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Enhance for widescreen in Vegas/DVDA?
I have a project shot in HDV, which is natively 16:9.
I want to make a standard definition DVD of this.
BUT, I want it to be “enhanced for widescreen televisions”. In other words, when it’s played on a widescreen TV, it will not show letterboxing at the top and bottom, but the DVD player will “stretch” the image to fit the entire television.
When it plays on a 4:3 tv, you see the whole image letterboxed.
I know this is possible. But how do I do it with the Vegas / DVD Architect combo?
1) Do I render the project as NTSC DV? Or do I have to export it as some kind of widescreen HD format before it gets authored onto DVD?
2) In DVD Architect, under File — Optimize DVD, there is an option in the dropdown menu called Project Video Format called “NTSC Widescreen”. Will *this* be the “enhanced for widescreen” option that I’m looking for?
(I have no widescreen TV myself, so I want to do some research here before diving in and just trying different options, and then bringing DVDs somewhere where they have such a TV!)
Thanks in advice for any help.
Robbie
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10 Replies
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When you render from Vegas, you will want to use the “Main Concept mpeg-2” option with the “DVD Architect Widescreen Video Stream” template.
Then render your audio out to AC3 as a seperate stream. This will get you a widescreen dvd.
Now, even though DVDA flags your video as widescreen, people’s TV sets/dvd players are different and can misinterpret that flag or they may have settings that cause it to be shown differently.
j razz
https://www.jrazzcreations.com
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Jeremy, thank you for this response. I have tried it and it seems we’re on the way to solving the problem. However there were some concerns.
The image, when rendered to NTSC 24p DVD Architect Widescreen, had a very slight “pillarboxing” problem at the left and right edges. There were black vertical lines running down each side, about 10 pixels wide.
It showed this way in the Vegas preview, in DVD Architect, and indeed on the finished DVD I authored. Any idea why this might happen? The image did not look at all squeezed.
I am trying to figure out why this might happen to an HDV image. Any thoughts?
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I’m sorry Jay, I don’t understand what you mean, can you explain?
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The margins on the left and right are normal in the Vegas preview. I have not noticed them on an actual TV. I believe that in vegas they are due to you using a par of 1.333 on a par 1.000 computer monitor. I could be wrong on that but that is what I am thinking.
In addition, all TV’s crop areas of the screen that you can see on your pc. I would be very surprised if you could really see this on a consumer tv that is set to display widescreen material.
Take a look at the DVD on a TV again and see if you can really see the lines there. If so, what type/model tv do you have? Also, try it on another TV as well if you have the means.
j razz
https://www.jrazzcreations.com
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Jeremy, thanks, I’m going to have to try this on various TVs, including widescreens (probably just go to Best Buy and ask to try their setups). I couldn’t see the margins on my 4:3 tv at home, but that TV has VERY bad cropping around the borders anyway, so I wasn’t expecting to see it. On a positive note, the DVD player did letterbox the picture and the proportions were correct.
A side question, when I authored the sample in DVDA it said it was necessary to re-compress the video data. But the file was only 550 megs, so why was this necessary? Does it ALWAYS re-compress the data, even if it’s not too big and it’s in the correct video format?
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The pillarboxing is due to some weirdness in aspect ratio here. Technically, 16:9 in NTSC DVD maps to 704×480 pixels in 16:9 mode, so if you strictly convert from most HD formats to DVD, you get these 8 pixel pillarboxes on either side of the video. This is well outside the title-safe area, and is extremely likely to not show up on SD televisions.
You can eliminate this by unchecking the “preserve aspect ratio” setting on your video tracks.. that forces whatever video you have to render to the full size of the output video.
Aspect ratio on your render is just metadata… there’s some data that indicates if the rendered video is considered 16:9 or 4:3, but there’s no other salient difference.
That’s kind of how DVDs work, too. There’s a global setting (well, close enough) that indicates to a player whether the video is 16:9 or 4:3. Additionally, players all have a setting somewhere to determine what to do in the presence of 16:9 video for a 4:3 screen. The usual options are letterbox or “pan and scan”… the DVD can supply pan and scan vectors, to decide where the 4:3 aperture will be placed over the 16:9 video. Without pan and scan vectors, you get a 4:3 centered aperture.
Years back, when I first got into DVD creation, I was using primitive software that didn’t support 16:9 mode. Since I was already shooting everything 16:9, I was able to edit the DVD settings after authoring the disc (at least for fairly simple discs), changing the 16:9 bit using a tool called IFOEdit.
