True Anamorphic 16x9 resolution ?!

[AndreMetello]

Hi

I am producing an animation that I´d like to be true 16x9 anamorphic when presented on DVD... From what I´ve been told it should be kind of shrunk and then the dvd player would uncompress the image to fit a 16x9 display [or put the letterboxes if its standard tvs] I´d like to know whats the ideal resolution this animation should be [both in ntsc and pal] and what kind of special software would I need to burn a true widescreen DVD ?

thank you very much
Andre

[bartman]

you are correct, the DVD player will expand a 720x576 (PAL) or 720x480 (NTSC) to 16:9 if the widescreen flag is set.....

the horozintal resolution for PAL 16:9 is (576 / 9) * 16 = 1024...therefore use 1024x576 for your master and squish to 720x576 for your DVD....the numbers for NTSC come out a bit funny for me (480 / 9 = 53.3333333) so I'm not exactly sure of the best resolution to go for....probably best to max out at 1280x720 for your master for NTSC and PAL and re-size for the DVD.

Most 'pro' level DVD software can master widescreen.....you can also master in 4:3 if you don't want to spend too much and set the flags with IFO Edit.

[FulciLives]

I'm not exactly sure what BARTMAN is on about but here is another method that might be easier ...

For NTSC a 4:3 widescreen image with an aspect ratio of 16x9 (or 1.777:1) is 720x360 (in a window that is 720x480)

So you could do your animation at that resolution then "stretch" it to 720x480 which will make it anamorphic.

I'm not 100% positive about PAL but I think a 4:3 widescreen image with an aspect ratio of 16x9 in PAL is 720x432 (in a window that is 720x576) so again you would do 720x432 then "stretch" it to 720x576

However if I understand what BARTMAN is saying his method will probably give better quality but I'm not sure his math is correct and I'm not sure how you would do that type of screen size anyways.

- John "FulciLives" Coleman

[bartman]

All I do is multiply by the the ratio's.....and since my DVD authoring app likes DVD resolutions I keep the vertical resolution the same throughout....so If I'm making a PAL DVD (as I always do) I keep my source video's, images for menu's etc as 'whatever'x576....for 4:3 I use 764x576 and for 16:9 I use 1024x576

I work out those values using basic algebra:
For a given ratio, e.g. 4:3, think of it as 4x3......if you know the height, 576, then the width is (height / 3) * 4 = (576/3)*4 = 764. For widescreen you use the formula (height / 9) * 16 = (576/9)*16 = 1024. Using these resolutions your circles will be circles when the final image is displayed on a TV.

The lower resolution might be what ends up visible on the screen but that is only because you lose the edges when played back on a regular TV. If you use source videos of 720x360 your DVD app will, as you say, stretch it to 720x480 anyway.....so why not use that resolution to start with?

[AndreMetello]

thank you for your answers.

Now a complementary question..:

I´ve seen a lot of DVDs around that arent true anamorphic compressed. I mean they are 4x3 720x480 ntsc videos with two black stripes on it, the actual video being less vertical resolution. I mean, for the decoder its 4x3 video, but for the audience [on a standard TV] its 16x9. My question is, if one gets a "fake 16x9" dvd like this and plays on a 16x9 Widescreen TV, what would happen to the image ? would it be shown inside a 4x3 square on the center of the tv with the stripes as if those were actual parts of the image[since in essence for the decoder its not 16x9] or would it be blown up so that the black stripes are cropped out [thus loosing a bit of resolution] or what else could happen ?!

[sorry for the bad english, but I hope i did make myself clear

thanks
andre

[bartman]

I've seen it happen.....you get a video with a black border all around.....kinda lika a black picture frame

Most Widescreen TV's I've seen have a zoom function though to deal with this (because some TV movies are broadcast like this as well)....the image isn't as good as true 16:9 but it's normally still good enough to watch.....unless you have a whizz bang 150cm plasma screen that makes everything that isn't HD-TV look like crap....

[humdinger]

From the Premiere 6 Manual:

Pixel aspect ratio specifies the ratio of width to height of one pixel in an image. Frame aspect ratio describes the ratio of width to height in the frame dimensions of an image. For example, DV NTSC has a pixel aspect ratio of 0.9 (or 0.9 width by 1.0 height). It also has a frame aspect ratio of 4:3 (or 4.0 width by 3.0 height).

Many video formats use the same 4:3 frame aspect ratio but use a different pixel aspect ratio. For example, some NTSC capture cards produce a 4:3 frame aspect ratio, with square pixels (1.0 pixel aspect ratio) and a resolution of 640 x 480. DV NTSC produces the same 4:3 frame aspect ratio, but uses rectangular pixels (0.9 pixel aspect ratio), and a resolution of 720 x 480. DV pixels, which are always rectangular, are vertically oriented in systems producing NTSC video and horizontally oriented in systems producing PAL video.
If you display rectangular pixels on a square-pixel monitor without alteration, images and motion appear distorted; for example, circles distort into ovals. However, when displayed on a broadcast monitor, the images will be correct.

When you import or capture DV video, the image looks slightly wider than it does on a D1 or DV system. (D1 PAL footage looks slightly narrower.) The opposite effect occurs when you capture or import anamorphic footage using D1/DV NTSC Widescreen or D1/DV PAL Widescreen. Widescreen video formats have a frame aspect ratio of 16:9, though retain the same resolution of 720x480, by changing the pixel aspect ratio.

So there ya go.