16:9 letterboxing

[samkrit]

Hi:
I used my new Sony DCR-HC42 camcorder to record my daughter's wedding. The format that was set was 16:9. I want to make a DVD from this recording. I have ULead Video Studio 7 SE-DVD, and Roxio Easy Media Creator 7 in my computer (win XP, 40G, 356MB Ram, P4). When I capture the video using either program, I get a squeezed result. What I want is a 4:3 letterboxed on the top and bottom. How can I accomplish this? I don't see any settings in either program for aspect ratio. I'd appreciate your help. Thanks,

Sam K.

[thecoalman]

I'm 99.9 percent positive neither supports 16:9, you can use them if you wish though. Just go through all the steps to create the DVD but don't burn to disk, instead create the DVD to folders on your HDD. Use ifoedit to change the 16:9 flag in the ifo file so that the video displays correctly when played from a standalone.

16:9 and 4:3 use the same video resolution, the aspect is determined by flag, in turn the DVD player adjust the video to the correct aspect. The ifo file is just a text file, if you follow the link to the tool look below for some of the guides to use it. You'll find instructions on how to do this.

In the end your better off upgrading, UVS9 supports 16:9, I'd guess the newest version of Roxio does too. I'd suggest Ulead though or look around under the tools section. There's plenty of free tools to get the job done if you want to learn how to use them.

[MarkTwo]

Hi Samkrit

The easiest way is to upgrade to Video Studio 8. That version handles 16:9 video files OK. I recently bought a digital video card that only feeds out 16:9 and VS 7 would give me squashed pictures when I tried to edit it.
VS8 lets me edit out the commercials, and gives you a widescreen output.

Mark