16:9 display incorrect - crops bottom of frame

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Level 1

54 points

16:9 display incorrect - crops bottom of frame

This is an issue whch has been bothering me for some time. A PAL 16x9 DVD, authored in DVDSP v4.2.1, when inserted into my MacBook Pro, and using DVD Player, dispalys in an incorrect aspect ratio. A 16x9 frame shows on the screen, with black bars top and bottom where they should be, but the bottom of the image, ie menus, movie, everything, is cropped - I'd say around 10% of the bottom of the image is missing. The image I see is distorted, ie stretched vertically to fill what would be a taller screen than the 16x9 window I am seeing it through (but this is not a 16x9 versus 4x3 issue).

Now, if I change the View in DVD Player from Full Screen to anything else, the display becomes correct, AND, when I change back to Enter Full Screen, the display remains correct. That has been my default workaround, but I need to get this sorted.

Also, when the image is being distorted, the active areas of the buttons are in the place on the screen where they should be, not where the graphics for those buttons are being seen. This gives the effect that the buttons are not working properly if I use the mouse to navigate.

The projects plays correctly in Simulator mode in DVDSP, and the DVDs always plays correctly in a stand-alone DVD player, and I think, in a PC, but I cannot be sure of that.

I have not had any problems when creating NTSC DVDs. I have had the same problem with some, but not all, comercially produced PAL DVDs. This would seem to be a problem with DVD Player, but perhaps there is something in DVDSP which is causing it.

With more people using Macs, this problem is now being experienced by my clients as well as by me!

MacPro 2.8Ghz 8-core, MacBook Pro 15", Mac OS X (10.5.8)

Posted on Mar 14, 2012 12:08 PM

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Answer 1

darbypsnm

Level 3

730 points

Mar 21, 2012 2:19 PM in response to John Howarth

What region is the DVD?

Is it safe to presume that the mac dvd drives are by default region 2 since you are most likely in Europe?

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Answer 2

John Howarth Author

Level 1

54 points

Mar 21, 2012 2:33 PM in response to darbypsnm

The DVD drive in the Mac is set to region 2, yes. I travel between Europe and the States.

I have tried the discs in other machines in the States and they play without a problem - using Snow Leopard, Lion, and 10.4. The discs themselves are region-free - the ones authored in DVDSP have the preset which makes them regions 1-6 & 8. Other discs from stand-alone recorders are also region-free, although all the discs are PAL.

The geometry of the problem is such that the image, correctly set up in DVDSP, or in the stand-alone recorder, displays as 4x3, with the top line correctly at the top of the DVD Player window, the bottom 20% disappearing below the bottom of the window. However, the active area of the buttons are in the correct position. Consequently there is a discrepancy between the active areas and the graphics associated with those active areas.

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