IDVD is squishing 16:9 source to 4:3

I setup up the project as Widescreen. My source files are DVCPRO HD 720p 60fps. The files import into the project fine, but when I watch the Preview, iDVD has squished the source horizontally to a 4:3 ratio. Any ideas?
Thanks!

Hi Steve Wallis
Welcome to apple discussions. Sounds like you already took care of the issue as I was writing a reply for you / possible solution in the event you weren't able to resolve this on your own. You may want to reference the following thread in case you need it in the future. Good luck.
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1991922
http://homepage.mac.com/sith33/FileSharing34.html
Hope this helps but if not just come on back.
Message was edited by: SDMacuser

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How do your images look on the monitor prior to importing to iDVD? What is the source of the photos? Photoshop? Jpeg? Pict?
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What happens if you actually burn the DVD and play that?
iDVD version 4 didn't have support for wide screen aspect ratios. However, if you pull on in while it may be displayed in iDVD all squished up, it might burn to a DVD in that ratio. But I don't know that for sure so you might have to sacrifice a DVD blank to find out.
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http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=351090&start=0&tstart=0
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I am trying to copy a disc, which I beleive to be in NTSC format, onto my mac in order to use the video footage in either idvd or imovie.
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Welcome to iDVD Discussions.
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What was the source of your video? MiniDV tape, I hope.
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Apple's iMovie Learning Site
Apple's iDVD Learning Site
iLife ’06 Multimedia Tutorials
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Ken Stone: Authoring in iDVD 6
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Dear Forum Members,
After reading many posts and the FCP5 manual, I cannot seem to find a solution to my problem: after correctly capturing and editing a Squeezed 24pa timeline, I cannot export to QuickTime Movie (File > Export > QuickTime Movie) and maintain 16:9. The QuickTime file plays back in QuickTime Player AND iDVD as squished 4:3. However, when I drag the same file into a FCP5 browser, it plays in the viewer correctly as 16:9.
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It depends why you want the QuickTime to display at 16:9 ratio (1024* by 576 PAL, 853 by 480 NTSC).
The built-in resolution for SD stays the same, whether the content is designed to be shown spread across a 4:3 screen or a 16:9 screen.
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Widescreen QT movie squished in iDVD 08 16 X 9 project

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I edit and export a widescreen QT movie in FCP 6.0.4 (from a DV source).
I open the movie using QT and change the video track properties as detailed here: http://support.apple.com/kb/TS2179
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I add the 16 X 9 QT movie into the IDVD project and it looks squished from side to side, with grey bars appearing on the right and left sides of the movie's frame. This is seen on my computer screen as well as my widescreen TV (and my DVD player's settings are correct for the display). When I play the disc using my Mac's DVD player program, the screen shrinks from the widescreen menu to the squished banana-headed-people movie.
What gives? What's the correct settings and workflow to display my widescreen movies correctly on iDVD-burned discs?
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Pretty sure DVDSP will let you set the flags for 16:9 "manually"
From the DVDSP manual
SD DVD Menus, Tracks, and Slideshows
• Display Mode: Choose the default aspect ratio to use when creating menus, tracks,
and slideshows in SD projects. You can choose from 4:3, 16:9 Pan-Scan, 16:9
Letterbox, and 16:9 Pan-Scan & Letterbox.
16:9 Pan Scan & Letterbox: You can have up to 12 buttons.
Since I'm not a DVDSP pro, so you might want to ask in that forum!

Best settings to use when preparing HD source material for iDVD?

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My question is what, ideally, does iDVD like to be fed?
For starters, I am in the process of transcoding and repackaging all of my content through MPEG Streamclip to be AIC video and uncompressed audio inside MOV containers. In each case I am scaling the video down to be 480 lines tall. Just guessing, but that seems like it would give iDVD the least possible work to "think" about and get confused. Does that sound about right to folks?
Should I be doing something drastic and old school like trying to create DV files? My content is all wide aspect, intended for a 16:9 iDVD project and that seems like it would get tricky (also, this would involve more quality loss than using AIC files).
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I haven't had to wrestle with this problem, but I've followed some of the discussions and here are several ideas and resources which seem reasonable. As background, have you read about better results from using iMovie6? Also, as you imply, DV Stream (.dv) was the native format for iDVD.
https://discussions.apple.com/message/16296991#16296991
http://blog.progravix.com/?p=456
http://support.apple.com/kb/PH5432
http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1611?viewlocale=en_US&locale=en_US
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16:9 movie squished in iDVD

I have a movie all finished in FCP..16:9
when I pull it into iDVD (from iLife) the movie is squished. if I first "fix" the pixel dimensions in QT pro, the movie comes in at the right aspect ratio, but my titles, created in FCP, are nasty-looking and pixellated.
crummy choice!
any ideas on how to get iDVD to "see" what FCP has made?
thanks!
r

I have been working with anamorphic 16:9 in FCP, and when exporting (many various attempts) iDVD doesn't does not pick up on the fact that it is a 16:9 movie. My work around is quick and simple: open the clip(s) in Quicktime(Pro) and go to:
Window>Show Properties>Visual Settings...and then unclick the "peserve aspect ratio" so you can change it to 853 x 480. Save the clip in Quicktime after you make that change, and them from that point iDVD will know. I got weary of endless attempts to discover an export from FCP that iDVD would get. I may be missing something but I have tried and finally came up with this QT step.
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FCP-X and iDVD 16:9 video squished

I've read the other posts and apple support suggesting to use QT pro to adjust the video settings. That doesn't fix the problem.
I have a video shot in anamorphic, edited for PAL anamorphic in FCP-X and dropped into iDVD set up for widescreen PAL and I still get a squished video.
Any ideas?

I have the same Problem and the same Opinion.
What's the Problem to apple to fix it. It's Part of the PAL 16:9 Standard that the Resolution for 16:9-Material is stored in 720x576. With the PixelAspectRatio the players know how to present it in the right Ratio. Theres no need to reencode the Movies, it's just a flag in the container, that has to be set.
Hey apple, what's the Difficulty changing that. I have a DV-Video in 16:9 that contains the right PixelAspctRatio and confirms the Standard so I will not buy quicktime pro to fix it!!!
Please, do your job right!

IDVD is squishing 16:9 source to 4:3

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