DVR620 incorrect aspect ratio when recording DVD or VHS

I have a DVR620KU connected to a Sony Digital LCD Bravia TV, Sony HT-CT100 Home Theater system and a Scientific Atlantic Explorer 8300HDC cable box. I am using HDMI cables except for the connection from the "out" on cable box to the "in" on the DVR620. When recording from a broadcast program or DVR'd(cable box) program, the picture on the TV while recording, and the DVD or VHS recording when played back, have letterbox like bars top and bottom and the aspect ratio for the picture is stretched. I have tried eliminating the Home Theater system, but that doesn't help. Other than that, things work as they are supposed to, including viewing a commercially recorded DVD.
Thanks in advance for any suggestions.

It does mean that the DVR620 is not the problem.
I don't have the same cable box as yours. Mine is an Explorer 4250HDC. Even if they were same, however, I believe different cable systems will handle things differently.
I'm on Time-Warner Cable in central NC. I have that big universal remote model URSU-8800L-TWR.
When I press SETTINGS, I get the Settings menu. On the bottom of the screen is Quick Settings. If I press right arrow several times, I get to High Definition. The choices are AutoHD, Picture Size, Aspect Ratio, and Output Resolution. The choices for AutoHD are on/off. I'm using on. Picture Size are Zoom, Normal, and Stretch. I am using Normal. Aspect Ratio choices are 4x3 and 16x9. I am using 4x3. Output resolution should probably be 480i for recording to the DVR620. Note that on the NBC channel currently there is letterboxing on the top and bottom. There is no distortion or stretching. I don't see a way to avoid the letterboxing.
Part of the problem with making these changes is that they will affect all output from the cable box, so your HD signal to your TV might not be as good.

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Aspect ratio when putting dvds onto AppleTV

I've been using a program that puts my dvd movies into mp4 format but when i play them on a widescreen tv, theres the black bars but not at the top and bottom. they are on the sides. Its really bad when i play a widescreen movie because theres the bars at the top and sides so the movie just looks like a little box. Any ideas on what kind of settings I should use? Haiulllp!!!

If you play them back via iTunes do they look the same?
The actual aspect ratio will also be important as if they are 4:3 movies you can expect the bars at the sides. If they're widescreen movies then remember many films will also have bars top and bottom as they are too wide for 16:9 TVs.
Also be aware that the way your TV processes widescreen signals can vary - different ones have different options which will attempt to fill the screen/zoom or show as 4:3 even. That's why I'm asking how it play in iTunes as if it looks OK there you may need to address settings on the TV too.
I converted a recorded film recently and it had the same - bars at sides/top and bottom which was odd for a letterbox picture - all became clear after about 10 minutes when the letterboxing disappeared and the rest of the film was broadcast 'pan and scan' 4:3, so even the letterboxed start was actually encoded as '4:3 at broadcast!
AC

Incorrect aspect ratio when importing MPEG-4 Video file to project

My movie which originated from a commercial DVD, is a .m4v.ff.mov file.
The "ff" is the software interface (ffmpegX) that converts third party Unix media.
When I open it as a Quicktime movie it comes up in the correct 1: 2.35 aspect ratio.
and shows an actual pixel dimension of 720 x 304.
When I import that same file to FCP (version 5.1.4) it comes up as 720 x 480 pixels - a completely different aspect ratio. The viewer window shows the pixels to be a SQUARE format but it is grayed out.
I was able to de-select the "show as sq. pixels" in the canvas window but it only expands it to what appears to be a 1: 1.85 aspect ratio and not the 1: 2.35 which it should be.
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I think I figured it out for myself:
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Idvd not keeping aspect ratio when burning dvd

Ok, what I am doing is creating the project in Final Cut, exporting using quicktime conversion (everything up to this point is 16:9) then I go to iDVD and what I need is a dvd that has no menus at the front or the end of the project, and it plays upon start. So I go to iDVD >file>onestep DVD from movie>select movie then insert dvd and it burns, But it burns it as 4:3, not the 16:9 I saved it as. I see nowhere to change this setting. Am I limited to only doing 4:3 projects with this type of dvd?

