Half D1 resolution problem

[sebrame]

A friend has given me several mini DVD's he recorded with his camera that he wants consolidated on a couple of DVD-R's with a menu. Easy job...right? Well...his camera records at 512 x 480, and when I convert the VOB files to MPEG and place in a timeline in Adobe Encore, all is well - except when I build. I get an error saying that the resolution isn't supported by DVD. Is there any way of making this work short of re-encoding the MPEG's to 720 x 480 or another legal resolution ?

Thanks all,
Steve

[guns1inger]

half-D1 is legal, but some of the older versions of Encore did not support it (in fact they would only support 720 x nnn). Either upgrade to a version that does support it, or if none do, use an authoring tool that actually observes fully the DVD specification. GUIForDVDAuthor is free, powerful and will accept your files.

[sebrame]

I'm using Encore CS3. Guess I'll try the other app.

Thanks!

[guns1inger]

Hang on a moment. I have just re-read your post, and 512 x 480 is not half-D1, or in fact DVD legal. Can you confirm that resolution using g-spot.

[jagabo]

You could try the "patch" method to fool Encore into thinking the frame size is legal.

[sebrame]

Sorry, my error...Windows Media Player was reporting the size as 512 x 480, but g-spot shows it at 352 x 480. At any rate, Encore CS3 only accepts NTSC resolutions according to their Help section, so I'm re-encoding to that size.

[sebrame]

"patch" method? I'm not familiar, but willing to learn.

[FulciLives]

Rather than re-encode ... just use a DVD authoring program that properly accepts Half D1 resolution.

Half D1 resolution is DVD Video compliant. The problem is Adobe Encore.

- John "FulciLives" Coleman

[sebrame]

Yep...I've figured that out. Any advice on a program that'll do that?

[guns1inger]

GUIForDVDAuthor is free and very capable (wait - didn't I say that in my first post ?). Otherwise, pretty much anything else, from DVD Workshop to DVD Architect to DVD Lab Pro.