DVD Architect Aspect Ratio

[Carlton Rahmani]

PS Here’s a link to the video, itself:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dtswF50n7rQ

On the DVD, the quotation marks on the ‘epigraphs’ are basically clipped off. The beginning of some of the instructors names are clipped off as well.

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[Scott Francis]

There are overlays in both Vegas and DVD Arch that you can turn on showing title and action safe areas for TV’s. Unless you change you settings in Vegas to 4:3 and loose part of the actual video, you need to take in account that not all TV’s are going to show the picture all the way to the edge. Just a fact of life.
The one in Vegas is a grid icon next to the preview quality label on the top of the preview window. In DVDA you need to choose them in the VIEW drop down menu. There will appear as dashed white boxes over the preview and such. Use these as your guides when doing titling.
Hope this helps!

Scott Francis
Mind’s Eye Audio/Video Productions

[John Rofrano]

Suggestions. . ?

Well… you’ve asked us “why” but you haven’t really told us “what” you have done.

What are your project settings?

What is the aspect of your source video (I assume 16:9)

What are you render settings?

Problem is, it’s a 16×9 video, and when I play the dvd on a 4:3 CRT, the edges of the video exceed the dimensions of the TV screen.

A 4:3 TV doesn’t have a clue what to do with 16:9 and is not capable of playing it. What makes this work is the DVD Player that’s feeding the TV. The DVD Player has to be configured to show 16:9 and then it has to be told that the TV is 4:3. It will then letterbox the content correctly. It sounds like you may need to configure your DVD player correctly.

I don’t know how it looks on a widescreen plasma or lcd; I don’t currently have access to those

How can you be delivering widescreen content with no way to view it? You need to fix this because you’re “driving blind” as they say.

So what do I do? Do I need to re-render the video, itself, to a ‘4:3-friendly’ setting; and even if I do, how will this appear on a widescreen?

You need to make sure that your project properties, source video, and render properties are all set to Widescreen. Then you need to tell your DVD player to Letterbox widescreen video and that the TV that is connected to it is 4:3.

So… it may just be a DVD player issue.

~jr

http://www.johnrofrano.com
http://www.vasst.com

[Carlton Rahmani]

The project settings for the original video are 1280 X 720 pixels (I made it that size so it can be uploaded to youtube at a 720p setting, since they kind of downrez from major settings, I guess), but I rendered the Mpeg for the DVD at 720p.

As for being able to deliver widescreen stuff, my computer monitor is 16×9, and I rarely make DVDs for viewing. (I wish I could afford to get a high-def LCD or Plasma screen, but certain factors make that a financial improbability right now. So for editing I have to rely on why I seen on my comp screen.)

I DID try messing around with the DVD-Player settings on Architect–first at 16×9, then a 4:3–but the changes yielded the same result. Also, this video was for an outside party who had the same result while viewing the DVD on her own TV. Originally, I just thought it was just my cheap TV-DVD combo, but when an outside party reported the same problem to me, I thought I’d try and resolve the problem. Since it has never been an issue in the past, and typically using Architect’s default settings (with exception of changing the screen’s aspect ratio). . .or, for instance, a widescren DVD of Star Wars will show up completely, though letterboxed, on a 4:3 crt screen, but will also ‘fill’ a wide screen nicely.

. . .

[John Rofrano]

…but I rendered the Mpeg for the DVD at 720p.

Do you mean 720p as in 1280x720p or 720x480060i? Here is what you should be using.

In Vegas render with these settings:

Video Render type: MainConcept MPEG2
Video template: DVD Architect NTSC Widescreen video stream

Audio Render type: Dolby Digital AC-3 Pro
Audio template: Stereo DVD

Name the video file and the audio file with the same name (i.e., myVideo.mpg & myVideo.ac3) this is very important.

In DVD Architect create a new widescreen project with these settings:

Disc format: DVD
Project video format: MPEG2 720×480-60i 16:9 (NTSC)
Project audio format: AC-3 Stereo

Now drop the MPEG file that you rendered from Vegas onto the menu . The audio will come along with it. Make any other cosmetic changes you want and burn to DVD. This should create the proper DVD that will play just like the ones you buy in the store.

~jr

http://www.johnrofrano.com
http://www.vasst.com

[Carlton Rahmani]

Thanks. I think altering the Render Settings is going to help. I’ve only had Vegas 9 for a couple of months, and am used to Vegas 7’s rendering mpegs for Architect by default, whereas I guess you gotta specify with Vegas 9.

By 720p, I mean 720×480 progressive. Even though I first watched the DVD on my own TV, which is a crt, I still create videos for widescreens, using the 16×9 ratio. Always widescreen, always progressive scanning. . .particularly since I normally watch my own videos on my computer. But just to let you know, the person who I made the video for–the ‘third party’ I was earlier talking about–has a regular widescreen TV, and nonetheless is still experiencing the cutoff edges like I was talking about. (And it was a pity that I couldn’t get it completely right this time, since I made a really nice menu with custom play icons and all that stuff. . .I like experimenting, even with Architect.)

So, I think redoing the rendering settings will fix it. Will update you with the news.

[John Rofrano]

So, I think redoing the rendering settings will fix it. Will update you with the news.

Yes, please let me know if that fixed it. Otherwise we’ll have to see what else might be wrong.

~jr

http://www.johnrofrano.com
http://www.vasst.com

[Carlton Rahmani]

Tried it, pretty much to the same settings you described–both with the render properties and DVD properties–and the result is basically the same as before. Even tried adjust the aspect ratio of both the video AND the DVD to 704×480, and got the same kind of results. Tried a few variations from there, in both video rendering AND DVD settings.

However, just to see, I watched the video as a DVD on my computer–meaning, I took the burned DVD and played off that–and everything was fine. No cutoffs, or anything like that.

So I AM wondering if it’s something with the DVD settings, on both my home player, and on my client’s.

I’m not concerning myself with it too much anymore. I haven’t seen it, before (and that’s what’s most ‘concerning’ to me), but burning through this many ‘test’ DVDs to only get the same result is a little numbing, particularly when it could be something so simple as a setting on the DVD player.

Maybe I’ll take the DVD to Best Buy and see how it looks there. That would be fun.

[John Rofrano]

Maybe I’ll take the DVD to Best Buy and see how it looks there. That would be fun.

That will probably tell you if it’s the DVD or the settings on your player. I think its a good move.

~jr

http://www.johnrofrano.com
http://www.vasst.com