I want to see my DVD in 16:9!

[Klaus1]

T Roger B

HOW TO MAINTAIN 16:9 ASPECT FROM IMPORT TO BURN

This is the way I do it. There is no compulsion on you to do it my way, but this works without fail[/b] (for me). I started this method before iMovie and iDVD were upgraded to 6.0.3, and because not all elements of the various iDVD themes (particularly the pre-iDVD 6 ones) are consistent in keeping to 16:9 throughout the process. I have for years shot in nothing but 16:9 widescreen, partly because it looks better (IMO), partly to future-proof my videos for the increasingly popular widescreen TVs. Living in the UK, I use PAL (25 fps). Wherever you see a reference to PAL in the following you may substitute NTSC (30 fps) in the various settings mentioned, the basic idea is the same. I still use this method, and take these steps, regardless of whether it is always necessary. Worst case scenario: it would have worked anyway. Best case scenario: it works perfectly where it otherwise wouldn’t!

The object of the exercise is to ‘fix’ all constituent parts of the project (video, titles, theme, effects, even audio!) in the desired 16:9 aspect to avoid producing a DVD where the movie is in 16:9 and the menu is in 4:3 or where other irritating surprises lurk in your project, which you only discover after burning a coaster!

First go to http://www.mydvdedit.com/index.php?lang=english and download myDVDedit. This is shareware although the download is free. Send the guy a few dollars/euros, he deserves it. While you are there, read all about it. Now install it in your Applications Folder. You will need it later.

You have finished your iMovie project with music, transitions and so on, and saved it to you Movies Folder. Before you started the project you naturally set it DV Widescreen.

Open iDVD. Give the project a name, and save it as Widescreen if it didn’t default to the same aspect as your iMovie project. Now import the iMovie project into iDVD, choose a theme (any theme you like, even if it prefers to stay at 4:3) and save the project. Do what you would normally do to the theme and its drop zones. Save the project.

Now save as Disk Image on your desktop. Leave it there for the moment when it has finished/appeared.

Open your Movies Folder. Create a new folder. Name it PROJECTNAME – TS FILES (where ‘projectname’ is the name of your project!). Close the folder. You can of course call it anything you like, but htis aids identification.

Now double-click the disk image on your desktop. It contains two folders: AUDIO_TS (which is empty, but please pretend that it isn’t) and VIDEO_TS. Drag and drop these to the folder you created in your Movies Folder. (This takes a moment).

Click on the AUDIO_TS folder and go to Get Info in the file menu. Right down the bottom is where you have to change the permissions. Under ‘Ownership & Permissions’ change this from Read Only to Read & Write. Click the small triangle next to Details, scroll down and click on Apply to enclosed items. You will be asked for your root password. When this has completed (fairly fast, as that folder was empty!), click on the VIDEO_TS folder and do the same. This takes a moment longer, as that folder is full of goodies with which you should not otherwise interfere! Close the Projectname-TS Files folder. You have now allowed yourself to change the properties of the contents of those folders, which leads us to the next all-important step.

Open myDVDedit. Go to File and open the projectname TS Files folder. By all means stare at it shock and awe, but don’t bother finding out what it can do, except for the following:

Top left you fill see a list of files. Lower centre you have a large window. On the vertical menu to the left of that, click IFO.

In the window at the top left, ignore ‘First Play’ (if there was anything to correct in that, myDVDedit will have done so and told you).

Click on VMG Menu en (English). Now the whole thing springs to life.

Set Coding Mode to MPEG-2
Set Standard to PAL (if applicable to where you are)
Set Aspect to 16:9 (not any of the other options)

Now save the file.

Click on VTS Menu 1 en (English) and repeat as above.

Click on VTS 1 and repeat as above.

You have now permanently ‘fixed’ the entire contents of the TS folder (the disk image) in 16:9 aspect. Close myDVDedit – you won’t need it again until the next project!

If you have Toast 7 Titanium, open it. ‘Select DVD-Video from VIDEO_TS’. Choose Select from the main Toast window and select your projectname-TS Files folder. You are now ready to burn! You can set the burn speed (2x recommended) before the burn commences. Allow Toast to verify the burn before you eject the DVD-R disk.

If you don’t have Toast 7, then I assume you can burn the projectname-TS Files folder (disk image) via Disk Utility. I say ‘assume’ only because I have never tried it that way.

Either way, you now have a DVD which will play as 16:9 widescreen on any TV set, even the old ones where you can’t ask it to letter-box.

[waypointjeff]

This tutorial is awesome. Thank you for posting it, Klaus1!

I wanted to post up here another option that would work if you came across the same problem I ran into:

I run myDVDEdit 0.9.10 on a iMac running Leopard. I imported a 16:9 ratio video from iMovie '08 into iDVD 7.0.2 and followed all the instructions verbatim. However when I got to the section about changing the permissions, I could not change my disk image file (projectfilename.img) to "read write." It said it was read only. I am the administator for my computer, so I set permissions myself. The img file itself is read only, or at least it was for me. If you try to changes the VTS files in myDVDEdit with read only files, it will shut down on you and give you an error message.

What I did was, in iDVD go File>Save as VIDEO_TS folder. This will give you a workable folder where you can set the permissions to Read & Write, if they aren't already.

