Widescreen Problem!!

[Vaio]

I captured Digital 8 footage through firewire. When I play the avi file fullscreen on my computer using windows media player, it shows up Widescreen, but if the file is not fullscreen and just in a little window it shows up fullscreen. When I export back to the camera it is fullscreen. When I put it on DVD it is fullscreen (note, I tried using the dvd authoring software to encode, showed up fullscreen, then I tried my capturing program Sony DVGate to encode and it showed up fullscreen.) Then I used TMPG to encode in the, I think 16:9 format. It worked. I then put it on dvd and watched it on my dvd player, although it showed up in widescreen, it was still like watching a Fullscreen movie just with the black bars. It still cut out stuff from the sides which I were able to see in windows media player on my computer. If anyone knows what I'm doing wrong please help, Thanks!

[snowmoon]

Most consumer level DV cameras just mask and do not actually provide true widescreen. Are you sure this is not the problems you are having?

[Scheif]

How much was cut off? It may just be normal overscan for your TV.

[phatslug]

Digital 8, is that like a Sony Digital 8 Handicam? Its what I have and it does true anamorphic widescreen.

When you say that it shows up fullscreen, does that mean its stretched out vertically, so the widescreen fits the whole screen?
If this is the case then--
When you send it back to your video camera its going fullscreen likely because its loosing the 16:9 flag, same deal for the DVD. A remedy could be to use video editing software to do the letterboxing for you. Something like Vegas Video 4 could do it.

TMpeg on the otherhand knows how to handle it correctly. When you say it looks just like a fullscreen movie with black bars... well isn't that what widescreen is?

And the sides getting cut off is just normal TV overscan as Scheif mentioned.

[Umen Pich]

Most consumer level DV cameras just mask and do not actually provide true widescreen. Are you sure this is not the problem
s you are having?

I am very much interested to know what do you call true and false widescreen ?
Thanks.

[Vaio]

"TMpeg on the otherhand knows how to handle it correctly. When you say it looks just like a fullscreen movie with black bars... well isn't that what widescreen is?

And the sides getting cut off is just normal TV overscan as Scheif mentioned"

No widescreen isn't fullscreen with black bars. It allows you to see more of the picture. When using TMPG the black bars appear but I still get the same amount of picture on the sides. However when I watch it on my computer as a regular avi file, not yet converted to widescreen, I can see more on the sides. Also yes it is a handycam and I do have the widescreen option on there. I havn't tired any converting using actual footage shot in this but I have seen that when you watch it on tv the 16:9 is gone and it is fullscreen but I'm sure its what you said about loosing the flag.

[snowmoon]

First things first... TMPGenc appears to be where the issue occurs.. yes? Have you cheked the input tab to make sure you have it set to full screen ( keep aspect ratio ) or fill screen ( keep aspect ratio ) ( note: names may be wrong since I haven't used TMPGenc in a while ). It sounds like TMPGenc may be using the wrong resize method......

True widescreen is when the camera captures 720x480 @16:9 anamorphic. Letterboxed widescreen is a 720x480 4:3 image with a 60 pixel black border applied to the top and bottom of the image to mask the top and bottom. The former needs to be treated like an anamorphic DVD when converting, the latter is just like and other 4:3 materal.

[phatslug]

No widescreen isn't fullscreen with black bars.

You're right, I misunderstood.

Start with the DVD NTSC 16:9 Preset.

Now, when you encode with TMpeg, for Video Arrange Method, did you use Full Screen (Keep Aspect Ratio), or Full Screen. With the first, TMpeg letterboxes for you, so you end up with a 740x480 video with 60 pixels of black on top & bottom. (Just stole that number from snowmoon, thanks ) With Fullscreen, the DVD player takes care of that as its playing. Fullscreen is the one you want.

The only other thing I can think of is on Source Aspect Ratio, try switching between 4:3 525 Line (NTSC) or 4:3 525 Line (NTSC 704x480). I have no idea what that option does, but seems like the lesser 704 could account for something...?

And are you sure its not just overscan.. I mean seriously that shit eats up 10-20 % of your picture. Its alot.

Good luck.

[Umen Pich]

True widescreen is when the camera captures 720x480 @16:9 anamorphic. Letterboxed widescreen is a 720x480 4:3 image with a 60 pixel black border applied to the top and bottom of the image to mask the top and bottom. The former needs to be treated like an anamorphic DVD when converting, the latter is just like and other 4:3 materal.

Thanks for the answer. Actually what you explain is -- anamorphic and not anamorphic. In other words, whether you have the full vertical resolution in the real image.

Widescreen to me is just what you see.

Anyway, don't want to argue, we understand the point