Aspect ratio questions with Sony Vegas & Instructional DVDs

[RockWood610]

Ok, I was hoping someone could help me with this. I am very confused about some of the aspect ratios that exist. Please forgive the long post, but I want to be is descriptive as possible.

Now, I know that the 4:3 aspect ratio is the standard ratio for SD TVs and that they have been the standard for TV's for many years. I also know that 16:9 is the new standard in todays Widescreen HD TVs (please correct me on this if what I 'think' I know is wrong). I own a Canon ZR60 palm order that I just realized shoots in ‘real’ 16:9. I assumed that it just added the black bars to give it the widescreen look since my old 1998 Sony 8mm model did just that without really recording in 16:9, but apparently it actually shoots in a widescreen format.

What I am confused about is, if I have a new Sony Bravia Widescreen HD TV, why does only some of my widescreen DVDs play using the full screen and others still have black bars? I looked on Wikipedia and got confused about multiple 16:9 ratios??? I just bought the movie Live Free Or Die Hard not long ago, and it still shows black bars on my screen. Same with my widescreen version of the original Die Hard. I have my DVD player set to know it is showing all play backs on a widescreen TV, yet the bars still appear. The only way I can make them go way is if I use the TVs stretch or wide zoom feature, but that makes it look really bad.

Now, just yesterday I took some footage I shot with my Canon camera in the 16:9 aspect ratio and used Sony Vegas 7 Pro and Sony DVD Architect 4.0 to burn it onto a DVD. In Vegas, there are rendering templates you can choose from. I selected the video file to be a Main Concept MPEG-2 that renders for the DVD Architect program using what they label as "DVD Architect NTSC Widescreen video Stream". And when I put the file in the DVD Architect program, I set the project video settings to "NTSC Widescreen (720x480)" since it was the only widescreen option it gave me. Would this be the correct settings to make a real widescreen video? Or are there more things I half to do to make it a real widescreen? Because when I burned it to DVD, it filled my entire Sony Bravia HD screen without me having to use the TV’s zoom or stretch feature. Did I burn the file right for widescreen, or did I do a short cut that just altered the appearance to make it look widescreen? And if I did do it right, why do MY videos fit the TV, but many of the major movies I buy do not?

One last thing...

I know my way around Sony Vegas pretty well, but still need a lot of help with its advanced features. I came across this DVD set that appears to be a good training DVD for it. Its from the company "Class On Demand" and it says it touches on all features of Sony Vegas Pro 7 on 2 DVDs that have a run time of over 300 mins. Here is the link to it:
http://www.classondemand.net/classondemand/vegas-training/completev7.aspx

Is this a good product to by? I did a search on YouTube it and got a sample of what it has on it and it seemed pretty good to me. Any thoughts, suggestions or ideas?

[guns1inger]

There are three possible, correct, ways to encode for DVD.

1. 4:3 fullscreen. The video is 4:3, and is encoded as 4:3 material. This will fill the screen of a 4:3 TV, and pillarbox (side bars) is presented correctly on a 16:9 TV. Note : if 4:3 material fills from side to side on your 16:9 TV, and everyone looks squashed, you are a dumb-ass and should have your TV taken away from you.

2. Widescreen Letterbox. This is widescreen material that has been encoded with the black bars to fill out a 4:3 aspect ratio. On a 4:3 TV this will look like widescreen material, but on a 16:9 TV it should have black borders all the way around unless zoomed in.

3. 16:9 widescreen. Widescreen material goes from edge to edge (left to right) and 4:3 material is pillarboxed without being squashed.

Regardless of the aspect ratio chosen, the video resolution will be 720 x 480 for NTSC, and 720 x 576 for PAL. The trick is in the way the video is stored and the pixels represented on playback.

That's the easy part.

However film has many more aspect ratios, and most are wider than 16:9. This means that even when encoded as 16:9, they will have some black bars included to keep them looking correct. Some film aspect ratios are wide enough that almost a third of a 16:L9 screen is black bars. This is normal, correct, and the way it should be.

[RockWood610]

Ok. Thanks for the reply. Now, what about my 16:9 I recorded with my cam-corder. I uploaded the video via firewire to my computer and then opened the file in Vegas. And then did the DVD burning steps. Is this the best way to go about it to make a true 16:9 widescreen DVD?

[edDV]

Ok. Thanks for the reply. Now, what about my 16:9 I recorded with my cam-corder. I uploaded the video via firewire to my computer and then opened the file in Vegas. And then did the DVD burning steps. Is this the best way to go about it to make a true 16:9 widescreen DVD?

Four steps need setting to wide 720x480.

1. The camcorder before you shoot your video

2. Vegas project setting - Your captureed video should look 16:9 on the timeline.

3. Mainconcept Architect DVD MPeg2 encoder setting

4. DVD Architect disc project setting

[RockWood610]

Thanks! Thats exactly how I set it all up. Looked great on a 42" LCD widescreen (for an SD video anyways) and a 62" wide plasma.

Thanks again

Does anyone know about the Class On Demand DVD set I asked about?