Once you go through what Klaus1 said to do in myDVDEdit; changing the ratio to 16:9, encoding as MPEG-2, then Save you can then create a burn folder in Finder (I do not have Toast) with that VIDEO_TS folder and it should yield the same result.

Hope this helps.

Jeff

[Ash512]

J'ai suivi les instructions de ce tutoriel... J'ai choisi l'option 16x9 auto letterbox pour tous mes VTS ainsi que les menus et pourtant l'image est toujours écrasée sur ma télé 4:3.

Bizarre... la résolution est pourtant bien 720x480. Besoin d'un coup de pouce svp !

[Jerome]

écrasé comment ?
ça ressemble à :

1)

2)

3)

?

- 720x480 c'est une image NTSC ? , en PAL elle devrait faire 720x576

Jerome

[Ash512]

Oui NTSC.

Ce n'est pas un Pan & Scan, c'est vraiment écrasé. #3.

[Jerome]

Est-ce que tu vois l'image déformée aussi avec myDVDEdit, ou ce n'est que sur ton lecteur.

Pour changer le format de l'écran dans myDVDEdit, il faut cliquer sur l'image 16/9, au dessus de l'écran.

Jerome

[Ash512]

Nevermind... il s'agissait de mon lecteur DVD qui était configuré pour les télévisions 16:9. J'ai sélectionné 4:3 et les barres noires apparaissent !

CEPENDANT... En sélectionnant le format 4:3 dans les settings de mon DVD, il y a un étrange problème dans les menus... La surbrillance devient décalée par rapport aux subpictures. J'ai regardé dans myDVDedit et le problème y est aussi. J'ai pris quelques photos... À quoi se peut-être du ??

Menu 1:
Originale
http://Ash512.fileave.com/1-panscan.jpg
Letterboxée
http://Ash512.fileave.com/1-letterbox.jpg

Menu 2 :
Originale :
http://Ash512.fileave.com/2-panscan.jpg
Letterboxée
http://Ash512.fileave.com/2-letterbox.jpg

Y a-t-il un moyen de réparer cela ?

[Jerome]

Je me doutais que c'était ça, d'où ma question.

Pour les menus, il n'y a rien a faire. Mon tutoriel ne concernait que les titres.

Le problème vient du fait que pour faire un bouton, il faut une subpicture, et qu'elle ne subit pas la même déformation que l'image. Que l'image soit en pan&scan, ou en letterbox, la subpicture rempli toujours l'écran.

Pour avoir des boutons qui sont à la bonne place, il faut donc autant de subpicture que de mode d'affichage. La subpicture est codée dans un flux dans le fichier VOB. On ne peut pas en ajouter une sans devoir remultiplexer tous les flux.

Jerome

[sburnette]

Hi all,

I keep having problems creating a dvd in 16:9 that plays letterboxed on a 4:3 tv screen. I have followed the tutorial given by Klaus 1 - and yet even after numerous tries - the dvd keeps playing the film squished.

I am including a screen shot of mydvdedit. Anyone that can help, information is most wanted!


Thanks!

[Jerome]

1) Verify the TV format preference of your DVD player. If you set 16:9 and your TV is 4:3, the image is squished.

2) some DVD players (bad DVD players) get the image format information from the VOBs in place of the IFO. When you have changed the Aspect parameter value, you should have had a message box asking you to change the VOB files too. Did you said yes ?.
You can verify the VOB aspect value by yourself:
- clic on the little screen icon above the screen. This icon must change to 'Data'
- in the data type list, select Video
- in the right panel, in the 'Sequence header' block, you can read the Aspect Ratio value. It must be set to 16:9

Jerome

[guigoune]

Bonjour,

je viens de recontrer le même problème.
Je créé une image via IDVD.
Je la monte et je n'ai pas la possibilité de faire quoi que ce soit: on m'indique que les fichiers sont en lecture seule.

J'ai essayer de passer par l'image de mon disque dur sans la monter, mais mydvdedit ne reconnais pas l'extension.

Comment faites vous pour contourner ce problème et pouvoir enreigistrer les modifications apporter (je ne peut pas cocher ou décocher lecture seule, j'ai même fait une image disque en passant par l'utilitaire disque avec l'option écriture activée).

De plus lorsque j'essaie d'ignorer cette alerte, le logiciel plante (cf capture d'écran).
De toute façon je n'ai pas la fonctionner "enregistrer dispo" donc le fait d'essayer d'écriture sur un fichier non modifiable doit faire planter le logiciel.

J'ai besoin d'aide, je ne dois pas être le seul dans le même cas!!!

Merci d'avance

[Jerome]

ici

[Truewit]

I want to suggest one change to the extremely useful procedure explained here. Instead of saving the project as a disk image, save it as a VIDEO_TS folder. The advantage of "Save as VIDEO_TS folder..." is that there is no need to change the permissions of files created with this command. The files are ready to use in myDVDEdit because they are already marked "Read & Write".

"Save as VIDEO_TS folder..." is just under "Save as Disk Image..." in the File menu of version 7.0.4 of iDVD. I don't know whether the option to save as a VIDEO_TS folder is available in earlier versions.
_________________
Truewit