How do I Encode & Author DVD's to display at 16x9 on a Plazma TV?

On Wed, 4 Nov 2009 19:09:22 -0600, "Ken Maltby"
<kmaltby@sbcglobal.net> wrote:

>
><DennyCrane@MadCow.net> wrote in message
>news:nfu3f59upqidrus4hefk0t9fstqnhphr4j@4ax.com.. .
>>
>> I made a test DVD using your instructions and the results were not
>> what I hoped for. With the TV format set to "Full" all the files and
>> the menu displayed in Letterbox (black bars top and bottom).
>>
>> When I set the TV format to "Zoom" they looked pretty decent, except
>> that some of the image was off screen.
>>
>
>
> How your TV handles things is an issue, but not one that the
>suggestions I gave you addressed. How did it look in the
>"Encode preview" of TMPGEnc 4.0 XPress?
Looked ok.

>
>
>> I think I need to have a closer look at the options with the player.
>> And, since I'm thinking about getting a new player with a better
>> remote and output connector options, maybe I should do that first.
>>
>> Also, maybe DVD-lab PRO has some tweaks I could apply to get rid of
>> the letterbox. I'm not very familiar with it.
>>
>> DC
>
> Once you have the video encoded properly, we can address
>any problems you may be having with DVD-Lab Pro.

I think I found the culprit. There is a setting on the DVD player
that I didn't know about. It was set to 4:3 as the TV's aspect ratio.
I changed it to 16:9 and looked at the test DVD again.

All the 16x9 source looked the way it should, filling the screen but
without any zoom or distortion. the 4:3 source files which I encoded
to 16x9 were automatically displayed in zoom mode and showed the
stretch of the width, as expected. None the less, they looked ok, if
not ideal. I guess I'll try to work with 16:9 source as much as
possible.

Thanks for your help, Ken

DC

On Thu, 05 Nov 2009 09:40:32 GMT, rich <rich@nohome.com> wrote:

>On Wed, 04 Nov 2009 16:01:03 -0600, DennyCrane wrote:
>
>> On Wed, 4 Nov 2009 09:56:54 -0800, "CLicker" <CLicker@invalid.org>
>> wrote:
>>
>>
>>><DennyCrane@MadCow.net> wrote in message
>>>news:f2rre5hjppoq0ks8k3c6hta9ddv2e6u899@4ax.com ...
>>>> For a few years, I've been successfully encoding wmv and avi files to
>>>> DVD compliant mpg using TMPGEnc 4.0 XPress. I like it a lot and the
>>>> results have been fine, as long as I had a CRT TV displaying at 4:3
>>>> aspect ratio. I use DVD-lab PRO 2.3 to author and create menus.
>>>>
>>>> Now I've upgraded to HDTV and a Panasonic 42" plasma. The HDTV shows
>>>> on cable display at 16x9 (provided they are broadcast that way) and
>>>> look great.
>>>>
>>>> However, all the DVD's I've created, even the one's that displayed at
>>>> 16x9 on the CRT 4:3 TV, don't seem to fit properly on the 16x9 screen.
>>>
>>>There are many stand alone players which will play a vast number of
>>>codecs used in AVI files, as well as WMV files. Using one would save
>>>you a lot of time, trial, and error.
>>>
>>>Alternatively, your PC can play all the files, no? Why not have it
>>>output directly to your plasma? If not currently equipped to do so, a
>>>new graphics card may be all that's required.
>>>
>>>Generally speaking, converting video to another encoding scheme degrades
>>>quality.
>>>
>> Some good thoughts, but I need to use DVDs.
>
>Part of the problem is starting off with .wmv's and .avi's
>
>My suggestion, as a way of problem solving, is try one of your files with
>DeVeDe
>
>http://www.majorsilence.com/devede
>
>Have a look at some screen shots I put together showing the process. If
>you can get this working then you can go back to Tmpgenc and check the
>equivalent settings there.
>http://www.imageno.com/qgyy7x74s0rfpic.html
>
>When it comes to DVDlab, there are no settings to convert. It expects a
>DVD standard file, although it can be half or quarter standard. It will
>demux and there is a tool to reduce the size of a video file. Thats about
>it *but* it can make wonderful menu's.

Thanks for your suggestions Rich. I'll check them out as soon as I
have a little more time to spend on this.

DC