potwnc Posted May 19, 2005 Report Share Posted May 19, 2005 If anyone's looking for reasonable DVD authoring software for Windows, this product is available (I believe in North America only) for $29.88 (after rebate) from here. The offer runs out on May 31. There's a 30-day trial download here.I've been playing with it for a few days and bought it today. What it does is pretty basic (e.g., no subtitles, no multi-angle movies), but the results look slick and the price is right! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
potwnc Posted May 27, 2005 Author Report Share Posted May 27, 2005 I may have spoken too soon.... If anyone intends to produce DVDs in 16:9 format, this may not be the product you want.... After struggling to produce a DVD in 16:9, tmpg-inc tech support today confirmed that this product cannnot do that! They suggested I encode with Tsunami Video Encoder XPress, but I can't find a vendor who sells it yet! It's back ordered. So I downloaded the trial and I still can't get it to encode to 16:9 - the resulting DVD is horizontally stretched on my software DVD player and on my set top DVD player.If anyone has managed to get Tsunami Video Encoder XPress to encode succesfully to 16:9 I'd appreciate some direction on how to do it! I've e-mailed tech support again so... watch this thread!!!Ray Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
potwnc Posted May 27, 2005 Author Report Share Posted May 27, 2005 I played around with the new encoder some more and finally got it to produce a version that plays in proper 16:9 format. If anyone's interested, I'll post a "how-to" on here. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ken Cox Posted May 28, 2005 Report Share Posted May 28, 2005 Rayi think all information will be greatfully received by the forumso when you have things working proper to your satisfaction why not post itken Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michel Posted May 28, 2005 Report Share Posted May 28, 2005 If anyone's interested, I'll post a "how-to" on here. Yes, I wait your explanation (16:9) because I work always with this software. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
potwnc Posted May 29, 2005 Author Report Share Posted May 29, 2005 OK the following is my experience to date. Please don't take this as a tutorial, because it's not intended to be that... it's only a step-by-step of what worked for me!Start with images that are already in a 16:9 aspect ratio. Mine are 1920x1080 pixels (for eventual HDTVoutput). Produce your PTE slideshow as normal. When outputting the .avi, I choose DVD-Video disc and NTSC(for USA, Canada). I haven't tested PAL yet, but I see no reason why it shouldn't work much the same.Create the .avi file - e.g., "myshow.avi." (I then play this with Windows Media Player, which reports that itis size 720x540, and aspect ratio 4:3.) Fire up Tsunami Mpeg Video Encoder Xpress. Set the .avi file youjust created as the source. The encoder reports that the aspect ratio of the source .avi file is Pixel 1:1 (square pixel). Of course it isn't! It's 16:9, which is how we scanned our images. I have no ideawhy Windows Media Player would think it is 4:3 and the encoder would think it is 1:1 when it's really 16:9!Maybe Igor or someone else who understands these things can comment on that? Anyway, tempted as youmay be, DON'T change that setting! The next step is to set the output. Again, you may be tempted to tellthe encoder that you want your output to be 16:9. Resist this temptation also! Instead, tell it your outputis 4:3. Now encode the video to, e.g., "myshow.mpg."Fire up Tsunami Mpeg DVD Author and use "myshow.mpg" as the input. This program now recognizes the 16:9format we're trying to achieve! Output and then burn your DVD.Following this procedure, the resulting DVD plays fine and looks good in my DVD player (Sony DVP-NS315).I have a "standard" 4:3 television, and the playback looks the same as with any commercial, pressed16:9 DVD I rent - horizontal black bars at the top and bottom. I haven't hooked up the DVD player toa 16:9 TV because I don't have one! But that would be the acid test and if I can get my local electronicsstore to cooperate I'll post the result of that test here eventually.Of course, your mileage may vary! Part of what makes this so difficult is that the trial version ofTsunami Mpeg Video Encoder Xpress does not allow you to save anything! With so many options, you have to makenotes as you go along and then do everything the same except 1 variation on your next test.I suspect the above is probably not the only way to get a 16:9 DVD working, and if tech support ever get backto me I'll update this post. Bottom line: Know your requirements, do the research and play with the trialdownload before you buy!Ray Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ronwil Posted May 29, 2005 Report Share Posted May 29, 2005 Just a thought. I always use the ratio 4:3 when cropping my images and size finally to 1024x768 pixels. Surely these pixels are square i.e. 1:1. So I can see nothing wrong in what Windows Media Player is indicating.Ron [uK] Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
