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Article about aspect ratio in PicturesToExe and Video Builder


pashasilence

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  • 2 years later...
Please read an article about some nuances with aspect ratio while preparing DVD discs by using PicturesToExe and Video Builder.

http://www.wnsoft.com/apr/aspect-ratio.htm

Hello

Point 1

I know this article is a bit old but I recently made some test and the result was : Videobuilder does not works as it is explained in this article!

My slideshow test : pictures sized to 1440x1080px, slideshow aspect format specified as 4/3. I created a mp4 file hd 1920x1080 medium quality.

I was very surprised to see that all pictures were cropped in height in order that the whole remaining part of the pictures cover 1920x1080, very surprising!!

The result is not in accordance with this article, the picture after aspect ratio conversion should have been the same in width (1440pixels) + two black lanes of 240pixels on each side

What's going wrong?

Point 2

Please update or delete the link for the french translation of the article it is misleading

Daniel

P.S. I can provide the test file zip and mp4 result but I think it is easy to check by anyone else.

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Daniel

Please upload the files somewhere if they are not too large and PM me with a message where I can download them.

Two questions - do you want your output video to be 1440x1080 or 1920x1080? And which version of the 5.6 beta are you using?

Ray

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Daniel,

"My slideshow test : pictures sized to 1440x1080px, slideshow aspect format specified as 4/3. I created a mp4 file hd 1920x1080 medium quality"

What happens if the slide show aspect ratio is set to 16:9?

You should see the black lines each side of the 4:3 image when the EXE is played back.

The 16:9 HD video should also then be the same.

DaveG

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Hi Ray, Hi Dave

thanks for your reply. Ray I will try to MP to you the short file test (3.9Mo). I used 5.6beta20, The video format should be mp4 hd 1920x1080.

However I agree with Dave suggestion : the easiest way to solve this issue with new slideshow is to specify a slideshow format 16/9 and not 4/3

But

1) I am a bit worried with the "Project options configuration window/screen tab" : if you specified 16/9 format, then the "virtual size view" comes 1280 x 720? even if all the views were 1440 x 1080. If you put fix size view 1440 x 1080 then format automaticaly changed for "customised". In fact you have to change the "virtual size view" value for 1920 x 1080 even if all the views were 1440 x 1080!! What is the reason for that? What would happen if I did not change the "1280 x 720 virtual size view". "Virtual size view" what does that mean? That is very confusing, mixing the words for view and video format.

2) If I want to convert an already made slideshow, I will have to modify the "Project options configuration window/screen tab" for selecting 16/9 format, but in this case I have experienced with PTEv5.5 that the view by view configuration parameters were modified to take into account the last "Project options configuration" parameters and so you have to rebuild all your project (I have not yet tested if this inconvenience remains with v5.6b20)

3) The article in reference should be modified in accordance with Dave suggestion.

Best regards.

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PUT THE FILE and associated notes up to mediafire - then it will be readily accessable to others if they ask

saves your time

and create an account for future -- it is faster for Igor as well as his mail is slow and he does not like his mail bogging down the server

ken

www.mediafire.com

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Daniel,

In the "Virtual Size of Slide" put 1920x1080 and you will maintain the 16:9 Aspect Ratio instead of "Custom".

Your height will be the same - 1080 - and your 4:3 images (Fit To Slide) will fit to the height of your 1920x1080 project.

DaveG

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Daniel,

In the "Virtual Size of Slide" put 1920x1080 and you will maintain the 16:9 Aspect Ratio instead of "Custom".

Your height will be the same - 1080 - and your 4:3 images (Fit To Slide) will fit to the height of your 1920x1080 project.

DaveG

Hi Dave

Thanks for your reply, as I said in my previous post I full agree with your proposal which solves my problem even if "Virtual Size of Slide" remains a bit unclear for me, but if things were clear enough for others it is OK for me.

Daniel.

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Daniel,

The article doesn't cover any of the HD options that have been recently added to VideoBuilder. It only covers making 4:3 and 16:9 DVD videos to be displayed on either conventional TVs or HDTVs.

However, to solve your problem all you need to do is disable the Pan and Scan option on the opening screen of VideoBuilder.

Steve Newcomb

Tucson, AZ USA

Point 1

I know this article is a bit old but I recently made some test and the result was : Videobuilder does not works as it is explained in this article!

My slideshow test : pictures sized to 1440x1080px, slideshow aspect format specified as 4/3. I created a mp4 file hd 1920x1080 medium quality.

I was very surprised to see that all pictures were cropped in height in order that the whole remaining part of the pictures cover 1920x1080, very surprising!!

The result is not in accordance with this article, the picture after aspect ratio conversion should have been the same in width (1440pixels) + two black lanes of 240pixels on each side What's going wrong?