I'm very surprised that if you followed the references I gave you, you are still having problems.
Another solution is to use something called Anamorphizer that sets the file's widescreen flag so that it is recognized as anamorphically squeezed widescreen.
Get Anamorphizer at http://homepage.mac.com/sith33/FileSharing34.html
Make sure Quicktime 7 is open before you try Anamorphizer. (NOTE: You MUST use Quicktime 7 and NOT Quicktime X)
Place a copy of your movie clip in a new folder and drag that clip over the Anamorphizer icon. This should create a second file in that folder that start with Anamorphic- This is the reference movie you drag-and-drop into iDVD. Note that your clip in that folder (which is the movie the reference movie points to, must not be moved or deleted).
What I do is air projects on our local school board channel and just realized that idvd changes my 16:9 to 4:3 when doing the idvd> file>one step dvd from movie option.
BTW, how does the DVD play in your computer? There may be an issue with the school board channel playback.

Can I maintain original aspect Ratio when making web Quicktime video

Hello there,
I have to convert at 16:9 Premiere file I originally made for DVD into a web ready format. Can I do this without distorting the image? In other words, I want to reduce the file size and keep the proportion intact.
Also, for future reference, what is the optimum aspect ratio when creating video content for web with Premiere?
Thank you in advance for your help.
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Thank you Jim. Sorry for not replying sooner; I've been offline for a couple of days. Your reply is helpful and I'm
happy I won't have to squash my original 16:9 format movie to put it online.
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The Shift key works once you’ve set your crop ratio. DSLRs would typically do 2:3 and others sometimes do 3:4.

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I'm using LR5 and I'm wondering if it's possible (maybe with plugins if necessary) to set a maximum aspect ratio when experting photos. For example I have a picture that I cropped to be a panorama, with an aspect ratio of 26:11. The print shop can print at a maximum aspect ratio of 19:11. So my 26:11 image is too small and I need to add some bars at the top and bottom of my photo to reach an aspect ratio of 19:11 (see also the sketch below). Later, when I get the finished prints, I have to cut the bars at the top and bottom with a pair of scissors for example. Is it possible to let LR automatically add these borders for a given maximum apsect ratio?

Hi Victoria, thank you for your reply. I looked at the Mogrify plugin, but couldn't find the option I need. I see some options for canvas and resizing and adding bars, but these all require to set a certain absolute pixel dimension. I don't want to resize images to a specific pixel size, I just want to correct the aspect ratio by adding bars at the bottom and top of the photo. Maybe I'm missing something in the Mogrify plugin? Could you explain how I can add the borders automatically to reach a maximum aspect ratio of 19:11 using Mogrify? Just to be clear, all photos with an aspect ration between 11:11 and 19:11 don't have to be changed. Only photos with an aspect ratio larger than 19:11 should be changed to 19:11 by adding the bars.

Aspect ratio when exporting to DVD

Newbie - forgive me but have been struggling with this one for days.
Have a project - 5 min film - in FCP X and really struggling to export it to DVD using the share command - it will copy fine but the original is in 1920 x 1080 and the DVD share option automatically selects to burn at 720 x 576. Inevitably the output is skewed and the altered ratio means that there is lost image around the edges.
I need to have this project outputted onto DVD.
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Is there any way of exporting direct to DVD in 1920 x 1080 or similar locked aspect ratio (eg 1280 x 720 etc) or of altering the default output setting for DVD sharing?
I don't have compressor, I don't have DVD or Blu Ray burner software and surely FCP X can do this?
I have altered the format of the original file into various aspect ratios but irrespective, the output ratio is always the same incorrect ratio of 720 x 576.
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Taht's really puzzzling. Could you export a short section of your video as a Master File and open in QuickTime – and post a screen shot of the Movie Inspector Report?
Here are some screen shots of a 1080 PAL video. I have chosen a slide show with 3:2 images to emphasize the circle shape and the rectangle that extends to nearly the width of the frame.
I then export as Share>DVD. Note the 720X576 frame size bottom left.
Here, I have opened the VOB file after export in VLC (DVD PLayer will not support a screen shot).
As you can see the circle shape is not distorted (so the anamorphic data was read correctly). Nor is anything cropped in display – since the entire rectangle is shown and the width of the black bars is unchanged.
Russ

