How to make Widescreen Videos Display correctly in iDVD?

Question

How to make Widescreen Videos Display correctly in iDVD?

I shot video with my sony dvcam in 4:3 format. PAL.
I took this video and edited it in iMovie and Exported as follows:
DVCPRO PAL; Aspect: 16x9 25fps.
Size: 720x576 16:9 (i do not preserve aspect ratio).

I take this quicktime movie file and drop it into iDVD using a non Widescreen format menu (but i go ahead and choose it to switch to widescreen when it asks me).

I have 10 small videos i do this too and out of the 10 only 2 actually play in widescreen. The other 8 start off by displaying grey side vertical bars on either side of the screen then proceed to move into a 4:3 aspect.

Why is this happening? Why only 2 work? What is happening to the other 8?
Each of the .mov files i am using display in widescreen when i open and play in QuickTime.

(i have checked using QTPro and all the aspects are set to 1024 x 576 (PAL) for each movie.

Can anyone point me some clues as to what is happening?

THANKS

ibook g4, Mac OS X (10.4.11)

Posted on Apr 23, 2008 7:06 AM

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Answer 1

Apr 23, 2008 2:25 PM in response to SouthofFrance

hey there SouthofFrance,
it seems that you're mixing aspect ratios. you shoot in 4:3, then edit & export as 16:9(stretched or pillar boxed?), then drop your movie into a 4:3 project(using 4:3 template?), then change the aspect ratio to 16:9. is that what you're doing? i have no explanation for your issue but, try maintaining the same aspect ratio from start to finish-shoot, edit, burn. since your videos end up playing as w/ bars on the sides(pillar boxing), why not just stay in 4:3? what do you see as the advantage in trying to make your 4:3 movies 16:9?

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Answer 2

Apr 25, 2008 5:00 AM in response to Donna Jones1

OK found my solution.
Something in iDVD was not translating the .mov file correctly and not showing my .mov files in proper 16:9 format. It did so with 2 of them but not the other 8.

So i found a work around that made it work perfectly.
I made a new iMovie file in widescreen format. Closed iMovie. Then did a "view contents" function (cntrl click on iMovie file and "view contents"). Next i dropped the 16x9 .mov file into the Media folder. Open the iMovie file again and move the .mov file from the Trash into the Timeline. Save iMovie file. Then i dropped the iMovie file into iDVD and now i have my 16x9 movie with no problem.

I had to make these different aspects and formats because i needed 4 DVDs of each movie:
Fullscreen PAL
Widescreen PAL
Fullscreen NTSC
Widescreen NTSC

Glad i got it all to work out OK.
Also be sure to select the correct fps in the iMovie preferences before making a new iMovie. And deselect the "pillarbox and letterbox" option.

jeff

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