope this helps,

MD

Bob Maynes · Post by **Bob Maynes** » Thu Mar 10, 2005 7:47 pm

Thanks for the suggestion. I tried that, and it reads the file as being 16:9 (864 x 480), but the output is still 4:3

htchien · Post by **htchien** » Fri Mar 11, 2005 5:09 am

Do you click on the 16:9 button under the preview window in the Edit/Menu stage??

luisdph1 · Post by **luisdph1** » Sun Apr 17, 2005 12:57 pm

The only way I found to work the 16:9 output is changing the aspect ratio from the advanced button, works like a charm

videojanitor · Post by **videojanitor** » Sat May 07, 2005 7:08 pm

I just tried this too, as an experiment, with mixed results:

I took some 16:9 video from my HD TiVo and set the output of that box to 480i, and squeezed the 16:9 frame into 4:3. Then I recorded this on DVD-RAM, and imported into DVD Workshop Express.

Once in DVD WS, I right clicked on the clip and changed the Output Display Options to "Stretch" for Widescreen TVs.

In the DVD WS preview windows, it indeed now was back to its original 16:9 aspect ratio. I burned a disc, and when I played it on my computer, the DVD player software (WinDVD) indentified it as 16:9 and displayed it as such. Great!

However, when I played it on my DVD player in the living room into the 16:9 TV, the TV did not recognize it as 16:9, and displayed the squeezed 4:3 instead. I could fix this manually, by using the stretch mode on the TV, but obviously the widescreen "flag" that should be on the disc is not there, or not acknowledged.

After tinkering around and analyzing the disc content (both data stream and video output from the DVD player), the answer seems to be that DVD WS is encoding the correct information about the MPEG2 data (ie: it indicates it is 16:9), BUT it is not encoding the "Wide Screen Signalling" flag onto line 23 of the video signal -- this signal is designed to tell widescreen TV sets to switch to 16:9 mode. Hence, software based players will recognize it as 16:9, but many (most?) TVs will not, and will need to be switched manually.

If you have a 4:3 set, and have the DVD player set to letterbox 16:9 material, that DOES work, as the player apparently reads the format information from the disc, and adjusts accordingly.