Squashed Video Output after making a DVD in WinDVD Creator 2

[willshakespeare]

Hi - I'm a Newbie (and have posted this in the Newbie section too - I have no problems if one or the other is deleted by the moderators, if they can determine which this would be best posted in),

I did a search and found some info that may be useful, but I can't figure out how to use the info. Perhaps someone can help a newbie?

Essentially, I am "trying" to build a DVD with WinDVD Creator, becaus ethis is a nice easy piece of sotware. Problem is that although the preview and menus all work great, as soon as it starts encoding the "movie", the playback preview shows a "flattened" picture. Normally the picture is 608x256.
And when it's finished, it plays back on the TV in the same way.

Now, I read some forum postings that said something about 1x1 square pixels, and 0.909090909 or something sized pixels, and what I need to do is reencode the avi file. And someone suggested vegas to do this.

2 things...
1. I looked at Vegas, and it seems there are a lot of options, and it is expensive considering I won't use it for much else.
2. I'm still not 100% sure what I need to do even if I did know how to use Vegas!

Also, I tried to reencode it using VDub, but again I'm not so sure about VDub. I attempted to resize the picture to 320x240 so that when it "flattens" the picture, it would look mroe normal (you can see by this strategy that i really don't know what I am doing!) but all this did was fill up my harddrive with a 63GB avi file, which of course wouldn't fit onthe DVD+RW!!

So... can anyone help me reencode this avi file, and a few others I have which were originally made in the US (family - I live in the UK) by offering 2 things:

1. A link to a freeware tool that is very basic and will do what I need.
2. Steps on what to do once I have this tool?

You see I can then use WinDVD Creator, which i got an OEM version with my Motherboard, to make the DVDs.

Thanks in adavance,

Will

[thecoalman]

First the video has to be converted/encoded to a DVD compliant resolution and format (this info can be found to the left under what is), I'm assuming WinDVD Creator is doing this for you. Second the resolution doesn't determine the aspect, that is determined by either the video file header for computer playback or the ifo file on the disc. The software or the DVD player you are using will adjust the aspect correctly BUT you can only have 4:3 or 16:9 for DVD AFAIK.

So you have two choices 1)encode and author it as 16:9 which will make everthing slightly longer vertically or create a new file with black borders top and bottom.

I could tell you how to do this but the tools I use are neither free nor basic. If you look to the left I'm sure you'll find a guide on how to do this.

[willshakespeare]

Hi,

Just to clear things up: I know it has to be converted. In fact I did this with TMPGenc to m2v and wav video and audio, but then tried to create a DVD following a step-bystep, an dthe resulting DVD had no audio (another post).
So, as I had WinDVD Creator sitting on the shelf from my Motherboard bundle, i decided to give that a go.
Yes, you can add avi's and it does the conversion for you, and is very quick about it (fully working DVD after 40 minutes with a 1hour 30 minute movie). This makes it ideal for me, because I am doing this really only for me, and not for any money making, etc. So I don't need much more than what WinDVD Creator does.
However, for some reason a few of my US based avi's appear flattened when the process finishes, even though the preview in WinDVD Creator looks great.

Before I poste dthis I did some searching "on the left" and in the various forums and found a few articles, whcih mentioned vegas. i have a trial version of vegas, which may be instrumental in "teaching" me what i need to know to correct this issue. And then I can go and find a free or inexpensive tool to do what I need. Does that make sense?

One thing that was good about DVD-lab is that the video played perfectly. Just no audio.

If anyone can help, at lest to point me to specific atricles, I'd appreciate it.

Maybe it has to do with NTSC and PAL? Maybe it's my DVD-Writer that is doing this?

If someone could tell me why the output is flattened, so that I can understand, then maybe that would help me track down a solution.

Here are two of the articles I read:
https://www.videohelp.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=1316361&highlight=squashed+picture

https://www.videohelp.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=258759&highlight=squashed+picture

but to be honest, I am beginning to think they are nothing to do with my problem. To elaborate:

If you imagine a widescreen TV screen, which measures 32 inchesx16inches.

The output is 32"x4" in the middle of the screen!!

Other avis I create in WinDVD don't have this problem.

Now, my solution may simply be to stay away from WinDVD and just go with DVD-lab or similar... but at the moment I can't get the audio to work in DVD-lab...

Would you be able to help with that if not the flat-picture problem?

Will

[thecoalman]

You can use TMPGenc to do what I described above, adding black borders to maintain the aspect.... https://www.videohelp.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=273919

Another possibility is this...... are there already blackborders that are part of the video. If so encoding/authoring as 16:9 will produce what you describe.

Another possibility is how you have the DVD player/TV to display, you may have a combination of things......

[willshakespeare]

Ooh... I wonder if you have hot on something! The avi has been created with black borders top and bottom. Do you think I'm getting double this? Maybe I should reencode as 4:3 or something?
Or can TMPGenc get rid of them for me?

Will

[thecoalman]

Ooh... I wonder if you have hot on something! The avi has been created with black borders top and bottom. Do you think I'm getting double this? Maybe I should reencode as 4:3 or something?

Yes if it already has black borders encode at 4:3. Usually the black borders for 16:9 are created by the software or DVD player. They are not part of the video, as I mentioned above the software or DVD player will adjust the aspect accordingly.

I don't know if you can edit them out using TMPGenc, I don't use it.

[willshakespeare]

Thanks coalman. No problems.

I gave DVD Author a go last night, and had some success! My first working DVD with no choppiness, or bad audio, or video!

But I was dismayed I couldn't control the menu, and add audio to it.

In the end, of course, I used the m2v file I originally converted from the avi, and the wav file was taken automatically when that video file was loaded.

Burned the video, and no squashed-ness, no problems.

I have to say I wish WinDVD Creator had a choice to pick 4:3 in it somewhere. I would have preferred just skipping the conversion to m2v, and burn the avi directly. You have more control over the menu in WinDVD Creator, albeit not as much control as DVD-lab... can't win 'em all!

I wish I could create a menu in dvd-lab, and then export to use with DVD Author... oh well!

Thanks for your help. You have aided my stepping further into the world of DVD authoring!

Will

[willshakespeare]

Ahhhh (sound of relief!)

Finally!

I've cracked it! Though I managed to break TMPGenc encoder in the proces... It doesn't seem to be able to get audio from an avi file...

Anyway, I didscovered a few things!

1. If you take the audio out of the avi using VDub to make a wav, and then use TMPGenc to bring the avi and wav together into an m2v and mp2 file... it works!

2. If you add you avi files to WinDVD, and then click Tools -> Output to File, you can encode the avi to mpeg-2 without needing further plug-ins, etc., and you can add many, many avi's (first 8 of Alias season 2 from TV, for example) to one mpeg file, then split the eps into Chapters when you author...

3. The resulting mpeg files from WinDVD do not "Squash" like if using avi directly.

4. I can use either DVD Author or WinDVD Creator to make great looking menus, though only WinDVD Creator allows a music file to be added to the menu.

5. Either way, I can create a 3 hours long DVD in approximately 4 hours from avi files to finished DVD with animated menus and everything, with just WInDVD Creator, which means I don't need any illegal software because WinDVD Creator came iwth my motherboard, and is therefore legal!! Fantastic!!

Well, thanks for all your help! You have all given me stuff to think about along the way!

There does seem to be a lack of WinDVD Creator 2 information in the How To areas, and in the forums... so to give back, I will produce a simple tutorial on it... if anyone is interested?

Take it easy all! And thanks!

Will S