Squeeze mode and 16 x 9 DVD

[Guest]

I'm having a problem creating a DVD using the squeeze mode in my DVX 100A. I've tried several things. First, I encoded my video in Premiere Pro in 16 x 9 format and then tried to import it into Encore. Encore said that it only accepted video in 720 x 480 format. I then created a project in Encore and imported the squeezed AVI file. I then transcoded the file using the 16 x 9 settings and created a DVD. When shown on a 4 x 3 TV the image is still squeezed and there are no bars. I then tried transcoding at 4 x 3 and then creating a DVD but had the same result.

My question: How do I create a 16 x 9 video in Encore using video that was squeezed in a Panasonic DVX 100A? I realize that this is a Premiere Pro forum but someone here surely has Encore as well.

Thanks.

[sfogden]

Hate to ask the obvious, but did you capture the original into Premier using the widescreen preset?

My set-up is new - have captured quite a bit, edited, but have yet to burn the DVD with Encore. But the timelines I see there have been fine.

[Guest]

Maybe that's the problem. I'll have to check later. What should the settings be in Premiere Pro for capturing squeezed video? What frame size and pixel aspect ratio?

Thanks for your help.

[sfogden]

Billy,

I just use the presets & let Premier worry about everything else. When you set up the project, one of the dialogs asks which 'pre-set' you want to use. Choose the "NTSC Widescreen." (I don't remember the exact wording.)

[Neil Rowe]

the pixel aspect ratio for widescreen dv is 1.2 . however it doesnt matter what you capture or edit the video as for a pixel aspect ratio(besides thet afct that your effects wont look right if you do them in 4:3 cuase theyll strech wide .. so like a round lense flare would be an oval .. but if you did it in the widscreen 1.2 ratio, it would be renderd as a circle in that ratio, and be sqeuusezed to an oval in 4:3 like it should be.), what matters is what you export the file as, and most importantly, what you encode the mpg stream with.. really as long as you encode the mpg stream as widscreen or 16:9 , it should flag the data stream with the 16:9 flag, and the dvd player should automatically letterbox it on a 4:3 screen, but what you have to make sure is that your dvd player knows its on a 4:3 screen. it sounds like you already set everything up right, from what i read above, but be sure that the player knows its on a 4:3 screen, so that it knows to letterbox a dvd thats flagged as 16:9. somtimes you have to tell the dvd player how you want to handle certain material like does it crop 16:9 stuff to the center, or pan and scan it, or letterbox it. so be sure its all set up right.. theres always weird stuff going on with some players and sets though, so try it out on a few different systems before coming to any conclusions.

[Guest]

Well, After redoing everything with no luck I began to check the obvious. My DVD player was set to 16x9 and I have a 4x3 TV. I changed to 4x3 and everything worked fine. What's interesting is that every DVD I've played in the last year has played OK.

thanks for the help.

[Michael_Capulli]

I did some captures off of satellite tv that was squeezed (anamorphic) widescreen into premiere pro and all was fine if I used the standard 720x480 4x3 preset. I tried using the widescreen preset and it actually added letterboxing to the left and right sides... the picture was still squeezed.

[Neil Rowe]

micheal,

you need to interpret your footage. the program doesnt know that the 4:3 video is anamorphic widscreem so it plays it as 4:3 in the cnter of the 16:9 window. you need to right click on the clip in the project bin, and select "interpret footage" and from that dialog you can tell ppro what type of footage it is. just set it as 1.2 pixel aspect widescreen footage, and youl be a-ok :)

[Monglane]

IAL, the pixel aspect ratio you give applies to PAL as well, doesn't it ? I assume it should, since this has nothing to do with frame rates, but better safe than sorry...

Thanks a lot in advance.

[Barry_Green]

PAL is a little different because the frame size is different. PAL runs at a different frame rate, but also it has a different frame size: 720x576 vs. 720x480. So you wouldn't use 1.2... I don't know exactly what you would use though. One of our PAL friends should chime in here...