IMovie iDVD Incorrect aspect ratio of movie within dvd

This query has previously been raised elsewhere in the forum but the proposed solution looks quite complex for an iMac novice like myself.
In summary the movie looks fine when previewed in iDVd however, when burned to disk and then played on my DVD player the sides of the movie have been cropped.
Is there a 'simple' solution to maintaining the original aspect ratio of the footage from iMovie to iDVD?
Is there any s/ware available?
Thanks in advance

Open your Movies Folder. Create a new folder. Name it PROJECTNAME – TS FILES (where ‘projectname’ is the name of your project!). Close the folder. You can of course call it anything you like, but this aids identification.
Now double-click the disk image on your desktop. It contains two folders: AUDIO_TS (which is empty, but please pretend that it isn’t) and VIDEO_TS. Drag and drop these to the folder you created in your Movies Folder. (This takes a moment).
Click on the AUDIO_TS folder and go to Get Info in the file menu. Right down the bottom is where you have to change the permissions. Under ‘Ownership & Permissions’ change this from Read Only to Read & Write. Click the small triangle next to Details, scroll down and click on ‘Apply to enclosed items’. You will be asked for your root password. Close the get info window, and now click on the VIDEO_TS folder and do the same. Close the Projectname-TS Files folder. You have now allowed yourself to change the properties of the contents of those folders, which leads us to the next all-important step.
Open myDVDedit. Go to File and open the projectname TS Files folder. By all means stare at it shock and awe, but don’t bother finding out what it can do, except for the following:
Top left you fill see a list of files. Lower centre you have a large window. On the vertical menu to the left of that, click IFO.
In the window at the top left, ignore ‘First Play’ (if there was anything to correct in that, myDVDedit will have done so and told you).
Click on VMG Menu en (English). Now the whole thing springs to life.
Set Coding Mode to MPEG-2 (if it isn’t already)
Set Standard to PAL (or NTSC if that is what you want)
Set Aspect to 16:9 (not any of the other options)
Now save the file.
Click on VTS Menu 1 en (English) and repeat as above.
Click on VTS Menu 2 and repeat as above.
You have now permanently ‘fixed’ the entire contents of the TS folder (the disk image) in 16:9 aspect. Close myDVDedit – you won’t need it again until the next project!

Aspect ratio when exporting full quality -- is this a bug?

Hi,
I'm new to iMovie. I'm really enjoying playing around with it and think it's a really nice tool and very intuitive. But there's one thing that is bothering me. I'm working with 16:9 aspect ratio (Widescreeen) as the project type which corresponds to how the movies were recorded (a Canon MVX4i or Optura 600 in the USA I think). Everything works fine until I try to export in full quality format (using Export). The .dv file only plays back in 4:3 aspect ratio. I tried using the Expert settings, with 16:9 set and both PAL and NTSC but QuickTime and Preview still only see the movie in 4:3 aspect. If I understand correctly, the aspect ratio is just a flag that is set somewhere.
Is this a bug or am I missing something? I don't have QT Pro by the way?
One more question: in expert settings for DV Export settings, does anyone have a recommendation for what I shold pick for DV Format, and Scan mode?
Thanks very much in advance,
David
Powerbook G4 Mac OS X (10.4.4)

