Authoring a widescreen DVD

[wienerbeast]

I exported an XVid file, using Adobe Premiere 6.5 via the Mpeg exporter. The video works fine on my computer, but I can't find a program to author this mpeg file on to a DVD and to keep the widescreen 2.35:1 ratio. It is 640x272. I've now learned that my DVD Workshop and Ulead Movie Factory stretches the file to fullscreen. I've tried IFOEdit to create a DVD compliant VIDEO_TS file, but the result if green and garbled. TempGenc won't let me open the file to reencode it, and I tried changing the Direct Show thing. I have the video in both a single *.mpg file and a *.m2v and *.mpg audio file. Perhaps there is a better way to export via Adobe Premiere? I read somewhere else that there was a process to do this with VirtualDub, but that won't allow me to open the file, I get an error message. Any help, especially a one step solution would be greatly appreciated. Perhaps there is some way to fix this with one of Ulead's programs? Thanks

[Vejita-sama]

Are you trying to make an anamorphic DVD or a widescreen DVD. There's a difference. An anamorphic DVD has a video stored at 720x480 that is flagged as 16:9. You then set your standalone to either 4:3 (standard tv) or 16:9 (widescreen tv).

If a 16:9 flagged DVD is played on a standalone set to 4:3 the DVD player will letter box the movie on the fly. If it's played on a standalone set to16:9 the DVD player does nothing.

There are three DAR (display aspect ratios) that you're likely to encounter.

1:1 - PC video. ALL PC video should have a DAR of 1:1, a Divx back up of a DVD might have some from a 16:9 source, but a properly encoded DivX should be converted to 1:1 so it looks right on the PC

4:3 - standard TV

16:9 - film and widescreen TV

Under the 16:9 flag there are several ratios:

1.85:1 - academy flat
2.35:1 - anamorphic widescreen
1.77:1 - wide screen TVs

Ok, with that breif history/background out of the way. You say that you are converting from a xvid source. What's the DAR of your xvid (it should be 1:1 but people often f&ck it up )

Anamorphic DVDs are ONLY supported at 720x480 (according to the DVD spec, some standalones will accept anamorphic 352x480 video streams, but more than likely they'll read this as a widescreen movie).

What you need to do is encode the xvid to MPEG2 at 720x480, but add black bars at the top and bottom as necessary to preserve the aspect ratio when the DVD players letterboxes the movie on the fly.

Then author with a program that allows you to choose 4:3 or 16:9 flags (I use DVD Maestro for this, I'm sure that there are other programs, but I can't name them off the top of my head).

[SupaCoopa]

First of all open the original XVid AVI (and not the Premiere exported file) in TMPEG. You should be able to open and edit any AVI in TMPEG if you have the codecs and it correctly plays in Media Player. If it gives you an error message write it down and share it with the forum!

Since your source if widescreen, you can go the anamorphic way (which is 16:9) or the letterbox way (which is 4:3 with black bars). I wouldn't advise to try and make an anamorphic video from any XVid, since most of the times (your case included) horizontal resolution is too low. I have tried it and didn't like the result.

Assuming you will go the letterbox way this is what you need to do:
Load DVD (NTSC) template. Set Source Aspect Ratio as 1:1 and Target Aspect Ratio as 4:3 NTSC. Take care of all the other usual options if you like. You will then have to experiment with the Video Arrange options to get the video letterboxed and look correctly, if I'm not very mistaken you should select Full Screen Keep Aspect Ratio. You might use Clip Frame to see a preview, but mind the fact that TMPG will display a stretched image since your PC uses a 1:1 display. So it will appear stretched, but encode correctly for TV. Confused yet? Anyway, after encoding is done you will have a 720x480 letterboxed widescreen DVD compliant MPEG-2, with the correct proportions and black bars up and down. This, when authored to a DVD, will look OK on both 4:3 and 16:9 screens. And incidentally it will also look OK on 1:1 screens, since PC DVD software take care of that stupid DAR bussiness all by themselves.

If played on 4:3 screen it may actually look better than it does on the PC since TV screens tend to blur and "hide" artifacts. If played on 16:9 screen you can use the Zoom feature most wide TVs offer so you can "pretend" it's anamorphic. In any case, a letterbox DVD will look better than an anamorphic DVD made from a 272 pixels high XVid, which is also a bit more complicated process.

[wienerbeast]

Thanks, for the help. I needed to export my file from Adobe, because I used this program to fix the audio which was out of sync, by editing and deleting video as needed to sync the audio. However, I exported the file as an avi file, still 640x272, and then I used TempGenc to create a letterboxed format dvd compliant mpeg-2 file. I used the inverse telecine feature, to convert to 24fps, and the movie seems slightly jumpy, although it may just be my computer... Nonetheless, I think I will be able to burn it with DVD Workshop now. I'll see what happens, hopefully the video will be fine on my standalone...