Aspect Ratio Problems with iDVD

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Aspect Ratio Problems with iDVD

I am putting together a video presentation with video from several different sources. I have had a whale of a time getting the video to display uniformly at the same aspect ratio. I put all my separate clips into Quicktime Pro and set the aspect ratio to 960 X 540. FINALLY, in Quicktime Pro I was able to assemble the full video so that ALL the footage played in 960 X 540 and looked seamless. I thought I was in great shape.

Then......I thought I would test the video in iDVD because I need to burn about 40 copies of this presentation. Lo and behold, iDVD takes part of the video footage and somehow changes the aspect ratio of certain footage. Part of the video plays in a small postage stamp area in the upper left of the screen, while other segments play in full widescreen just fine. Obviously, my aspect ratios are still messed up somehow, even though the the entire video plays in full 960 X 540 glory in Quicktime Pro. I'm stumped.

Anybody run across this problem in iDVD before?

iMac 24" 3.06, iMac G5, PB 15 FW800, MacBook Pro Unibody, G4 Cube, iPod touch 4G, Mac OS X (10.6.4)

Posted on May 18, 2011 5:28 AM

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Answer 1

Solid Author

Level 5

4,370 points

May 19, 2011 6:17 AM in response to Solid

Wow, nobody qualified to help me with this problem?

I'm finding out, thanks to more research on my part, that iDVD does not like the aspect ratio of 960 X 540. The only reason I used that setting is because part of of my video has an iMovie 9 "trailer" and iMovie 9's "large" export is set to 960 X 540. The weird thing is iDVD handles segments of my video that is 960X540 just fine, but it completely bungles up the iMovie 9 trailer segment that is 960 X 540.

I have also found in further testing that iDVD does like a .move file in 853 X 480 and displays that aspect ratio in full widescreen glory.

Hopefully this information will help somebody someday avoid the headaches I have had.

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Answer 2

mishmumken

Level 5

4,000 points

May 19, 2011 8:51 AM in response to Solid

Solid wrote:

I have also found in further testing that iDVD does like a .move file in 853 X 480 and displays that aspect ratio in full widescreen glory.

There is your answer. 853 x 480 is the square-pixel equivalent to "real" anamorphic video which has 720 x 480 rectangular pixels ... and that is the only thing iDVD will accept as "widescreen".

mish

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Answer 3

Solid Author

Level 5

4,370 points

May 19, 2011 9:49 AM in response to mishmumken

Thanks mishmumken, but that doesn't explain why iDVD accepted and properly displayed parts of my video that were 960 x 540.....did I just get lucky on those segments?

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