Camcorder w/ 16:9 DV To DVD? Anyone done it?

[sonnik]

I have a Canon digital camcorder, which can capture in 16:9 (according to the manual, this is anamorphic 16:9).

I'd like to record in 16:9 format, and retain the originals in tihs format. As 16:9 televisions are being pushed on us, I think it would be wise to record in this format.

My question is: Is there any PC software (or combination of software) that will allow me to capture in 16:9, and perhaps letterbox it onto DVD?

I've looked around here (and other sites) and can't seem to get a clear answer. It seems like Macs (and Mac software) can do this, but can't find any reference to any consumer-level software that does this.

Thanks in advance.

[Cirrus]

I tried this with my setup.

I have a Sony which does widescreen and I wanted to see what it was like. I recorded some bits and then edited them in Premiere. There's a wide screen projects option you can use. I encoded with TMPGEnc (again with widescreen option) and then authored with DVD-Lab.

It all worked great. On my 4:3 TV it plays letterbox, so it's the correct aspect ratio, and on my brothers WS TV it plays full screen.

I'm tempted to do all my new stuff in WS as it looks great, but I know I'll get asked why from the missues as we only have a 4:3 at the moment. . As soon as we get a WS, I know I'll switch recording WS as well.

[sonnik]

So TMPGEnc pretty much does the trick?

Everything else you used was just your editing/authoring choice right?

[Cirrus]

Hi,

Yes, I already had all of this s/w anyway as I've been doing this for a year now (although the DVD-Lab is still on 30 day trial at the mo, but will be purchasing).

I use a frameserver to export the WS Premiere project to TMPGEnc. I use the wizard and select the DVD 16:9 template. It will detect that the source is WS and will also show the output as 16:9 display (in the video settings I think). DVD-Lab allows 16:9 authoring (but not mixed with 4:3). Worked great first time

[jelir]

I have sony pc105 and use 16:9 format. I'm using pinnacle to transfer into avi. The playback result is somewhat funny since the picture is stretched vertically. Then use Tmpgenc to convert to mpeg2. I use the 16:9 option in source aspect ratio.

The result is perfect 16:9 movie.

[sonnik]

I just wanted to post a follow up on how I finally solved my problem.

In TmpgENC, (I don't have it in front of me right now), I do something similar to the following:

- Specify output as 4x3
- Adjust frame output to 720 x 405 (not retaining aspect ratio, centered vertically)
- This produced 4x3 output, with black bars at top and bottom.
- Since my input was 16:9, keeping aspect ratio would heigten objects on a 4x3 screen - so not retaining aspect ratio was the right thing to do for me.

This would work great for a 4x3 television. I could simply re-encode using the original aspect ratio for new widescreens - which isn't a problem as I keep all my original Mini-DVs.

[energy80s]

If you are putting this onto DVD, why are you trying to letterbox it? Keep it full anamorphic and your DVD player will automatically letterbox it on a 4:3 TV and keep it 16:9 on a widescreen set. Set the output in TMPG to 16:9 and the input to fullscreen. This will produce an anamorphic 16:9 MPEG2 file suitable for DVD burning with any DVD authoring software.

[troyvcd1]

I personally do not do anamorphic 16-9 widescreen. True widescreen would be ok but anamorphic means they are capturing 4-3 and just cropping off the top and bottom.

[ronnylov]

I personally do not do anamorphic 16-9 widescreen. True widescreen would be ok but anamorphic means they are capturing 4-3 and just cropping off the top and bottom.

No, anamorphic means true widescreen. Letterboxed 4:3 is cropping top and bottom. My DV camera can only make letterboxed 4:3 or 4:3 fullscreen so I prefer 4:3 fullscreen.