potwnc Posted May 29, 2005 Author Report Share Posted May 29, 2005 Ron,I don't really understand your post. If your images are 1024x768 pixels then I would imagine you want your movie to be 4:3, as 1024:768 is the same as 4:3. My post is only relevant to those who want a movie in 16:9 format. Since my images are 16:9 I would expect PTE to create an avi from them which Windows Media Player (or any other player) would accurately report as being in 16:9 format.Pixels (the actual phosphorescent dots on the monitor screen) are circular. The encoder is reporting the aspect ratio as Pixel 1:1 (square pixel). I don't think this means that the encoder believes that phosphorescent dots are square, but that it believes the dimensions of the frames in the movie are in a 1:1 ratio (e.g., 768:768). Unfortunately the help that comes with the encoder gives no detail at all as to what these choices mean or how to set them!I'm no expert when it comes to all the technical ins and outs of DVDs etc., but the procedure I posted, which works for me, is very counter intuitive!Ray Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ronwil Posted May 29, 2005 Report Share Posted May 29, 2005 RaySorry, my comment related purely to the Windows Media Player indication of 4:3 and 1:1 and not to movies, in which I am not interested. However I suggest you use the Zoom tool in Photoshop on an image and you will see that the image is made up of squares on your monitor.Ron [uK] Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
potwnc Posted May 30, 2005 Author Report Share Posted May 30, 2005 As promised, here are the results of taking my burned DVD to my local electronics store...On a 42 inch, HDTV (priced at $2,500 (US)), the image quality was much, much worse than it is on both my ($70) computer monitor and my ($250) TV. The image was stretched (distorted) horizontally and had thick, black horizontal and vertical borders. The salesman said this was probably the fault of the DVD player, not the TV. (The DVD player had been playing a commercial, pressed Hollywood DVD and the quality was outstanding, which is why I asked to play my DVD on that TV/DVD combination.)We moved the DVD to a more expensive player, hooked up to a 50 inch HDTV. This time the image was not stretched (i.e., it maintained its true 16:9 ratio), and it occupied the full screen, with no black borders. The quality of the images it displayed was disgusting! I wouldn't dream of offering what I saw to anyone as an example of my photography! As a test, I put the same commercial DVD from before into this TV/DVD combination and the quality was stunning!So, where to go from here? I did some "googling" when I got home and found this web site. I'm beginning to realize just how complicated and non-standard all this DVD standard stuff really is!One observation, though... when I output a customized avi from PTE and set the resolution to 1920x1080 (remember, this is the scanned resolution of my source images), PTE does indeed produce an avi with exactly that resolution (as reported by Windows Media Player). But when I play the avi in Windows Media Player the images are horizontally stretched/distorted and so unwatchable. Now, when I take an old PTE show, with source images at 800x600 and tell it to output a customized avi at 800x600, the resulting avi is 800x600 (as reported by Windows Media Player), and not stretched/distorted at all!So here's what I've decided... first, let's take this discussion to the "How to create video" forum, as it's gotten way off-tipic from my original post, which is not even applicable after May 31st. Second, Igor, can you comment on why PTE stretches/distorts avi output from 1920x1080 images? Is this a bug, or does PTE simply not support 16:9 format video output? I mean, ignoring DVDs completely for a moment, what if I just wanted to deliver avi movies to my friends from 1920x1080 source images? Unless I'm missing something, PTE won't allow me to do that. With 16:9 format computer monitors rapidly replacing 4:3 monitors, surely PTE needs to support the 16:9 format.Once we know what PTE does or does not support, I'll do some more research and tests and probably keep posting my experiences here, but if anyone else has tried to produce 16:9 DVDs, please, please, please join the discussion!!!Ray Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.