Older systems do nothing special for a 4:3 video on a 16:9 display.. the assumption is that the display itself has upscaling/format controls, which is usually true. More modern players will automatically pillarbox a 4:3 video attached to a 16:9 display, and may have settings to enable/disable this behavior.
-Dave
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If you’re rendering using a “DVD Architect” template (or some variation thereof), DVDA should absolutely accept the MPG file without recompression.
You should double-check your project settings in DVDA. As I mentioned in an earlier post, the 16:9 vs. 4:3 mode is kind of a global setting (it’s actually part of a thing called a titleset… DVDs can have multiple titlesets, but DVDA only permits a single titleset). This is controlled in the “Project Properties” dialog. Fire that up, go to the “Properties” tab, and look at the “Aspect ratio” setting. Make sure that says “16:9”. Some of the other properties are just for MPEG-2 generated by DVDA, not important.
Another thing to consider… aren’t you rendering 24p video? In DVD land, 24p video is stored at 60i video with a flag that says “24p”, or something like that. Basically, you encode the video including a 3:2 pulldown. Players that know what to do with 24p reverse-telecine this; others simply play it as if it were 60i. But if you give DVDA straight 24p MPEG-2, it’ll re-render..
The is essentially the same thing tape-based 24p camcorders have always done. Technically speaking, the format for 24p DVD is called “24pA”, or “advanced pulldown”. Standard 3:2 pulldown repeats the 2:3:2:3 cadance, while 24pA does 2:3:3:2. This prevents any useful 24p frame from being split between two 60i frames… it’s kind of technical.. you can find a good article on this on Wikipedia, look up “24p”. There’s a “DVD Architect 24p NTSC Widescreen video” template that imports just dandy into a widescreen DVDA project without recompression. I’m pretty sure that’s a stock template… if it’s actually one of mine, I can forward details.
Fortunately, going to Blu-Ray, they support natural 24p. The main advantage being more efficiency.. in 24pA, you’re compressing redundant data, stuff that’s just going to get tossed out for any progressive-scan player.
You can always check the “File/Optimize Disc…” dialog to see what DVDA thinks of your various assets. Usually, re-rendering is due to some difference in settings between your DVDA project and your assets. Often, particularly for audio, you can simply change settings in DVDA.
-Dave
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Dave, thanks for your info.
The “Project Properties” settings says “NTSC Widescreen (720 x 480)”, but not “16:9”. I assume this is equivelent?
As for the 24p, I am rendering it out of Vegas as “DVD Architect 24p NTSC Widescreen” with a 2:3 pulldown. There seems to be no option for 2-3-3-2 pulldown. Is this why DVD Architect needs to re-render, because of the 2-3-3-2 pulldown? If so, is there a way to put that pulldown in from Vegas while making it NTSC Widescreen?
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I’m pretty sure the “DVD Architect 24p…” template does 24pA. I generated a little video in that format, dropped it into DVDA, and, at least according to the “Optimize” dialog, my video was just dandy.. no re-rendering necessary.
I’m referring to the project properties in DVDA, not Vegas. You should go to “File/Properties” and go to the “Properties” tab. Here, you should have “Aspect Ratio” set to “16:9”, “Resolution” set to “720×480 (NTSC)”, and “Frame Rate” set to “29.97”.
Next, add you video clip, and open the “Optimize Disc” dialog. Select your video clip, then “Video 1”, and you should see it say “Recompress No”, “Aspect Ratio 16:9” and “Frame Rate 23.976 progressive”.
-Dave
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Dave, thanks for all your detailed help. But nothing is working! Ahhh! This is driving me nuts.
First of all, I am using DVD Architect 3.0c, build 133. Is that the one you are using?
Second, in the File — Properties menu, I do not have a setting for 16:9. There is no choice for Aspect Ratio whatsoever. I only have a resolution one that says NTSC Widescreen (720 x 480). It seems like a minor point, but sorta disturbing that our programs are so different.
Then when I go to the Optimize menu and select my video, it does NOT give me the option to NOT recompress the video, even though the vid is only 800 megs. On the right it just says “Recompress settings”, and my options are Use Default Bitrate (yes, no), Bitrate, Aspect Ratio, Resolution and Frame Rate.
No matter what I do I cannot convince DVDA to take the project without recompressing!
Is my copy junk? Should I just upgrade?
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