Letterboxing a 16X9 Mpeg

[Mediaworx]

I have a widescreen Mpeg that I need to letterbox without re rendering. Any suggestions???

[Pete Draves]

Just author as widescreen anamorphic and it will playback on a square tv as letterbox.
The dvd player should be set for a square tv.

Pete

[Mediaworx]

Just author as widescreen anamorphic and it will playback on a square tv as letterbox.
The dvd player should be set for a square tv.

Pete

I'm using DVD Workshop and as far as I can tell that's not an option but thanks for the reply.

I've tried some different settings in ouput options but DVDWS makes my 3.8G file into a 5G file every time I change things. I've tried Nero but again, no anamorphic output option. I'm stumped. This should not be that difficult

[Pete Draves]

The problem is in VT. VT does not flag as 16:9.

But there are 2 places in Tempgnc (or whatever the name is) That flag the mpg so all authoring programs recognize the 16:9 stream.
this is a under 40 dollar program and will take the toaster projects right in.

Follow Eugene's recomendations for using the settings in the encoder.
and all will work fine.

If you get thisprogram I can talk you thru the settings.
My phone is on my website. cvpro(dot)tv

Pete

[SBowie]

The problem is in VT. VT does not flag as 16:9.
You can set a 16:9 flag in the Main Concept DV codec from within the Render settings, IIRC, but I can't say whether this is recognized by DVD Workshop or not.

[billmi]

I can't say whether this is recognized by DVD Workshop or not.

It is.

[Mediaworx]

I'm thinking I didn't explain myself correctly. So let me try again.

I have an Mpeg that was encoded to display 16X9 on a wide screen TV, which it does just fine. The client wants to be able to see it letterboxed on a SD set as well. I don't have the original AVI that I made the 16X9 Mpeg from any more, if I did I could just re render that file in Tmpeg as a letterboxed Mpeg. My question is......is there a way to take the 16X9 Mpeg file and make it a letterboxed Mpeg file without re rendering. My fear is if I re render the Mpeg file in Tmpeg as another Mpeg, I will lose a lot of quality. Maybe my fears are unfounded and I should just try it and see.

[SBowie]

I have an Mpeg that was encoded to display 16X9 on a wide screen TV, which it does just fine. The client wants to be able to see it letterboxed on a SD set as well.Unless I'm misunderstanding (again), this should simply be a device setting. AFAIK, most current DVD players can play a 16x9 video as letterboxed 4X3.

[ScorpioProd]

As Steve points out, since you are logically going to be playing a MPEG-2 stream to a "TV" off of a DVD player, there is NOTHING you need to do.

The DVD Player simply needs to be configured to be outputing to a 4:3 device and it takes care of the letterboxing. ALL DVD players support this.

There is no "letterboxing" effect in TMPGEnc since this is NEVER something you would want to do. And yes, if there was such a setting, rerendering your MPEG-2 would be a BIG quality hit. If you wanted "fake" letterboxing, that would be something you would need to do in your NLE.

[Mediaworx]

"AaaaaaHaaaaaa" he said as the light bulb goes off in his head. I now feel stupid and contagious. I should have known this. Many thanks gentlemen, I'll inform the client.

On a side note, in Tmpeg you can set the source and display aspect ratios so that a 16:9 video will play as a letterboxed 4:3 on SD sets

[ScorpioProd]

[QUOTE=MediaworxOn a side note, in Tmpeg you can set the source and display aspect ratios so that a 16:9 video will play as a letterboxed 4:3 on SD sets[/QUOTE]

OH, well, yeah, by setting source to 16:9 and destination to 4:3.

But again, you wouldn't really want to do that. :)