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Activity Forums DVD Authoring DVD that plays correctly 16:9 footage on 4:3 and 16:9 displays.

  • DVD that plays correctly 16:9 footage on 4:3 and 16:9 displays.

    Posted by Ovito Feroz on September 29, 2010 at 4:47 pm

    Hi there!

    I need to make a SD DVD with some footage that was shot in HD (16:9) that, after scaling it, plays the aspect ratio on both 4:3 and 16:9 displays without getting any image cropping or distortion.

    Whats the best way of doing it? 4:3 letterbox?

    I would really appreciate if you could help me – and send me some links i could get more information from.

    Thank you very much !!

    Dave Haynie replied 15 years, 9 months ago 3 Members · 2 Replies
  • 2 Replies
  • Michael Sacci

    September 29, 2010 at 9:23 pm

    Encode the video as 16:9 SD m2v. In DVDSP or whatever app you are using set the video track to 16:9 Letterbox. That is all you have to do.

  • Dave Haynie

    October 1, 2010 at 9:47 am

    The way to do this without cropping is letterboxing, which is usually the default. For 16:9 content played back on a 4:3 display, the DVD player has two choices: letterboxing or “pan and scan”. This is actually controlled in the DVD player’s setup menu — a user can select widescreen or P&S preference.

    Most of the time, you want letterboxing. It’s possible to author a DVD with pan and scan vectors (though I haven’t used an authoring program that supports this) to allow you to decide how the cropping will occur when viewed in P&S mode.

    My feeling is that, if I wanted 4:3, I would have shot for 4:3, so letterboxing is the only option. But I’m usually shooting with Blu-Ray/HD in mind anyway… 4:3 is rapidly becoming a thing of the past.

    -Dave

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