Mixed aspect ratios (16:9 and 4:3) on one disc

cpagonis · Post by **cpagonis** » Thu Nov 13, 2008 10:03 am

Is it possible to make a DVD in MF6 for todays widescreen TVs that displays a widescreen menu and then plays a 4:3 clip without stretching it?

I have authored a DVD using MF6 that plays fine on a 4:3 set connected to a stand-alone DVD player and another 4:3 set connected to a playstation 2 and on computers with either a normal or widescreen monitor. The widescreen menu is nicely letterboxed and the 4:3 clips (which I rendered to 'dvd compliant files' in VS11) play full frame with no distortion of any kind. Just right! The problem I have is when I play it on a DVD player connected to my widescreen TV. In this instance the menus fill the screen perfectly, which is what I want, but the 4:3 clips are stretched laterally, which is not what I want. I have to keep switching aspect ratio between menus and video clips!

I find it difficult to believe it is a setting on my DVD player as I have watched many Hollywood discs with widescreen films and menus and 4:3 extras, and have not had to adjust anything.

is there some setting or switch in MF6, or even VS11 that I need to change? Can MF6 cope with mixed ratios?

I have searched through the forum but have not been able to find any problem like mine. The few that seemed similar proved difficult to understand - both the questions and answers.

Help would be appreciated as people are waiting for this collection of 1970s home movies.

cpagonis · Post by **cpagonis** » Mon Nov 17, 2008 2:44 pm

I just want to have one disk that can keep the menus and videos in proportion no matter what TV it is being shown on. I don't want the viewers to have to keep changing the aspect ratio when they move between menu and clips.

Other threads imply you just drop a video clip rendered as 4:3 into a 16:9 project and it should work. It didn't!! On a 4:3 tv the menu is squashed and the video is fine. On a 16:9 tv the menu is fine and the video clips are stretched. Am I doing something wrong? Can MF6 actually do this?

Help

GregK · Post by **GregK** » Thu Nov 20, 2008 4:34 am

Not that I know of.....and I've done many disc projects mixing aspect ratios (widescreen movie plus full frame trailer, etc.). The stretching aspect on a 16x9/HD tv really doesn't bother me anyway.

The reason some studio-made discs with 4x3 bonus features (such as a "making of" documentary, etc.) don't look stretched or squashed on a 16x9 tv is simply because the 4x3 video has had padding (black borders) added on the sides of the 4x3 image, essentially turning that video into a 16x9 anamorphic video to match the main movie or menu screens. I just noticed such a use of border padding on a disc I watched a couple of days ago. Most of the time when bonus features are 4x3 on a disc which is otherwise 16x9 anamorphic, the bonus features looked "squashed" down a bit on my HDTV.....but this one I watched the other night had the padding added on the sides of the 4x3 features, with the 4x3 image centered on my screen.

Only way I would know how to make this work in all your 16x9 projects is to process the 4x3 video with the free program called SUPER!, which will allow you to do any sort of either cropping or padding of the video image....and you could pad the sides with black (or actually any color you choose the padding/borders to be), keeping the original 4x3 image centered on your screen for 16x9 display. Keep in mind, however, that doing such a padding will result in the video being centered on a 4x3 tv with a LOT of black borders surrounding the entire video.

By the way....of course everything looks as it should be on your 4x3 television, because your DVD player creates the black borders above and below the image area when you play a 16x9 anamorphic disc on the 4x3 tv.