16:9 dvd plays stretched across 4:3 tv. No black bars

[Madigan Boys]

Hi,

This is probably a nob question, so please be patient with me!

I've used Nero ExpressVision 3 to burn a 16:9 dvd from a 16:9 DV AVI. The problem I'm encountering is that when I play this video on a standard 4:3 tv, the video is stretched to fill the screen, distorting the image.

What I want is to be able to force the dvd to play in 16:9 on a 4:3 tv, so that it displays with full width and creates black bars on the top and the bottom of the image so that the video isn't distorted.

Any ideas? I know you guys have the answer! PS - If I play this file on my computer it displays with the proper aspect ratio, just not on a stand alone DVD player connected to a standard tv.

Adam

[Grain]

Make sure your stand alone dvd player has the TV setting at 4:3 not 16:9 to get the bars.

[levick]

Is it possible you have Panscan enabled which will produce this format. Have a look at the ifo file from the movie to see if its active from the dvd.

[Madigan Boys]

Ok, good tip. I checked the IFO with IFOedit, and it says that it is set to Automatic Letterboxed. However, there is the option for Letterboxed top and bottom cropped, which I'm thinking would force any machine to display the video cropped which I want.

However, after reburning the DVD with Nero, it reverted back to the Automatic Letterboxed option.

Hmmm....

[mikiem]

Auto Letterboxed should work -- I'd take a look at the mpg2 files, see what/how they're flagged.

If you don't have the m2v & audio files (i.e. just plugged the avi into Nero), suggest using DGIndex to demux a small section from the beginning of video in title vob. (you can tell which vob you want by opening vob only as media file in player)

Use Restream or similar to check m2v -- should report 16 x 9 or auto letterboxed.

[guns1inger]

Of try IFOEdit to set the IFO to 16:9. I suspect you will have to set the video to 16:9 as well though. Most one-click-wonders don't set flags like this correctly, where a good encoder would.