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Currently few of the consumer level DVD authoring programmes that I am aware of support true 16:9 anamorphic authoring. By this I mean producing a disc that will fill the screen of a widescreen TV without using its 'zoom' function (which looses resolution) and also displays at with the correct aspect ratio, (that is between black bars) on a standard 4:3 TV. Whatever type of TV (or computer) the disc is played on 'circles must remain circles' for me to be happy!! This method of making an anamorphic disc outlined below has been tested on SpruceUp 1.1, and I can see no reason whilst it should not be suitable for use with other authoring packages. |
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For anyone wishing to make a 16:9 DVD from a camcorder source there are currently 2 options 1. Use the "16:9" mode that is really pseudo widescreen. This is no wider than normal, crops the top and bottom off the frame, then (in the case of Sony camcorders at least) re scales the 432 centre pixels up to 576 pixels to give a 'tall, thin' 720x576 video image. 2. Invest in an anamorphic widescreen "squeeze" lens such as the one used by Ross McLennan. This retains the full 576 pixel height and stretches the horizontal axis to give a true widescreen, 720x576 image. This is obviously the best option, Ross has recently returned from a month long trip to New Zealand with this set up, and has produced some great results!
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Since SpruceUp (and most other budget DVD authoring products I know of) does not support widescreen the aspect ratio of the project will look wrong at this stage. Assemble the clips and create the page backgrounds and correct the aspect ratio of them if necessary so they will appear correct when complete. For example, a background with a circle on it would need to start off as 1024 by 576 bitmap, then resized to the DVD standard of 720 by 576 to look right when finished. When it is complete, use the export project as titleset option. This produces AUDIO_TS and VIDEO_TS folders on the hard drive, rather than writing it to DVD-R(W). This allows the next, most important step. |
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Regardless of the shape of the TV image, full resolution DVD video is always 720 pixels wide 576 pixels high (for PAL). The information that tells the DVD player its shape is contained not in the video file itself but in the accompanying *.ifo files within the VIDEO_TS folder. By modifying these files it is thus possible to make the 4:3 SpruceUp titleset behave as an anamorphic widescreen disc. Download the freeware utility InfoEdit. Extract, run the executable and use this to open each *.ifo file. Whilst this at first looks quite complicated the modifications we need to make are pretty basic. |
Video: MPEG-2 720x576 (PAL) (PAL 625/50)(4:3) (not specified perm. display)
This brings up a dialogue box "Video attributes" in which all sorts of parameters can be altered just by clicking on the appropriate radio button. Set the Aspect Ratio to 16:9 and the Static to Automatic Letterboxed. I believe this last attribute specifies how the video appears on a standard 4:3 TV. Click ok, then click save and answer left to also save the *.bup file as well. Continue working through all the *.ifo files until all the video has been changed to 16:9 widescreen.
The VTS_01_0.IFO file is the important one here since it contains the menu information. Infoedit reveals
Video: MPEG-2 720x576 (PAL) (PAL 625/50) (4:3) (not specified perm. display)
Getting the menu's correct so that everything is right regardless of whether the DVD is played back on a standard or widescreen TV is the most difficult part of the whole operation. The options when creating a 16:9 DVD are
a. Stick with 4:3 standard menus. This is the simplest option, and can look quite reasonable on widescreen TVs so long as the background colour is set to black.
b. Change the aspect ratio to 16:9 auto letterbox. The menu itself then becomes widescreen and everything looks just fine when played back on a widescreen TV. Unfortunately if the TV is a standard 4:3 unit then another problem becomes apparent. Whilst the menu bitmap is in widescreen the button overlays remain 4:3 (example here). This means that if the buttons are on the centre horizontal they look ok, but if the button is towards the top or bottom of the frame then the overlay is well off where it should be. A work around for this problem is to ensure that all the selection buttons are located along the centreline (like this), which requires some careful menu design to look acceptable.
c. Change Aspect Ratio to unspecified (all the static attributes unchecked). Using this technique the menus show up fullscreen on my standard TV, and in 16:9 form on a widescreen TV, or in WinDVD on the PC. Since the menu fills the screen regardless of shape it is best to keep the menu design to a fairly abstract design since "circles cannot remain circles" in both 4:3 and 16:9. On all the set-ups I've been able to test this on this has worked. However when Ross McLennan tested this disc, it still exhibited the problems with the overlays being off.
Since I do not personally own a widescreen TV, I'm grateful to all those friends out there who have helped out with the testing of discs.
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Using Nero (or any other DVD burning programme) choose the DVD-ROM (UDF/ISO) option, make sure the Joliet box is unchecked and the ISO level is set to 1. Add the AUDIO_TS and VIDEO_TS folders to the project and burn to DVD-R(W).
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So far I've tried discs made in this manner on a Yelo800 DVD player connected to a Sony 4:3 TV; on Panasonic and Pioneer widescreen TVs and on the PC using WinDVD software player. They behave as expected on all systems, displaying the video footage as widescreen on the PC, correctly leterboxed on the standard TV, and filling the widescreen TV (without resorting to using the zoom control). If anyone else has tried this technique I'd be very pleased to hear about it, drop me a line at video@garethhorne.co.uk and let me know! |