720 x 576 Video Plays as 16:9 on DVD.

[stalkishi]

Hi There,

New to the forum and fairly new to video so any help is much appreciated

Problem

I have some avi videos files that are 720 x 576 and play 4:3 on my P.C. but when I burn them to disc they play stretched at 16:9.
If I play the disc in the P.C. they play at 4:3.
These are videos of old VHSs so I need them to play in their original 4:3 format.

Background

I am converting my old VHSs to DVD. I have my VHS Player connected to a Panasonic NV GS55 camcorder and the camcorder connected to the PC via Firewire.
I have been using Adobe Premier to Capture the video and then have been using either Adobe Encore to burn to disc.
I have set the aspect ratio to 4:3 in Encore and have also tried burning the disc in 'Nero Vision' and 'DVD Flick' again setting the aspect ratio to 4:3 but they always play 16:9.
I have played the discs in both my blu ray player and Xbox with the same results.


Apologies if I haven't provided enough information...just let me know what else is needed.

Thanks

[mike20021969]

At first glance, it sounds like a picture setting needs adjusting on your TV and/or standalone player(s).

[jman98]

I have a Philips DVD player that I like, but one thing that really sucks is that either displays everything in 16:9 or 4:3. It's not smart enough to read the flags in the DVD and switch between them. So if I have 4:3 DVDs then I have to manually set the output to 480p in the player as it's the only way I have found to force it to output a 4:3 image. For widescreen DVDs I set the video output to 1080p. As mike20021969 has pointed out, perhaps you have a similar situation with your DVD player.

[DB83]

I'll echo the above comments.

It is a matter of setting on the player which itself can depend on a setting for the tv.

I have a Sony player that upscales to 1080p. Under the HDMI Output there is a setting for 4:3 video output. There are now two options. If the tv allows you to change the Aspect Ratio I chose 'Full' whereas if the tv does not allow I chose 'Normal'. Then the 4:3 disks should play without stretching.

So you really do need to check both items.

[stalkishi]

Firstly thanks for the quick reply folks.

Looks like that is the answer. Changed the aspect ratio settings on the player and it played fine.

I had naively assumed the DVD player would have been smart enough to see the flags and was over complicating things.

I shall try and remember to 'Keep it Simple Stupid' (KISS) in the future.

Thanks again