Hi David,
This isn't entirely unique to DV. But in simplistic terms what happens is that the widescreen footage that you capture with your camera is the same resolution as square screen. The number of pixels (the dots that make up the picture) for PAL, which is the format used in Portugal I believe, is 720 x 576.
The pixels are squashed into a kind of oblong shape but then when played on widescreen kit the pixels become square causing the picture to stretch sideways. When you view the footage in QT it simply shows the picture as is - meaning that it outputs the picture as 720x576 with the oblong display.
However, when you view the footage in iMovie there's a flag in the file that tells iMovie that the footage is wide and therefore to stretch it accordingly.
There's a differing opinion of whether this display difference in QT is a bug or a feature. As Dan says, if you want to display widescreen footage in QT you're better off exporting a widescreen QT movie using the expert settings:
From within iMovie...
- Select File --> Export from the menu
- In the Quicktime section choose Compress Movie For "Expert Settings"
- Click the Share button
- In the save dialog box that pops up Select "Movie to QuickTime Movie" in the Export section
- Click Option...
- In the Movie Settings dialog box click on settings
- Select DV - PAL from the compression type
- Keep the Frame Rate at Current
- In the Compressor settings choose your Quality
- Set the scan mode to Interlaced
- Set the Aspect Ratio to 16:9 ( this is the bit that tells QT to play in widescreen)
- Click OK
- In the sound section click the Setting button
- In the sounds settings dialog box set the Format to Linear PCM
- Set the channels to Stereo (L R)
- Set the Rate to 48.000kHz
- Set the Sample Rate Converter settings to Quality Normal and the Linear PCM Settings to a sample size of 16 bits.
- Uncheck all the other options (Little Endian, Floating Point and Unsigned)
- Click OK
- Uncheck the Prepare for Internet Streaming box
- Click OK and set a destination for your file.
- Click save to compress the file.
The resulting file that is created above should now show in QT as widescreen. However you should bear in mind that you should work off the raw DV file rather than this new created one in iMovie. As a rule of thumb you should be thinking a little bit about the output media of the file. So for example if your final output medium is DVD then you can continue to work in iMovie and iDVD without problem. If you want to create a QT file for viewing on your computer then it's advisable to create a seperate QT file for this pupose.
If you'd like to know a little more about the way aspect ratios works here's some links for you:
Wikipedia
World easiest explanation of anamorphic 16:9
Hope this makes a little more sense now and sorry if I've covered stuff you already know. Hopefully this information will be of use to you but post back if you need more help.
Cheers.
David.
PowerMac G4 Dual 1.25Ghz / 1GB RAM Mac OS X (10.4.5) PowerBook 12" 1Ghz / 768MB RAM

Changing aspect ratio when exporting

I want to chamg the aspect ratio to 16:9. How do you do this in PRL 7?

What do you want to change?
- The original material as recorded by your camera?
- Or a 4:3 project you are already working on in PE?
When you start a new PE project, you should specify the format: 4:3 or 16:9 (widescreen).
You cannot change these project settings inbetween. As a workaround: save your video on the timeline as an .avi; start a new project with the required different settings and import this .avi in the new project.
You can input 4:3 footage in 16:9 projects and vice versa, but PE will then crop the image or add black lines to it.
Also you can share (export) a 4:3 project as a 16:9 movie and vice versa, but the same will happen.
Easiest to start with:
Open a new project and select 16:9 settings.
Import 16:9 clips from your camera or whatever source.
If you import 4:3 clips/pictures: enlarge en position these on the timeline so that the enlarged picture will fill the entire 16:9 screen.
Hope this helps a bit.
Felix

Having trouble with aspect ratio when compressing DVCPRO HD footage to QT

I have a 35mm film (1.85-1 aspect ratio) converted to 16/9 DVCPRO HD. When I compress it to Mpeg2 for DVD, it looks great, holds the correct aspect ratio. But when I choose a setting for the web, a small Quicktime file, it stretches the image ever so slightly. Not sure what the problem is. Thanks for the help.

Hey Lodgeboy,
without knowing the settings you are using, it is difficult to help, but i will try to answer as best i can:
if you are using web-presets, make sure you crop the matte, NOT resize the file.
Basically, instead of letterboxing OR creating am anamorphic MPEG2 for DVD (still in the 720x480 space) you would first crop the mattes off and then resize.
In the case of a web-file, it doesnt matter what order you process the file, EXCEPT if its for IPTV.
Without knowing details about what your final deliverable is, the source and the settings, this is as much as i can help you.
Mikey M.

How to maintain video aspect ratio when resizing

I am making a 30 second dvd intro of a dance recital video. I created 12 short clips that will be cuts between them. I do not want them to be full screen. I want to apply an effect that makes the clip have frayed edges and it is resized very small. I want to make them bigger so they arennearlynhalf screen. When I click and drag it, nothing keeps the aspect ratio. I held down the shift key, which usually works in all other programs but it had no effect. I tried other keys like alt but it was a no go. How do I resize without warping the video?

I have nothing on this computer aside from Adobe and a few other audio apps. This is a dual Xeon 6GB system. I work in IT and am MS certified. I do not think it is the system. I am using AE CS6. =A0Keyboard is set to its defaults. I do not touch the keyboard mappings. The effect brings the clip down to 10% or so. How should it be resized? SHift - click and drag works in all of my apps like Photoshop, so it isnt the kb or the system. Is that the way it is supposed to be done in AE? If you have AE, are you able to try this to see what I mean?

