DVD aspect ratio

[potwnc]

Well, I brought this up as part of beta testing feedback in the original beta annoucement thread, but there

have been no comments. Since beta testing feedback seems to have split up into seperate threads, I

started this one just to discuss aspect ratio!

Here's my dilemma. All the images for my shows are scanned at 800x600. I want to keep that aspect

ratio (4:3) when I burn my shows to DVD, because most of my customers still use 4:3 TVs rather than

the newer, 16:9 digital TVs. I know that DVDs _can_ have that aspect ratio because I've rented many at

my local Blockbuster that use it.

When I produce a custom AVI at 800x600, that's what I get - an AVI with frames of 800x600 pixels. But not

all those pixels are taken up by my original images. PTE is reducing the size of the actual image and putting

a thick black border around them. I've burned that AVI directly to DVD using Roxio and also using Roxio after

a TMPGenc encoding to MPEG2. In both cases I see the thick black border on my TV screen.

Is anyone else having this problem, or have all of you who've managed to burn a DVD been using shows

with 720x480 images? Is there still a thick, black border when using 720x480 images?

Igor, is this intentional? If so, what is the purpose?

I'd really appreciate help with this because it looks unprofessional and I don't think my customers will

be happy with it. And I really can't take the time to rescan every slide to 720x480 and go through all

the original digital retouching I did - that would be a 3-month project by itself!!!!

Ray

[LumenLux]

Ray, this is just observation. I have not made time to check it out. Most PTE shows that I have put to SVCD and a couple to DVD, have been 1024x768 in PTE. I have used Ulead Video Factory2 (trial) for burning. I have had no black borders on TV. When I did the first DVD, I noticed severe "cropping" of the image on the TV. I had not noticed that with the SVCD. That sounds strange to me, so maybe I had just not noticed the cropping on the SVCD as I was so surprised by the good quality image of the SVCD. Obviously, this is an issue many of us will have to consider and resolve to our individual needs. I hope we hear some more helpful comments here.