Particular problem with aspect ratio. Please help

[dsbs]

Hi everyone,
I'll try to give as much information as I can.

I'm authoring a DVD (basically adding chapters and a menu). The video file I'm using is an MPEG2 file (3,72Gb) and has the next properties:

VIDEO
pal
720x576 24 bits
25 fps
4/3
variable bit rate (max 9.396 kbps)

AUDIO
ac3
48 KHz
384 kbps

It looks as if my file is dvd compliant so I don't check 'convert to disc template' to leave it as is. When I burn the project and create a DVD folder, the DVD I get is 16/9.

Then using VideoReDo I save the MPEG2 file converting the 'variable bit rate max9.396 kbps' to 'variable bit rate max8.000 kbps' (since I notice that in the finish step, the disc template manager says that max bit rate is 8264 kbps). But I still get a 16/9 DVD.

I have tried checking 'convert to disc template' and choosing 'as is' in the output display options and then when I create the DVD folder... I get a 4/3 DVD but DVDWS 2.0 re-encodes the file and it looses about 1 Gb (from 3,72 Gb to 2,82 Gb).

How can I get DVDWS not to reencode my file and get a 4/3 DVD? Any help would be much appreciated.

Thanks in advance,
Alex

[dsbs]

Hey guys,
please I'm sure someone out there must be able to help me. Thank you very much.

Alex

[Devil]

Firtsly, bitrates (this is nothing to do with aspect ratio). 9396 + 384 kbit/s is beyond the DVD spec. You don't say what your sources are but if, for example, they are DV, then you won't obtain any improvement over ~6000 kbit/s and if the project is <~90 minutes, then constant bit rate is better. I ALWAYS strongly recommend never to exceed 7000 kbit/s for COMBINED video and audio because many DVD players will glitch at higher bitrates with DVD¡ÓR/RW discs which have a lower contrast than pressed disks. And did you know that many commercial DVDs never exceed ~4500-5000 kbit/s? Same with audio. If your audio is 2.0 (stereo), then you gain no perceptible improvement in quality over 192 kbit/s (actually, it may even be poorer, as the quantisation depth may be reduced).

Aspect ratio: the first thing to do is to determine where the 16:9 is coming from. Many TVs force the settings, even against the settings on the disk. Are you sure that you have set it up to 4:3 or automatic? Then there are many TVs that have a most annoying habit of stretching the left and right quarters of the 4:3 image to fill a 16:9 screen, so that Oprah goes on a slimming course as she comes in from the side and walks to the centre of the screen.

Have you tried it on more than one DVD player/TV combination?

Have you tried it in the computer?

When you preview the project in the final stage of WS2, is the aspect ratio normal?

What are the project settings in WS2?