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Daniel,

I just e-mailed you a 1920x1080 .mp4 file that I produced from your project. I think this is what you want based on these replies, and I think you now know how to do this, but I'm writing this comment here because others may also be interested in this.

It is very unusual to use 1440x1080 (4:3) images and produce a 16:9 video from them. The video file is larger than it needs to be because the 2 vertical bands at each side are part of the video file itself. If you produce a 4:3 video file instead the player should create these 2 vertical bands when the video is played and the video file size will be only as large as it needs to be.

It is common to use 16:9 images (e.g. 1920x1080 pixels) and produce a 1440x1080 video with a pixel aspect ratio of 1:1.33. Then the player will play the 4:3 video with a 16:9 appearance, which will preserve the aspect ratio of the original images so that it will look just as you intended.

Ray

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Hi Ray,

"It is common to use 16:9 images (e.g. 1920x1080 pixels) and produce a 1440x1080 video with a pixel aspect ratio of 1:1.33. Then the player will play the 4:3 video with a 16:9 appearance, which will preserve the aspect ratio of the original images so that it will look just as you intended".

What does "with a pixel aspect ratio of 1:1.33" mean?

DaveG

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Daniel,

The article doesn't cover any of the HD options that have been recently added to VideoBuilder. It only covers making 4:3 and 16:9 DVD videos to be displayed on either conventional TVs or HDTVs.

However, to solve your problem all you need to do is disable the Pan and Scan option on the opening screen of VideoBuilder.

Steve Newcomb

Tucson, AZ USA

Steve,

you are perfectly right, although the button is big enough, I missed this point. Thanks for your relevant remark. With Pan and Scan disabled everything is OK

Daniel.

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...It is very unusual to use 1440x1080 (4:3) images and produce a 16:9 video from them. The video file is larger than it needs to be because the 2 vertical bands at each side are part of the video file itself. ...

Hi Ray

yes, I agree with you, except that I havent seen the possibility to make a mp4 video with 1440x1080 images with Videobuider . I can guess that, as 1080 pixels height images are compatible with hd format, that was the optimised choice. I can guess that coding the 2 vertical bands, if there are not too much colored details in it, will not grow the file size too much.

Is that right? If there were other posibility, let me know.

Best regrads

Daniel.

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If you produce a 4:3 video file instead the player should create these 2 vertical bands when the video is played and the video file size will be only as large as it needs to be.

All players do not do this and the situation is complicated. From a different thread I wrote:

"One might think HDTVs solve this problem [aspect ratio variance of analog systems], but in ways it remains. Since I ran these tests we bought a Sony HDTV 1080p and a Samsung Blu-ray player [bDP1000]. What I found, which may be limited to these models, is the image aspect ratio accuracy depends on how the two are connected. Using the RCA or Component connectors, the HDTV can be put into what it calls a Normal mode and the measured aspect ratio was 1.01 for the VideoBuilder Output [as Ray states, the HDTV puts the two black bars on either side]. There was lots of padding of course on the left and right, but I was surprised the top and bottom were also cropped. Perhaps related to overscanning in the NTSC standard. When the HDTV is connected using the HDMI connector, the way one would hope most sets would be connected, there was no Normal setting offered [in the HDTV menus]. The closest setting was Full, where the image filled the screen. The aspect ratio in this case was 1.33 for the VideoBuilder output, and 1.18 for Option B. As I wrote above, other HDTVs or Blu-ray players may provide different options leading to different results."

So when the HDMI cable was used, there doesn't seem to be any simple way to get either device to pad the video with black bars to maintain the 4:3 aspect ratio.

In the ideal world the devices would do this automatically and they should do it, but they don't.

I would say if you want to be sure it is displayed consistantly on all HDTVs, use the disable Pan and Scan and accept the somewhat larger file sizes.

Steve Newcomb

Tucson, AZ USA

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What does "with a pixel aspect ratio of 1:1.33" mean?

DaveG

Dave,

This is covered in my HD Appendix in the guide. It is a setting in the video file that tells the player to stretch out the pixels so that their displayed width is 1.33 times what it would normally be (square pixels).

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Hi Ray

yes, I agree with you, except that I havent seen the possibility to make a mp4 video with 1440x1080 images with Videobuider . I can guess that, as 1080 pixels height images are compatible with hd format, that was the optimised choice. I can guess that coding the 2 vertical bands, if there are not too much colored details in it, will not grow the file size too much.

Is that right? If there were other posibility, let me know.

Best regrads

Daniel.

Daniel,

Yes the file size should not grow too much. But I think VideoBuilder lets you choose any size of output.

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Ray,

Or, are you suggesting that the original 1920x1080 images should be squashed to 4:3 and then opened up by applying the 1.33 pixel aspect ratio?

DaveG

Dave,

I'm not "suggesting" this - it is what happens. This is how DVDs can play back 16:9 movies. But you don't need to squash the original images. In video editing software, like Vegas Pro, this is done for you.

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