Little problem with DVD Slideshow GUI

[kippax]

I'm trying to use this to create a slideshow that I can then transfer to my Panasonic DVD-R (via USB) in order to combine on a single un-finalised DVD that currently contains a video recording.

The only video format that I currently know works with this is avi.

The problem I'm having is that whatever I choose as the aspect ratio it always produces an avi file in 4:3, sometimes correctly proportioned, other times horizontally squashed. I've even tried experimenting with the pixel aspect ratio, but to no avail.

What am I doing wrong ?

[manono]

Since DVD Slideshow GUI makes DVDs, then it's supposed to have bad aspect ratio until it's played back. That is, at 720x576 people will look too tall and thin. If making an AVI you lose the ability to resize it as a DVD does. It's not 4:3 anyway. 720/576=1.25 or 5:4.

Your workflow sounds real screwy to me. You're taking the pics, making an AVI, and then later on you intend to make a DVD out of that? Why not take the video off of the DVDR and combine it with your DVD Slideshow GUI project. It supports the import of video, I believe.

[Nelson37]

AVI files do not respect aspect ratio settings. Been there, done that. Messed me all up.

[kippax]

manono... it may be a little screwy, but I have a broadcast on my the HDD of my DVDR that i need to combine onto a DVD with photgraphs that are my PC.

The DVDR is not capable of creating a DVD-R with both video and jpegs on it, so the best workround that i could come up with was to convert the jpegs to video on my PC. Move that to the DVDR HDD via the USB, then create a DVD with the 2 videos. As I've used the DVDR to watch avi before, this seemed the ideal format and method.

I should add that the DVDR drive on my PC is screwed.

Open to ideas ??

[kippax]

Since DVD Slideshow GUI makes DVDs, then it's supposed to have bad aspect ratio until it's played back. That is, at 720x576 people will look too tall and thin. If making an AVI you lose the ability to resize it as a DVD does. It's not 4:3 anyway. 720/576=1.25 or 5:4.

why then do they give the option for both 16:9 and 4:3 on the settings menu ?....

First time I've attempted to use this software, so bare with me.

[manono]

why then do they give the option for both 16:9 and 4:3 on the settings menu ?....

That question doesn't make a lot of sense. What you had originally said was:

The problem I'm having is that whatever I choose as the aspect ratio it always produces an avi file in 4:3

And it's not a 4:3 picture you're seeing, but a 720x576 5:4 one. Most PAL DVDs are 720x576. Whether you encode for 4:3 or 16:9 determines how it'll be resized at playback time. At 4:3, a 720x576 PAL picture will show people a bit too tall and thin. At 16:9, the 720x576 picture will show people even more tall and more thin. You might think of a 4:3 PAL DVD being resized to 768x576. A 16:9 PAL DVD will get resized to 1024x576 at playback. The original unresized picture for both 4:3 and 16:9 is 720x576. That's how the video is stored on the DVD.

Open to ideas ??

Can you do the reverse with your USB drive, put the video from the DVDR onto the USB drive and then transfer that to the computer? I'm assuming you converted those pics to XviD or DivX AVI, and not lossless. Pictures are particularly likely to be noticeably degraded by compressing multiple times using lossy codecs. My sugggestion, if you want this project to turn out as well as possible, is to spend $30 (20 pounds?) to buy yourself a new DVD-RW.

[kippax]

appreciate your patience but now i'm totally lost...

In preview it looks fine, its only when (after transfer) to the DVDR and play back from the HDD that it gets all screwed. Are you suggesting that once I burn it to the DVD-R from there that the aspect ratio will sort itself out ?

This is only a one off project for a friend, so can't really justify $30 spend.... wish i'd never offered now

I have other avi files both downloaded and converted that look fine once transferred to my HDD. Why can't I do it with a simple slideshow ?

I have a collection of high res images in various aspect ratios (some have been edited) which I simply want to put onto a 16:9 "bed" and convert into a video file that can be read by my DVDR.... surely it can't be that big a deal ???

[manono]

What are the resolutions of the AVIs, the ones compressed horizontally? If 720x576, then that'll be a problem for your DVDR. If you don't know, open one in GSpot or MediaInfo and find out. To be honest, I don't use DVDSlideShowGUI. I'm assuming they look 'normal' in there because it's showing you the final resized picture. Your downloaded AVIs turn out fine because they're not meant to be 4:3 or 16:9, but are 1:1. They're resolutions such as 624x352 (1.77:1), or 512x384 or 640x480 (1.33:1). Yours are 1.25:1 and meant to be resized by 4:3 (or 16:9, depending). Now, if you made those pics into 1024x576 or 624x352 (1.77:1), or 768x576 or 640x480 (1.33:1) and then sent them to your DVDR, the DVD it made would be fine (although of poorer quality than if you had done it properly). I doubt if DVDSlideShowGUI will do that for you but, as I said, I don't use it.

My posting in your thread was to explain your aspect ratio problems and to point out the obvious - the way you're doing it now has invited the problems you're having, and if you had a DVD-RW all your problems would go away. This isn't the fault of DVDSlideShowGUI.

[tin2tin]

I'm trying to use this to create a slideshow that I can then transfer to my Panasonic DVD-R (via USB) in order to combine on a single un-finalised DVD that currently contains a video recording.

Does your Panasonic DVD-R accept mpg? You should try with mpg.

It is not very clear to me when your problem occur and what the result is.

DVD slideshow GUI lets you set both the aspect ratio and the pixel aspect ratio(but normally you will not have to mess around with the latter). I don't know how your Pana DVD recorder works, but you should properly try to make sure that the video and the slideshow video both are in the same aspect ratio.

[DVD slideshow GUI eBook here]