DVD for HDTV

[davegee]

Arising out of a recent thread:

 

I tested the procedures for making a DVD for HD TV which were specific to my home setup*. I believe that the settings and the results could differ depending on the variety of makes and models of DVD Players and TVs available.

 

* My Home Setup: Sony BDP-S490 DVD Player connected via HDMI to my Sony HDTV. The DVD Player features 1080p Upscaling and also has USB Inputs for playing MPEG4 files.

 

My tests were carried out on three Aspect Ratios (AR): 4:3, 3:2 and 16:9. In each case the height of the project was 1080. A single slide of the appropriate AR was added to each of the projects. A white "stroke" line was added to each image using the "Canvas" and "Border" controls in "Adjust Image and Border" to maintain the correct AR.

 

Two versions of each Project were created using either "Fixed size of slide" unticked or ticked.

 

Video Builder Options

 

 

Note that the TV Screen AR defaults to 4:3 - I changed this to 16:9.

 

I chose my Menu Options and allowed VideoBuilder to burn the DVD (my normal procedure is to "Create ISO image" and burn the ISO using third party software). I used my usual Sony DVD-R.

 

"Fixed Size of Slide" - Ticked vs unticked.

 

4:3 Unticked: The show filled the height of the TV screen with a percentage of the top and bottom missing due to "TV Safe Zone"

 

4:3 Ticked: The whole of the 4:3 show including the white stroke line was in view. However the top and bottom stroke lines did not "fit" the visible area of the screen

 

3:2 Unticked: The show filled the height of the TV screen with a percentage of the top and bottom missing due to "TV Safe Zone"

 

3:2 Ticked: The whole of the 3:2 show including the white stroke line was in view. However the top and bottom stroke lines did not "fit" the visible area of the screen

 

16:9 Unticked: The show filled the height and width of the TV screen with a percentage all around missing due to "TV Safe Zone"

 

16:9 Ticked: The whole of the 16:9 show including the white stroke line was in view. However the top and bottom stroke lines did not "fit" the visible area of the screen.

 

Adjusting for "TV Safe Zone"

 

To adjust for TV Safe Zone I used a "Project Options / % of slide to show main images" value of 96% and this proved to be the exact figure for my setup. The white line around the images sat nicely at the extreme edge of the screen on all edges for the 16:9 and at the top and bottom for both the 4:3 and 3:2 shows.

 

Conclusion

 

For my setup none of the "Fixed size of slide" Ticked versions were acceptable. The 4:3 version came the closest to being acceptable but there was still a gap between the images and the top and bottom of the screen. The gap grew larger with the 3:2 and 16:9 versions.

 

For my setup the "Fixed size of slide" Unticked with compensation for the "TV Safe Zone" set at 96% gave the optimum result in all three AR.

 

* My Home Setup: Sony BDP-S490 DVD Player connected via HDMI to my Sony HDTV. The DVD Player features 1080p Upscaling and also has USB Inputs for playing MPEG4 files.

 

 

 

 

[davegee]

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[canico]

Thanks Dave for your work on this. I find viewing on a TV the best home option and of course this enables a group of people a better view than a computer screen. However when I take a sequence to our AV club and see it projected onto a big screen I am blown away by the difference - the good bits and the bad bits !

Canico 

[davegee]

I completely agree, but for those who NEED to make DVDs there are good and not so good ways of both making and playing them. 

[Tonton Bruno]

8 hours ago, davegee said:

I completely agree, but for those who NEED to make DVDs there are good and not so good ways of both making and playing them. 

I confirm.

I record public lectures made by my wife using a PTE run manually, then I synchronize views and voice over, and create a DVD. The duration is 90 to 100 minutes. The image quality is poor, but this is very useful for my wife to review the lecture on a TV set anywhere and improve her comments for the next lecture.

By the way, the original PTE Show is in 4/3 format and includes many zoom and pan animations, so I use a watermark as a mask to stay in 4/3 format during pan and zoom animations on the HD TV.

I use a "Project Options / % of slide to show main images" value of 94%

[davegee]

Update:

I have just learned something I didn't previously know from someone who tried this on another forum.

I have reported a number of times that BluRay DVD Players mostly have USB inputs and will play MP4 through a TV Media Player.

However, I had not realised that BD Players will also read Data DVDs.

So if you burn MP4 files to a DVD as data the DVD can be read on a BD Player and played via HDMI on a HD TV. I have tried it on my Sony BD Player and confirm that it works.