Anamorphic Widescreen DVDs...should I make 16x9 menus too?

[oncedust]

I've been recently authoring DVDs in anamorphic widescreen, but am still doing the menus in 4x3. Should I be making my menus 16x9 as well? Can menus be made anamorphic?

What does everyone else do? What does Hollywood do?

I'm using DVD Studio Pro, by the way.

THANKS!

[SLK001]

Menus can be anamorphic and you should make your menus to match your movie's aspect ratio. Hollywood doesn't always do this (they mostly just slop their crap together).

I don't know how to do it in DVD SP, but in DVDMaestro, there is a selection box with 4:3 and 16:9 selections. Maybe a quick glance at your manual can give you a hint.

[equinox137]

If you have the software to do it, why not?

[guns1inger]

If your movies will only be played on a widescreen TV, yes. If they will be played on a 4:3, it may be polite to have both. Personally, I would prefer 16:9 all the way, but there are a lot of 4:3 diehards out there.

[indijay]

Apologies if I sound noob but how can you have 16:9 "as well as" 4:3 menus?? Does it auto-detect the TV and use either of it???

[guns1inger]

You can design 16:9 menus that will display as either letterbox or pan and scan on 4:3 TVs, depending on the player settings (or, indeed, the menu settings). If the authoring tools properly supports this, it will make extra sets of subpictures for the different displays to ensure they always match the menu layout.

[GeorgeW]

Keep in mind that when you use 16:9 menus with auto LB/PS options, you lower your max number of buttons per menu.

4:3 = 36 buttons per menu
16:9 = 18 (with auto LB or PS)
16:9 = 12 (with auto LB and PS)

Regards,
George

[rbatty11]

So LB/PS is meant for those who have 4:3's and who like to see everything in fullscreen? Can that be done for the actual movie too?

And.. I make my NTSC menus at 720x480. But I've heard different resolution sizes for NTSC -->
768x480 or 768x576 (or something like that).. Why is that?

[guns1inger]

For DVD, the full D1 resolution is 720 x 480/720 x 576 (NTSC/PAL). I believe the 768 is in relation to the fact that pixels are not square when displayed on a TV.

FWIW, DVD Lab works with a menu resolution of 720 x 540 for both PAL and NTSC, and resizes appropriately.

Photoshop CS2 has the ability to allow you to work with non-square pixels, so you cab design with either 720 x 576 (NS pixels) or 768 x 576 (S pixels) depending on what suits you. I work with 720 x 576 (NS Pixels), then resize to 720 x 540 at the end of the process for importing into DLP.

[rbatty11]

OK.. was curious b/c I've not had a problem using 720x480.. But will use other resolution and see if there's a difference. Unfortuntately, don't have Pshop CS2. Thanks.

[masterpug]

dvd-lab: just set menu aspect to 16x9 widescreen letterbox or pan scan, drag/drop menu
background photo (any size or aspect) position as needed...done. no need to premaster
the image in photoshop ever with dvd-lab. cool thing is also buttons in menu will be widescreen
format, so if you do motion buttons representing say chapters in the widescreen movie, then
the buttons will look perfect like mini widescreen movies. hollywood often has widescreen
menu and widescreen movie, but 4:3 buttons in the menu, so the motion button displays
the movie in the wrong aspect ratio and looks weird. dvd-lab is true widescreen all the way
through. if you can get even a mid level mastery of dvd-lab or dvd-lab pro, you will be on
your way to enjoying intuitive, make sense, friendly and forgiving authoring that lets your
imagination soar. it's a steal at both price levels for what you get. really the best dvd maestro
replacement and takes it to new levels. no need for sonic scenarist...you'll just give yourself
headaches!

[guns1inger]

DLP can also do transitions and motion effects, but frankly I wouldn't use them. DLP's menu design features are good, but I prefer the subtley of Photoshop. Plus, very few of my menu are simple shots or frames dragged from the timeline. Ther are collages and multiple compositions with complex masks and text effects. Way beyond the capabilities of any authoring tools menu toolset.

[indijay]

Just curious if anybody would take some pains to make a guide illustrating how 16:9 as well as 4:3 menus can be put in the same DVD, its not very clear to me yet..

So far, I have only used iDVD and it hasn't offered me any such options so although my movies are 16:9, all my menus are 4:3

[ark]

I may be wrong but I am not aware of any DVD authring program having 2 sets of Menus, one for 4:3 and another for 16:9, and automatically switching depending on the TV.
On DVDLabPro, for 16:9 movies, the provision is available to have 16:9 menus with choice of either Letterbox or PanScan for the 16:9 Menus. It is best to stick to PanScan with 16:9 menus, with all graphics and bottons kept inside the 4:3 zone. This way, the menu shows up properly on both 4:3 and 16:9 TV sets with all buttons accessible. So effectively, one gets both 16:9 and 4:3 menus. If any guide is required, the DVDLabPro help file is detailed enough.

Of-course, it is best to keep the 16:9 movies marked for letterbox display on 4:3 TV sets so that no portion of the picture is lost. If one wants, one can always use the Zoom feature on the DVD player to get the PanScan effect (i.e. fill up the screen) for the movie.