Unwanted moderate distortion of aspect ratio when exporting video

This seems to be a new problem for me, and I don't THINK I've changed any of my parameters. But the result is now wrong... Help!
I use my VCR to record from US broadcasts (good old fashioned plain old TV, NTSC, I presume). Then I transfer snippets onto my DV camcorder (good ol' plain DV, nothing with 16:9 or anything like that). Then I import my DV footage into iMovie HD 6.0.2. It imports fine and looks like a normal aspect ratio.
But when I export using the File > Export... setting, I get a Quicktime video which appears vertically squished. The faces are too wide, bodies are too fat.
Looking at the various aspect ratios, I see that the preview window in iMovie HD is about 720 by 525 -- there are no black bars or letterboxing, and faces and bodies look normal. But the output video is 720 by 480, which is (according to a quick Google search) a normal NTSC output. No cropping has taken place, and no letterboxing, either. So that's why it's squished. But...
So why is iMovie showing me something from right off my TV screen which is the wrong aspect ratio but seems to have the correct proportions? That would seem to imply that my good ol' TV and VCR are not actually operating in NTSC proportions... which would be extremely weird because the footage I happen to have recorded is from an old game show from the 1960s. Do I have some setting wrong somewhere?? Is there something fundamental I don't understand? Help! Like I said, this is a new problem with me and I don't recall having changed any import settings.

Thanks for your help! I had no idea that so many video processes use rectangular pixels. But I'm still confused. What I see on screen in iMovie (and most QuickTime stuff) looks fine, but what I got out of this last set of conversions looks wrong.
Obviously you used the Full Quality DV option which uses rectangular pixels, right?
Uh... I have no idea. I've spent a couple of minutes looking through the menus in iMovie and I don't see anything labeled "Full Quality DV". I'm not specifically trying to export in DV format; I'm trying to compress my NTSC format so that it plays back in nearly full size on my iBook laptop, which cannot keep up with Sorensen video or the H.264 (or two-sixty-whatever) codecs. I found that Cinepak CAN be played back at this size on my iBook. But Cinepak is a compression standard, not a video frame size standard, right?
What you are seeing is normal... 720x480 NTSC rectangular pixel DV should be scaled to 656x480 square pixels.
No, it's not normal. It doesn't look normal to the eye. It's not what normally happened to me in the past. It drives me nuts. By those three definitions, it's not normal.
I am not trying to export in a format that fits some video standard or TV set. I'm trying to export a QuickTime movie which will display properly when played back by QuickTime. So I'm extremely frustrated when iMovie (or something) takes a video clip from an NTSC source and for some odd reason squishes it.
When you say that "720x480 NTSC rectangular pixel DV should be scaled to 656x480 square pixels", I assume you mean that it should be scaled to that number of square pixels in order to display on a computer monitor with square pixels (i.e., basically all computer monitors) in a way which makes faces and bodies appear of normal proportions, right? Are you implying that the problem is that rectangular pixels are NOT being converted/resampled to square pixels, but that the conversion is being done on a (no-resampling) pixel-by-pixel basis? I'm just not sure I understnand the point you are making here.
Since I had different results in the past, there must be SOMETHING different about my current setup. After reading the link you suggested, I see that there are a HUGE number of possible complications out there. The main idea, however, is that I want to produce a QuickTime movie which looks the same as the preview shown in iMovie: Same shape of faces, same shape of bodies, just as it was when I originally viewed the footage on my television.
Thanks!

16:9 Apple TV export playing with incorrect aspect ratio in iTunes.

Hi, I've exported a 16:9 PAL movie from FCP using 'Export for Apple TV' which plays fine in Quicktime (1024x576 m4v file), my problem is when I import it into iTunes it changes the aspect ratio to 720x576. If I 'show in Finder' and play the iTunes import using Quicktime it plays fine (1024x576).
So it seems a problem with iTunes?
If anyone else has fixed this problem I'd love to know how.
Many thanks,
Dave

For anyone interested...
I've been in contact with Elgato http://www.elgato.com/elgato/int/mainmenu/home.en.html
regarding this as they are part of this issue.
They have confirmed that there is a bug in the latest releases of iTunes that is causing the problem.
They have been communicating their information to Apple but have had little response to date.
Maybe we'll get a fix when Apple could be bothered.

DVR620 incorrect aspect ratio when recording DVD or VHS

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