WLMM and DVD and aspect ratio

mitchell65 · 02 Sep 2010

I'm sure the OP won't mind my saying that he is fairly new to Video editing. As such I really think it is very important that he gains a really sound understanding of the basic fundamentals. That's all he neads at the moment to produce perfectly acceptable DVD's that will play on his TV. Good middle of the road software like Corels Video Studio, Sahara and the like will perform perfectly well if used in the right way. There is no real need to start re-encoding at this stage. Indeed IMHO that is to be avoided. Any newcomer to this subject should try to avoid re coding or re rendering video clips as inevitably this will lead to some loss of quality, and thats what we are trying to avoid! The software that I use even has a check box that reads "Avoid re-rendering compliant MPEG files" in the authoring stage, so it is accepted good practice!

flez · 03 Sep 2010

Actually Im not that green, but I did not know a few things that I did now, I didnt know that its was the pixel aspect ratio that changed, in stead of pixel count/frame size, Me, I like my pixels square lol, thats how my brain sees them....

Ive been making dvds from home video clips for a few years, but with a big gap in the middle, I used to use my marvel g400 and adobe premiere, and its was a good match, and the card was quiet nice at capture too. in fact I still dont think multi monitor support as ever got any better than the stability with which the g400 handled it, most have been much worse, even cards from only a few years ago, it was ahead of its time but unfortunatly Matrox dumped the home pc card market and left.

As much as I may be doing some stuff wrong, I still think WLMM lacks a override button for its auto guessing of the input pixel ratio, and definatly a burn finished movie to disk option.

Its title is movie maker, if its not capable of making a dvd for granny without everyone being sqaushed or fattened, it should hand over the title.

I just hate to see something that's 90% usable when it could be 100% for the sake of something so easy for them to implement, a check box for selecting aspect ratio, and a burn option, windows has the burning software built in, currently you have to create it in MM, play in media-centre, then select to burn it from there, and wait hours....

mitchell65 · 04 Sep 2010

Hi flez
I apologise, I didn't men to cause offense when I suggested that it was better to have a grasp of the fundamentals before going too techie. I'm a great believer in not trying to run before one can walk. When trying to help others it is always difficult to guage their expertise in a subject and when we discussed the PAL DVD standard sizes and the relationship with the aspect ratios I gathered (Wrongly) that you were a beginner. Had I known that you have experience with Adobe Premier Pro I would have tailored my replies somewhat differently. That does beg the question though, why if you have Premier Pro are you using WMM? Even if your version of PP is an early one it is still far superior to WMM and as you have experience using it why waste time with a much inferior piece of sofware? I would strongly advise you to return to PP and forget WMM.

flez · 05 Sep 2010

Oh no offense taken believe me, I know you have to probe to get a user level etc, done tech support for years lol, but I dont use prem now as it came with the card which i dont have for use any more (its in a carpc), widescreen wasnt invented then, and I am trying to do *everything* with just the M$ apps and win7, it all should be possible!

maybe i do need to upgrade my apps folder....

mitchell65 · 05 Sep 2010

OK if you want to use the Windows progs. how about using the older version of MM. Consensus of opinion suggests it is much better than the latest version. As you don't use HD video it should be fine though as I said I don't use it myself. Here's a download link:
Download details: Windows Movie Maker 2.6
If you use this let us know and I will download it to help if you need it

Wishmaster · 06 Sep 2010

I tend to get to far ahead of myself sometimes :) I do agree with you Mitchell however, walk before you can run :)

I would like to clarify what I was getting at however, in reference to aspect ratios and Anamorphic encoded ones.

My DVD videos are 4:3 @ 720x480 and 16:9 Widescreen is 720x480 Anamorphic.

For whatever reason, when HW acceleration is enabled, a 16:9 anamorphic Image sometimes is "squished" together and displayed as a 4:3 Fullscreen Image.

Theres a setting where you can tell the Video card to retrieve the Aspect Ratio directly from the stream, and all displays as it should.

As I said before however, I am unfamiliar with PAL resolutions so this may not even apply.

But a thought to keep in mind at any count. If the player is going by the actual resolution, it may not display it properly unless it reads the AR from the stream itself.

mitchell65 · 06 Sep 2010

Hi Jessie
Understand now where you are coming from. Must admit that I had to do a quick refresh on the subject of amophoric 16:9. Whilst PAL is 720 x 586 I think the same rules apply regarding the squishing and letterbox. However, the orgiinal queston related to 16:9 recorded clips from a camcorder so I don't think the amorphoric question arises here! I might have the wrong impression here, though!