Widescreen Authoring - an easier way?

[EricBinford]

Hello,

I've searched for a solution on this here at videohelp, and I eventually found a hybrid solution that works, but being new to all this I'm sure my way is clumsy. There must be a simpler way...

I have some video footage recorded in "widescreen" mode. This is an psuedo anamorphic picture, not one with black bars top and bottom.

I capture this from the camcorder to MPEG2 using a Hauppauge PVR250 PCI card. There is no option to set a widescreen flag during capture, so the video MPEG2 video remains 4:3 anamorphic.

I have authored my DVD using both Ulead Movie Factory (crap) and TMPGenc DVD Author (trial - excellent), but neither of these allow me to produce a 16:9 DVD from 4:3 psuedo anamorphic video.

I read that there is an anamorphic flag that has to be set, but I can't find this option, so I used IFOedit to change the aspect ration... This did not work. The DVD still replays in 4:3.

Anyway, I used ReStream to demux the video/audio and changed the aspect ratio settings there, then remuxed and created the DVD using ReJig. This seemed to do the trick - wide screen video at last!

But is there a simple way to change the flag directly in MPEG2 without the need to demux?

Many thanks,

Eric

[DVO]

Hi,
I saw a guide how to make widescreen (16:9) with TMPGEnc on Mediachance's website www.mediachance.com. But I can't find it anymore. Anyway I tired and it worked. You can set aspect ration to 16:9 in the encoder and I think that was enough except all the normal settings ofcourse.

[sacajaweeda]

If your mpeg is already 16:9 try DVD Lab for authoring it. Just change the AR setting in the project settings and it should work fine.

[sacajaweeda]

Blah. Scratch that last one. I just re-read your post. Gonna have to encode that thing with the right AR flag if you want widescreen.

[wingnut]

Hi there

once again womble mpeg2vcr can do the trick. Open the movie as a new mpeg movie then ensure you have selected the whole clip and copy to the clipboard and close the window. Double click on clip in the clipboard to open it again. Now click on the record button and select the file name. Now BEFORE starting the save process click on video. change the aspect ratio setting from 3/4 (yes it is listed the wrong way around) to 9/16 *DO NOT CHANGE ANY OTHER SETTINGS* now click on ok and start the save process.

As long as you did not change any other settings it will not re-encode the video it will just ensure the aspect ratio flag is set corrtectly. This will take less than 5 minutes or so for a 45 minute "1 hour" tv show with adverts removed.

Cheers All

Edz