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Hello everybody
OK I said I would put a friend's videotapes on to DVD for viewing on widescreen TV, but am very confused even after reading lots of this forum.
I have used my DVD recorder to record from VCR and produced VOB files.
In Videostudio I have captured the VOB files and to save them I have shared them as mpg. Is that OK so far?
If I put one on timeline, Project Properties show
=========
PAL (25 fps)
MPEG files
24 bits, 704 x 576, 25 fps
Upper Field First
(DVD-PAL), 4:3
Video data rate: Variable (Max. 6300 kbps)
Audio data rate: 256 kbps
Dolby Digital Audio, 48 KHz, 2/0(L,R)
=========
What I want to attain (or think I want to attain) is a 16:9 menu and then the clips will have black bands at the sides.

So I then start afresh in Videostudio, do Share, create disk, Add video files (mpgs). At this stage 4:3 is still showing at the bottom. So for widescreen output I switch this to 16:9 and burn.

BUT I'm wondering if after capturing the VOBs I should have chosen 16:9 at that stage and saved them to mpgs presumably with the black bands at the sides.
Would that have had the same result?
And how should I annotate the DVD insert - aspect ratio 4:3 or 16:9 or what ? I don't want to put Widescreen and my friend is disappointed to see the black bands.
Any advice in all this would be greatly appreciated

breadman

Take a look at forum member Trevor Andrew's advice on working with widescreen.

Any 4:3 video will have black side bands when viewed on a wide screen...that cannot be avoided.

You were doing it right the first time.

Set project properties to 16:9 and burn to DVD as 16:9.

This will give you a 16:9 menu and the video will be 16:9 but will appear like 4:3 with black bands on side.

The same DVD watched on a 4:3 screen will have black bands all around (pillar box & letter box).

And how should I annotate the DVD insert... I don't want to put Widescreen and my friend is disappointed to see the black bands.

I made a little logo with a square box around it that says:

Full
Screen

And another with a rectangle around it that says::

Widescreen

I would label it "fullscreen"... I doesn't much matter if the black bars are embedded in the video or generated by the TV.

The only time I've tried changing the aspect ratio was when I had a widescreen-letterboxed VHS tape. In that situation, you can end-up with black bars all the way around!

Any 4:3 video will have black side bands when viewed on a wide screen...that cannot be avoided.

Not so. See Trevor's guide.