Stretch 4x3 menu to 16x9

[kpic]

Is there a setting in PGCEDIT that will\can make my 4x3 menu stretch to 16x9 when played on a 16x9 TV?

SO here is what I mean; on DVDs I have when inserted the menu will fill my 4x3 TV but when played on my 16x9 TV the menu stretches (it looks fine) to fill , when I make a DVD in Adobe Encore and use my 720x480 menu and play the DVD on the 16x9 TV it has the pillar boxes left\right.

Is there something (like in PGC) that will tell the menu when to "stretch" when needed like a flag of some sort I need to check? I would rather not re-author of course.

[SLK001]

Yes, there is. IIRC, if you double click on the menu PGC, then select the menu VOBU and right click, there is a properties menu. I've done this before, because I hate it when a DVD jumps from aspect ratio to aspect ratio. IMO, it should find an aspect ratio that it likes and stick with it.

[manono]

Yeah, but when it fills a 16:9 TV and also fills a 4:3 TV with no black bars the menu is a 16:9 menu set up for 16:9 pan&scan. When played to a 4:3 TV set it gets cropped on the right and left sides. It's easy to create the DVD with menus like that, but if you use a 4:3 menu from the beginning, there's no way to get the effect kpic wants, not without fooling with the aspect ratio controls of the TV set or player.

...because I hate it when a DVD jumps from aspect ratio to aspect ratio. IMO, it should find an aspect ratio that it likes and stick with it.

Hehe, you don't like seeing a 16:9 menu when the movie is 4:3? Warner Home Video does that as a matter of course. And I saw 2 Indian movies on DVD recently where the menus were 4:3 but the movies were 16:9. There's one I didn't understand at all - why some idiot would even consider making a 4:3 menu for a 16:9 movie.

[maca]

They do lots of stupid things when making Indian dvds, like turning up the noise reduction until everything smears like a bad acid trip.

[SLK001]

Instead of selecting a 16:9 pan&scan, I thought that there was a 16:9 letterbox. I know that this is the option that I set when I create 16:9 DVDs - I don't remember if PGCEdit has the letterbox option.

[MOVIEGEEK]

What I do is make the menu 4:3 and set the IFO(in IFOEdit) as 16:9, that way it fills the screen no matter what it plays on.
One caveat is it looks stretched out on a 16:9 tv.

[manono]

Instead of selecting a 16:9 pan&scan, I thought that there was a 16:9 letterbox. I know that this is the option that I set when I create 16:9 DVDs - I don't remember if PGCEdit has the letterbox option.

Yeah, but he's starting with a 4:3 menu. With a 16:9 menu you can choose either Letterbox or pan&scan.

However, I was dead wrong in my first reply when I said it couldn't be done when starting with a 4:3 menu. I didn't think you could override a 4:3 menu to make it 16:9 in PGCEdit. After reading what MOVIEGEEK had to say about doing just that using IFOEdit, I went and checked PGCEdit, and you can do the same thing. As he said, though, on a 16:9 TV it'll looked stretched. Why someone would want to do this is beyond me, though, but it's possible. Thanks for the correction.

MOVIEGEEK, if the aim is to fill the screen on both kinds of TV sets, why not make a 16:9 menu set for 16:9/pan&scan? Just don't have anything important out on the sides that might get cut off when cropped for display on a 4:3 TV set. No stretching.

[kpic]

THanks to all who replied, I found the setting in PGCEDIT, there are two options under 16x9, Automatic letterbox & Automatic Pan&Scan. I checked both off is that correct? When I first made the menus I was sure to keep everything in the "safe" area.

Also I understand it will looked stretched to fill a 16x9 TV that is fine as I don't want to go back to re-author all of the menus to 16x9. BTW what would be the correct resolution for a 16x9 menu? And if I did make a 16x9 menu would it show correctly in a 4x3 TV?

[manono]

I checked both off is that correct?

I believe you want only 16:9 and Pan&Scan:

So, here's the way this works:

• If you have 4:3 material, select 4:3.
• If you have 16:9 material, select 16:9 letterbox. This means your video will play properly on 16:9 monitors and be letterboxed on 4:3 monitors.
• If you have pan-and-scan vectors created for your video -- and neither Compressor nor DVD Studio Pro support the creation of these vectors, nor will they compress video to include these vectors -- then select 16:9 Pan-Scan.
• If you want the viewer to choose between letterbox and Pan-and-scan AND you've encoded the pan-and-scan vectors, select 16:9 Pan-Scan & Letterbox.

• http://www.larryjordan.biz/articles/lj_16-9_DVD_stp.html

BTW what would be the correct resolution for a 16x9 menu?

The same as for a 4:3 menu, 720x480/576.

And if I did make a 16x9 menu would it show correctly in a 4x3 TV?

Of course, as either letterboxed or panned and scanned, whichever you set it up for.

[SLK001]

I'm not following what the problems are... If you set the menu to 16:9 Letterbox, it will always display as a 16:9 menu, regardless of the TV's aspect ratio, provided that the DVD PLAYER is set to display 16:9 Letterbox for a 4:3 TV. It seems like everyone wants to build intelligence into the DVD itself, instead of setting the player correctly.

[MOVIEGEEK]

I'm not following what the problems are... If you set the menu to 16:9 Letterbox, it will always display as a 16:9 menu, regardless of the TV's aspect ratio, provided that the DVD PLAYER is set to display 16:9 Letterbox for a 4:3 TV. It seems like everyone wants to build intelligence into the DVD itself, instead of setting the player correctly.

The OP wanted his 4:3 menu to be stretched on a 16:9 TV, I still don't understand why.