I have, for some time and through many version of Video Studio, created DVD's of video captured with my Sony Camcorder and other VHS sources. I blended these videos with still photos and made productions which I thought were pretty good.
Enter my newest Sony HC-96E DV Camcorder which has 16:9 "wide screen" mode. I just finished creating a production with some of this new 16:9 video, but kept the older 4:3 aspect ratio for my Video Studio Production. Photos and Video look correctly proportioned when played on an older TV, ie not wide screen format.
Now I'm trying to create a wide-screen 16:9 production and have been having some problems and questions. The problem is that my wide screen productions do not display correctly on our NEW Sony KDL Bravia 46" (46w4000E) flat screen TV when set in wide screen 16:9 mode. The problem is that the video all looks fine, but the photos seem to be streatched to fit the screen without respect for the initial dimensions. The photos are from various cameras and several deminsions but mostly 3008x2000 (Nikon D70) or 3072x2304 (Panosonic DMC-TZ3).
My process basically follows the "best practices" as well as I recall:
0. Forgot to say I'm using version 10+
1. Set Project Properties to be same as the downloaded DV file from my DCR-96e Sony camcorder - PAL, AVI, Type 1, ... and 16:9 aspect ratio.
2. Create Video Studio timeline file with photos and video, music track and titles.
3. Create an AVI file of the production "same as Project Properties"
4. Create a MPEG file from the AVI file. Again 16:9 when specifying the file properties
5. Using the Video Studio DVD Wizard and the MPEG file from 4 above, I create my menus, etc
6. When I reach the DVD burn page, I find I have another place to specify 16:9 aspect ratio, even though the MPEG file is already in that format. When I change it from 4:3 to 16:9 I get a warning about issues relating to changing the aspect ratio.
My questions:
1. Does changing the aspect ratio on the "burn page" noted above have any effect if the source MPEG file is already 16:9?
2. Any ideas why the photos are not in the correct proportions when displayed in 16:9 mode even though the productions is supposed to be 16:9?
Thanks.....RDK