> question 1: how can 16:9 and 4:3 both use 720×480?
The Pixel Aspect Ratio (PAR) is different. This means that the pixels do no represent a square like on your computer screen but rather a rectangle. At 720, 4:3 has a PAR of 0.9091 and at 16:9 the PAR is 1.2121. If you do the math, you’ll see that 720 x 0.9091 = 654 wide and 720 x 1.2121 = 873 wide. So 4:3 is 654×480 and 16:9 is 873×480 in square pixels.
> question 2: when i am editing in vegas what do I need to make my settings.
Well… the HDR-SR11 normally shoots AVCHD at 1940×1080 but I assume you are using it as an SD camera since you mentioned 720×480 so you should use the NTSC DV Widescreen (720×480, 29.970 fps) project template in Vegas.
When you are done editing, render using the MainConcept MPEG-2 type and the DVD Architect NTSC Widescreen video stream template for video and the Dolby Digital AC-3 type for audio.
In DVD Architect (since the topic of this post was DVD Architect help and you didn’t actually ask any DVD Architect questions), use DVD Widescreen template as well unless you wan to deliver 4:3 menus. The videos will still be 16:9 and 4:3 regardless of the project settings in DVD Architect because the project settings only control the menu format if you supply the videos as MPEG2 already.
> question 3: Is there a a way to make 2 formats of the same video, 1 4:3 and 1 16:9 and put them both on the same dvd?
Yes but why would you want to? Just create a widescreen version and let the 4:3 people watch a letter boxed picture. They should be use to it from Hollywood DVD’s by now. Besides, it will give them incentive them to buy a new TV which they will need on Feb 17, 2009 anyway. 😉
But seriously… you will need to author it twice and render it twice and hope that you have enough room for both formats on a single DVD. (you could always burn a Double-Layer Disc)
The easiest way to do this is to edit for widescreen. When that’s done, create a DV 4:3 project in Vegas and drop the widescreen project into it as a nested project. Then use Pan/Crop on the nested project event using the Match Output Aspect option to crop the video to 4:3. Then render the 4:3 version.
~jr
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