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1.66:1 for DVD
Okay, so here’s the deal…
I have NTSC DV footage that was shot at a 4:3 aspect ratio. This footage was then “letterboxed” to a 1.66:1 aspect ratio. I’m making a DVD of the finished product, using Final Cut Pro, Compressor, and DVD Studio Pro. But here’s the situation…
I’d like the 1.66:1 movie to utilize as much screen space as possible (when played from a DVD) on either a standard 4:3 television or a widescreen (HD-TV) 16:9 television. The problem is, 1.66:1 is wider than a standard 4:3 TV (it letterboxes the top and bottom of the image), but shorter than a 16:9 widescreen monitor. When exporting an MPEG-2 from the Final Cut Pro timeline, using Compressor, you can export an MPEG-2 that is formatted for 4:3, 16:9, 1.85:1, and 2:35:1. But no 1.66:1. If I export my 1.66:1 movie as a 4:3 MPEG-2, I get a letterboxed 4:3 MPEG-2. On a standard 4:3 television, the “letterboxed” 4:3 MPEG-2 looks perfectly fine, but when played on a widescreen HD-TV 16:9 screen, the image is not only letterboxed on the top and bottom, but it also leaves black spaces on the sides of the image.
What I ultimately want is for my 1.66:1 movie to fill the width of a 4:3 standard TV, and to fill the height of a 16:9 widescreen monitor.
Now, I’ve been able to create two MPEG-2’s. One is a 4:3 letterboxed MPEG-2 for standard TV’s. And the other is a re-sized 16:9 MPEG-2, where the movie fills the height of the frame, and leaves black at the edges. But on the DVD, I have to ask people to choose what kind of television they own: Standard or Widescreen. This may be very confusing to users, as seeing the option for “Standard” or “Widescreen” would make them think that one version is “pan and scan” and the other is “widescreen”… This isn’t the case since, in actuality, they’re BOTH widescreen, but one is just formatted for a regular, standard TV and the other is formatted for HD-TV.
Is there a way to make a 1.66:1 MPEG-2 that I don’t know of? Will a DVD player upsize a 4:3 letterboxed MPEG-2 when played on a widescreen TV to fill the height of the screen, but not the width? Or am I just completely out of luck?
I don’t want the image to be distorted through this whole process, and I just want my 1.66:1 movie to utilize as much screen space as possible, no matter what type of screen someone may be using.
Thanks for all your suggestions, and take care!
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3 Replies
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Drag your 1.66 edit into a 16X9 timeline. Export and compress as 16X9. That is the closest your going to get.
Hope this helps-
Matthew
Quad 2.5 G5
OSX 10.4.X
Ram 4GB
FCP 5.1/AE 6.5/DVDSP4 -
I found a compromise to the problem…
As we all know, 1.66:1 is out of date. Dead as a doornail. Over the hill. Except for film kids. Sure, it’s not widely used (which is why I’ve run into this problem, and everyone, including Apple, doesn’t seem to have an answer… Except for you, man, thanks), but hey, it’s still important to get a workflow goin’.
Once again, we live in a heavy DVD world. The format’s officially won over VHS (thank God… I was always a LaserDisc guy), and it’s hit its peak for some time now. 1.66:1 footage looks perfectly fine on a regular DVD. It’s basically just a “letterboxed” 4:3 MPEG-2, at 640×480 resolution. There’s no distortion, or anything. I’ve made DVD’s of this particular project in the past like this with no problem. However, I’m trying to “future-proof” this DVD for HD-TV’s.
More HD-TV’s are being bought now than regular televisions. So, while most people (by a long shot) own standard 4:3 television sets, it’s important to take into account that not everyone now, and certainly not over the course of the next 5-10 years, will be watching your DVD on a standard television. So, it’s time to prepare for 16:9 HD-TV sets.
This isn’t news to you guys, I know. But here’s the problem… 4:3 footage on a widescreen HD-TV looks totally fine. Sure, there’s a lot of blank space on the sides of the footage, but it looks fine and at least fills the height of the screen. 16:9 footage, 1.85:1, and 2.35:1 fill the entire width of a widescreen TV, and are supported by DVD’s. (1.85:1 and 2.35:1, to my knowledge, are encoded on DVD’s as “letterboxed” 16:9 MPEG-2’s… So they’re basically just 16:9 files.) The problem with 1.66:1 is that it’s caught in the middle. After a bunch of research the last couple days, there’s no way to make a 1.66:1 MPEG-2. This would be ideal since a DVD player, in theory, could “scale” the 1.66:1 MPEG-2 to fill either the width of a standard 4:3 television, or the height of a 16:9 HD-TV without distortion. But it’s tough luck, because this ain’t possible.
