Maestro aspect ratios. Changing makes any difference at all?

[defense]

Hi, I have been a little confused by this for a little while now. In DVD Maestro, there is an option from the main movie window, where you can change the aspect ratio from the default 4:3 to 16:9 LB/PS or 16:9 Letterbox, if the original movie applies to either of the options. Anyway, all the guides I have read to back up DVD'S and use Maestro to author, all say to make sure to change the aspect ratio to 16:9 LB/PS if the original is 16:9. Most of the time I have done this. Once or twice though, in the midst of doing 50 other things with other programs, I have just completely forgotten to change the aspect ratio FROM the default 4:3 to 16:9 PS/LB. When I reencoded "ME, MYSELF, & IRENE" I could of swore that movie was only Widescreen, but I didn't change the aspect Ratio to 16:9 and the movie ended up being full screen. Anyway, even though the movie is listed on Amazon.com as Widescreen, I'm wondering if there are some full screen options out there. Maybe there were two options on the disk for full or widescreen, and I ended up reencoding the fullscreen version, and as a result, that is why I THOUGHT Maestro made the movie 4:3, because I had left it at 4:3.

Anyway, I wanted to test this out, and I just recently encoded the Patriot, and when I went to author with Maestro, I made TWO seperate output folders. One with Maestro set at 16:9, the other with Maestro's default of 4:3. The original movie is 16:9, and when I checked BOTH output folders with DVD2AVI, they both listed as 16:9. Just like the original! So my question is does it make ANY difference whatsoever whether or not I change the aspect ratio in Maestro? All the guides make a point to tell you to change it, but It looks as though Maestro recognizes the aspect ratio from the pulldown file and leaves it the same way. If it doesn't matter whether or not I change the aspect ratio, what is the purpose of it even being there to begin with? This is pretty confusing, and if anyone can give any information on this, I would appreciate it. Thanks in advance

[defense]

Does anyone know what the purpose of the aspect ratio in Maestro is?

[Cheesemeister2000]

I found out that a 16:9 movie appears to be encoded as a 4:3 file and the infomation in the IFO file tells the DVD player / software to display it as 16:9 ( Squash it vertically ). I think the 16:9 option in Maestro is to enter that information in the IFO files when Maestro is compiling it.

( Try extracting just the video stream from a 16:9 DVD to an .m2v file and watching it in Media Player. It is displayed stretched vertically )

Cheesemeister2000

[defense]

@cheesemeister, thanks for the information. I am just curious though. Isn't a 4:3 movie, "fullscreen," while 16:9 can be anamorphic or widescreen? If Maestro changes the information in the .IFO file to correspond with what you select, then why when I select 4:3 on a known 16:9 movie, would the output play the movie at 16:9? Just like you said I am telling Maestro to display the information as 16:9 for 16:9 so it is squashed vertically. That makes sense, but I'm just curious why when I select 4:3 on a 16:9 film, why Maestro wouldn't put that in the .IFO file and display the image as "full screen." Instead, it plays as though I selected 16:9 anyway. Do you have any ideas as to why? Thanks again

[Cheesemeister2000]

Not quite sure what you mean.

Do you mean you have put a 16:9 encoded film into maestro, left the maestro setting at 4:3, burnt to DVD and the DVD has played at 16:9 instead of the 4:3 setting in maestro ?

You can also leave the setting in maestro and use IFOEDIT to change the .IFO file to display the movie in 16:9 format.

I`m not sure what the difference between Anamorphic and Widescreen are.

Cheesemeister2000

[defense]

Thanks again for the reply. Yes, that is exactly what I mean. I have put a 16:9 movie into Maestro, forgot to change that damn default 4:3 setting, and the output was STILL 16:9. I mean, that is great for me, I would think, because I get my result. The same 16:9 original is now a perfect 16:9 backup. So I'm just curious why the output wouldn't be 4:3 or fullscreen if I left the setting at 4:3 in Maestro? Do you?

[Cheesemeister2000]

Dunno then !

I recently backed up Minority Report and did a test burn to a DVD-RW without changing the setting to 16:9 and it played as 4:3 !

Cheesemeister2000

[defense]

Humm, that's odd because I tested a couple of other movies and left the default setting to 4:3 and when I ran DVD on the Vobs from the output folder, DVD2AVI showed the MOVIE as 16:9 and I could clearly see it was 16:9. Anyway, I will try it with Minority Report, just to see. Thanks for the info.

[stormcrow]

Theres a difference between the pixel aspect ratio and the display ratio. With DVD Maestro, the option is to set the display ratio as 4:3 or 16:9. When you check later with DVD2AVI, it's showing you the pixel aspect ratio, which is what came from your encoded m2v, regardless of what option chosen in Maestro. What difference this all makes is some players do not have the option to properly read the pixel aspect ratio and instead look at the dictated display ratio (WMP perhaps is one of these?). If a player has the option to sustain aspect ratio, it most likely will still display the video at the correct size. I've had it happen both ways myself, as a personal recommendation, I would say always switch to the proper display ratio.

Another factor is doing anamorphic video. I cant remember the outcome of switching 4:3/16:9 in Maestro with an anamorphic file (thats 2.35:1 pixel ratio for those who dont know, many movies are anymore), but I have a feeling the same outcome would result as with a normal 16:9.

Hope this helps.

[Cheesemeister2000]

I never tried running the VOB`s created by Maestro back through DVD2AVI and checking the aspect ratio. I just played them in WinDVD off the hard disk and also from a DVD-RW. WinDVD played it back as 4:3.

Cheesemeister2000

[defense]

@ Cheesemeister, thanks once again for your response. I think this topic is not worth your time, in all seriousness. It isn't that big a deal. I think you are right though, because when I ripped Me, Myself and Irene, I got a 4:3 movie, and I think that is because I left the setting the same in Maestro. That is odd that DVD2AVI would play it at 16:9 though. The movie itself was 16:9, so I think to be sure I will burn on a +RW that came with my burner and see for sure. The truth is that I have learned to make sure to take things step by step and to make sure I don't do anything without first going back slowly, one by one. I think if I do that, I should be ok in the future. Thanks once again for all of your time, your info has been helpful.

[noobee]

if you still have the encoded .m2v file, you could use pulldown.exe -aspect_ratio 16:9 ... to change the pixel aspect ratio in the video stream. in this case, i think the player would display it with the right aspect ratio.