Solved 4:3 VHS to DVD - want to preserve aspect ratio, but some setting somewhere won't let me

Hi Derek,

I have captured a 2.5 hour VHS tape as a .avi format and used that as the source for a Vegas Pro 12 project to end up on DVD via DVD Architect Pro 6.0. I used the information in one of your excellent You Tube videos to squeeze out a 2hr 29minute version (I edited out ten minutes of unnecessary footage) using Mark's DVD Bitrate Calculator and burned the disc ok. The resultant project is good quality for having been transferred from VHS, but on every DVD player I try it on, it stretches the 4:3 out to fill the screen despite me unchecking the "Stretch video to fill output frame size (do not letterbox)" box as well.

I created the project as 4:3, rendered it as a 4:3 (mpeg2) DVD Architect PAL video stream and within DVD Architect set it as 4:3 - is there a step I am missing, or a setting I have fudged?

One thing I did notice was that in Vegas Pro, when the original source file (.avi) is highlighted in the explorer window, it shows the video properties below as: "720x576x24, 25.000fps [...]" and in the preview window it shows the Project and Preview properties as: "720x576x32, 25.000i" - would those differences (in the bold type) be of concern?

Cheers,

Ian

Hi Ian and welcome to the MSZ forum.

There are a couple of different things to consider, when working with older style 4:3 video on DVD.
Unfortunately it has become more complicated, due to some modern TVs.

What I recommend you actually do, is start all your DVD Architect projects using 16:9 Aspect Ratio settings, even though you will be importing 4:3 style video. Doing this means that your DVDA Main Menu will always be 16:9 widescreen and fill a modern TVs screen. When you import 4:3 video into a 16:9 project, the 4:3 video will then sit inside of the 16:9 frame and then shouldn't cause you any problems.



There is also a setting I tell people to check, that is located in Options/Preferences/Preview.
I recommend setting this permanently to 16:9 Aspect Ratio, even when working with 4:3 video, because 99.9% of most homes are using a 16:9 Widescreen TV. 4:3 was only relevant when we were all using Cathode Ray glass screen 4:3 TVs.



For any existing 4:3 projects that use 4:3 settings for all aspects of the video and DVD project settings, you may need to look at your TVs settings.
Some smart (dumb) TVs, have a default Aspect Ratio setting, that automatically tries to fill a 16:9 widescreen frame, by stretching or zooming in on 4:3 style video. I have had quite a few people experience this problem and were able to fix it by doing this. Open the Settings Menu for your TV and find the Aspect Ratio (display) settings. My Samsung 4K TV has 4 different modes, that cover all possible scenarios - cycle through them all and see if that helps. Some TV Remotes also have a button that will cycle through all available display modes for Aspect Ratio.

Another thing to check, is your DVD/Blu-ray player.
The same problem that some TVs have, is also present in some DVD/Blu-ray players. Once again, check the Output Display Settings.

The Video Properties you mentioned inside of Vegas, do not affect DVD video.
The 24 and 32 settings are referring to colour depth, and that is another bowl of spaghetti to try and understand.

Final note: If there is a problem with how your TV and/or DVD player is "auto-handling" aspect ratio display, that can be a bit of a nightmare to work out what combination will get everything working correctly. On an old TV and old DVD player I use to own, I felt like I was trapped in a Cheech and Chong movie, trying to understand what combination of settings would set me free.

Regards
Derek