So, basically, that leaves two options. You can either create a “letterboxed” 4:3 MPEG-2 which will look fine on a standard 4:3 TV – but it will have black bars on the sides, as well as the top and the bottom, when played on a 16:9 widescreen HD-TV. Or you can create a 16:9 MPEG-2, where the 1.66:1 footage is scaled to fill the height of the 16:9 frame, and leaves black at the sides ONLY. The problem with this method is that, while the 1.66:1 footage now fills the height of a 16:9 HD-TV, it plays smaller in height on a standard 4:3 television, and has the black side bars visible on the small screen as well. And most people have standard TV’s right now, so for the moment… creating a 16:9 MPEG-2 with black at the sides really isn’t the best option.
Still, I thought, “Why not include two MPEG-2 versions on a DVD, and ask people to choose from the outset what kind of TV they own: standard or widescreen?” But the more I got going, I realized that asking people to choose whether they wanted the “standard” or “widescreen” versions is really confusing. People might confuse those options with commercial DVD’s, which give you the option for “fullscreen (pan and scan)” and “widescreen (letterboxed)” versions of a movie… when in fact, both of these MPEG-2’s would be *technically* widescreen, since they conform to the 1.66:1 aspect ratio, but they’re just formatted for two different types of screens.
So, I scrapped that idea.
The cool thing is, though, DVD Studio Pro offers another option… You can make a hybrid SD/HD DVD. When played on a standard SD DVD player, the DVD player will ONLY read the 4:3 SD MPEG-2. And when played on an HD-DVD player (or, I think, Blu-Ray… But I’ll have to check), or your Mac’s DVD Player, it’ll read the HD H.264 version. Since everyone who will own an HD-DVD player or Blu-Ray player will be playing their discs on an HD-TV, I decided to make a 16:9 H.264 upconverted version of the movie. So, I made a new 720p sequence in Final Cut Pro, copied over the footage, upsized everything to fill the height of the 16:9 frame (with 1:66:1 footage, go the the “Basic Motion” window and scale the video to 187), and exported it using the H.264 for HD-DVD in Compressor. So, at the end of this whole debacle, I have two video files… a 4:3 “letterboxed” MPEG-2 for the SD version of the DVD, and a 16:9 H.264 version with bars at the sides for the HD version.
I’ve been looking all over to see how to make one of these hybrid SD/HD DVD’s. You can see the option for them in the preference settings of the Apple DVD Player, and the DVD Studio Pro manual mentions it cryptically. But it’s not really obvious how to create a hybrid SD/HD DVD.
Basically, it works like this. Create the SD and HD versions separately, and then “build” each project. For the SD version, you should now have a VIDEO_TS and AUDIO_TS folders. For the HD version, you’ll have an HVDVD_TS (I think that’s what it’s called) folder. Then, put these three folders in the same location, and get ready to burn them. Now, I tried doing a “format” command in DVD Studio Pro, and chose the folder that contained these three “build” folders, but for some reason it kept telling me that I needed to remove either the VIDEO_TS or HVDVD_TS content from the “format” folder… So, basically, it wouldn’t let me make the hybrid SD/DVD player I wanted. I’m not sure what the reason is, but I found a workaround if anyone else encounters this…
In Roxio’s Toast 7, go to the “Data DVD” creation window, and choose a DVD-ROM. Then, drag your VIDEO_TS, AUDIO_TS, and HVDVD_TS folders into it, and hit “burn.” You now have a hybrid SD/HD DVD… Try it out in the Apple DVD Player (in OS 10.4 Tiger ONLY, as earlier OS’s don’t have the option to play hybrid SD/HD DVD’s), and you’ll see that you can choose from the outset whether you want to view the SD or HD versions of what’s encoded on the DVD.
The great thing about this solution is now I’m not forcing people to choose a version formatted for their specific TV… The hybrid SD/HD DVD will make the decision for them. Of course, a regular SD DVD player connected to an HD-TV won’t be able to read the HD content on the hybrid DVD (it’ll play the SD version), so I’m out of luck there, but at least this future-proofs the DVD and allows my 1.66:1 footage to be shown as best as possible no matter what TV it’s shown on, either now or in the future.
Anyway, it’s a long story, but if anyone else is curious about making a hybrid SD/HD DVD, or has run into this issue with 1.66:1 footage, I thought it’d be useful.
Thanks again for your help, and best of luck!
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Can I do what you are above but with HD QT files from FCP? I have a Canon HG10 and did log & transfer. Created a QT movie then exported to compressor using Highist quality DVD. It errors out. Can your process above only be done using Standard DV?
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