Multiple Aspect Ratios on One Disc

[gorcq]

I just made a large photo slide show using Picasa, and burned it to a DVD using DVDStyler. When I played it on my TV with a 16:9 aspect ratio, all of the photos were distorted. This is probably due to the fact that I made the slide show at 4:3 aspect ratio.

Now, I can easily re-make the slide show at 16:9 and re-burn the disc. However, it seems to me (someone please correct me if this is wrong) that this would cause the images to be distorted when played on 4:3 TVs. I am planning to make a number of copies of this and give them to friends whose television aspect ratios I do not know in advance. It is therefore unacceptable for this to be distorted on either of the most common shapes.

I therefore came up with the idea of making both sizes, putting them both on the DVD (there does seem to be enough space on the disc for this), and adding a preliminary menu that asks users to select the correct aspect ratio. Unfortunately, DVDStyler seems to want both videos to have the same aspect ratio. If I go into the video properties of the widescreen version and change the "destination format" aspect ratio to 16:9, this causes the same change to be made to the fullscreen version.

Is what I'm trying to do impossible, or is this a case of using bad software? If the latter, can someone recommend some better software for Windows 7? If the former, why? And does anyone have any workable ideas for making a DVD play properly on all televisions?

[borax]

that this would cause the images to be distorted when played on 4:3 TVs.

No. Only if the user selects it willingly (and with knowledge ).
But it will be shown with black bars on top and bottom (letterboxed) or with some content cut off on the right and left sides (called Pan&Scan). It would be possible to create a DVD with both aspect ratios, but the problem remains the same. If the actual pictures have an 16:9 aspect ratio and you show them on any 4:3 equipment, either you cut off some content or add black borders. And the same applies the other way round (pictures have an 4:3 aspect ratio and you show them on any 16:9 equipment).

[manono]

I just made a large photo slide show using Picasa, and burned it to a DVD using DVDStyler. When I played it on my TV with a 16:9 aspect ratio, all of the photos were distorted. This is probably due to the fact that I made the slide show at 4:3 aspect ratio.

No, since both 4:3 material as well as 16:9 material will play just fine on either 4:3 or 16:9 TV sets. There might be several reasons it plays with bad aspect ratio, including you setting up the DVD player and/or TV set incorrectly, or you screwing up the creation of the DVD itself.

If you create the DVD properly, it'll play on anyone's TV set properly, assuming everything is set up properly.

[gorcq]

I've just spent 15 minutes going through (and randomly changing) the settings on my DVD player, and I can't find a configuration that causes it to add black bars to the sides of the 4:3 video to make it not distorted. There exists a setting in my TV (I normally use this when I watch an older movie) that causes it to add black bars and display everything at 4:3. I normally use this when I watch a DVD at 4:3. Whereas this does cause my slide show to display correctly, it must be unset in order to display 16:9 video correctly. I also gave the test DVD to a friend who reported similar problems, although I don't know how her DVD player is set up.

Manono, can you elaborate on what you meant by "screwing up the creation of the DVD itself"? The DVD plays properly in my computer's DVD drive using Windows Media Player, where it appears as a 4:3 rectangle.

[manono]

Manono, can you elaborate on what you meant by "screwing up the creation of the DVD itself"? The DVD plays properly in my computer's DVD drive using Windows Media Player, where it appears as a 4:3 rectangle.

Then I guess the DVD is fine, although a small sample for us to study might help. And the menus are also 4:3?

Some TVs switch between 4:3 material and 16:9 material automatically (my Sony does), and will set the black bars on the sides if needed for 4:3 material. Other TV sets require the switch be made manually. You said you have to do it when watching old classic films. I don't know why you expected any different with your 4:3 slideshow DVD.

Setting up the player is easy; ordinarily you'd just set it up to output for a widescreen or 16:9 TV set. There are some exceptions to that, though. My old Oppo had a 'Wide' setting that played everything stretched across the 1.78:1 screen of the HDTV, so with 4:3 material people looked fat. It also had a 'Wide/SQZ' setting which allowed it to pillarbox 4:3 material while 16:9 material stretched full across the screen, and that was the correct way to set it up.

[gorcq]

Some TVs switch between 4:3 material and 16:9 material automatically (my Sony does), and will set the black bars on the sides if needed for 4:3 material. Other TV sets require the switch be made manually. You said you have to do it when watching old classic films. I don't know why you expected any different with your 4:3 slideshow DVD.

I don't think I did expect it to work differently; it just didn't occur to me that you would consider this to be a solution, and I therefore didn't originally mention it. Given that different systems work so much differently (and, sometimes, confusingly), I'd rather not count on people to be able to set theirs up so it works properly.

I think this brings us back to my original question about putting two differently-shaped copies of the slideshow on the same disc. Is this actually possible? I'm pretty sure I've seen it before, although this was on a professionally-created disc, not a DVD-R.

[manono]

I'd rather not count on people to be able to set theirs up so it works properly.

Are you assuming everyone will be watching on widescreen TV sets? None of your friends have old 4:3 CRT sets for whom the DVD will play as it should?

If you insist on it playing correctly for everyone without them having to adjust anything and don't give your friends and family enough credit to be able to set up their own televisions properly (and many people either don't know how or would prefer watching fat people), rather than creating the slideshow in two different aspect ratios, I think I'd add in the black bars myself and then encode it for 16:9. Of course, if any of your friends have an old CRT 4:3 TV set the pictures will be surrounded by black on all four sides. Either that or crop from the top and bottom to create pictures suitable for 16:9 encoding. The players for people with 4:3 TV sets would automatically add the black bars above and below and they'd get a 'good' picture.

And yes, it's easy and DVD-legal to create 2 shows, one for each DAR. They'd have to be in separate VTS's and with a menu for them to pick the one they want (if they can understand what the two choices even mean). I've never used Picasa and have no idea how easy or difficult it would be to accomplish from within that program. Apparently DVD Slideshow GUI has the ability.

I don't think I did expect it to work differently; it just didn't occur to me that you would consider this to be a solution, and I therefore didn't originally mention it.

C'mon, now. I gave as one of the possible causes for the picture distortion the TV not being set correctly. That, indeed, was the cause, yet you now say setting it correctly isn't the answer?

[gorcq]

Thank you for pointing me to DVD Slideshow GUI, it appears to be what I was looking for.