4:3 Menu on a 16:9 Dispslay

[wwaag]

I use TDA to create menus for my 4:3 home videos. The menu created is also 4:3. I have a Panasonic DVD player which "shrinks" 4:3 DVDs for proper display (no stretching) on a 16:9 TV (black stripes on the side). Here's the problem - the video's are displayed correctlly (i.e. shrunk with black bars on edges). However, the menu's area displayed "full screen" without the black bars and are thus "stretched". Any suggestions on how to correct this would be appreciated. Thanks.

wwaag

[guns1inger]

I don't use TDA, so I don't know if it has settings for this in the app, but there is provision in the ifo file to tell the playback device how to handle these situations. If TDA can't do it, you can use IFOEdit afterwards to make the required changes.

[wwaag]

Thought maybe it was something peculiar to TDA, so I tried DVD-Lab Pro. Same result--video OK but menus are stretched.

[wwaag]

Thanks gunslinger. I've got IFOedit but haven't a clue how to proceed as to exactly what to change. Any suggestions? Thanks.

wwaag

[guns1inger]

In DLP, open the project properties and you can set how a 4:3 menu should appear on a widescreen display.

In IFOEdit, open the first VTS IFO and look for the aspect ratio. Double-click on it to bring up a dialogue that lets you change the values.

[borax]

I think that your SA Player has a Option for it (I only know it from the other way round: 16:9 Menus get stetched in height on 4:3 TVs if the Player has been set up to use "Automatik Pan&Scan"). This would solve the problem for all DVDs without any additional work.
For the DVD itself the Option can be set with IfoEdit: Open (probably each!) IFO, click on the line:
VMGM_MAT-Video Manager Information Managment Table
in the upper window, and then doubleclick on the line:
[00000100] Video attributes of... (either VMGM VOBS or VTSM_VOBS)
In the popup window you may set the options for 'Static':
Automatic Pan&Scan
Automatic Letterboxed

Disable Automatic Pan&Scan and enable Automatic Letterboxed.

[wwaag]

Thanks for the replies. Made changes as suggested but still doesn't work--4:3 menus remain stretched without the sidebars. It seems that the options deal with how a 16:9 image is viewed on a 4:3 TV and not vice-versa. For whatever reason, my player will correctly "shrink" the video portions of the DVD, but will not "shrink" the static menus. I tried all cobinations of options available, but the result is the same. If all else fails, I can always create a 16:9 menu with 4:3 title sets for the video portion. Again, thanks.