[PTM]

Hi, all. 2 questions/problems.

1. I'm converting wmv, mpg, & mov videos for DVD. I want them to play on analog TVs, so obviously need to resize & change the aspect.

I was able to do this originally by using the EXPORT feature and changing all of the settings to reflect that size and aspect. Toast evidently called Flip4Mac to convert the WMV, as I got a "flip4mac trial" super-imposed over all of the WMV! The size & aspect were good, though.

I bought the Flip4Mac license after looking everywhere for anything else that could work.

Is there a way to change all of the settings WITHOUT using the EXPORT to change the settings, then cancelling the export after it's started? that doesn't seem like the way to do it.

I'm wanting to use the menu features.

2. Other question - is there any way to have the menu movie choice hightlight not be garish yellow, with some bizzare jagged shape? I don't even care about the color, as long as the shape is a nice, cleanlined box.

Thanks.

PT

This post has been edited by PTM: 30 December 2006 - 08:50 AM

[tsantee]

Starting from the bottom: the bizarre jagged shape was supposed to be fixed in the latest Toast update. Are you using Toast 7.1.2? If not, download the update.

You shouldn't need to do any fixing of sizes or aspect ratios. Toast takes care of that when it encodes the MPEG 2 files. There is a custom encoder setting in Toast to force the 4:3 aspect ratio but the automatic setting should work fine.

You must use Flip4Mac with WMV files before those videos can be used in Toast.

[PTM]

tsantee, on Dec 30 2006, 09:08 AM, said:

Starting from the bottom: the bizarre jagged shape was supposed to be fixed in the latest Toast update. Are you using Toast 7.1.2? If not, download the update.

You shouldn't need to do any fixing of sizes or aspect ratios. Toast takes care of that when it encodes the MPEG 2 files. There is a custom encoder setting in Toast to force the 4:3 aspect ratio but the automatic setting should work fine.

You must use Flip4Mac with WMV files before those videos can be used in Toast.

jaggies - I've been having some of the same problems as other people, with installing the update. I was going to try the renaming then deleting, but I don't have they key with me until I go back to work on Tues, so will have to wait until then.

aspect - Well, I guess I'll can try another without any changes. These are all mainly 240x480, they need all of the help they can get. The first time I burned, the movie filled the analog TV screen, but the quality was so bad I could hardly make out the show. Changing the export settings really made a big difference.

Since it takes so incredibly long to encode/burn, I hate to have to keep tweaking to get what I want.

Thanks for your help & I really appreciate the quick responses.
PT

[tsantee]

PTM, on Dec 30 2006, 01:37 PM, said:

jaggies - I've been having some of the same problems as other people, with installing the update. I was going to try the renaming then deleting, but I don't have they key with me until I go back to work on Tues, so will have to wait until then.

aspect - Well, I guess I'll can try another without any changes. These are all mainly 240x480, they need all of the help they can get. The first time I burned, the movie filled the analog TV screen, but the quality was so bad I could hardly make out the show. Changing the export settings really made a big difference.

Since it takes so incredibly long to encode/burn, I hate to have to keep tweaking to get what I want.

Thanks for your help & I really appreciate the quick responses.
PT

Are you sure they are 240x480? That's a very strange aspect ratio for something that is supposed to be wider than taller.

I just did a test with a 352x240 file shot with a digital camera. Toast encoded it as a 352x240 MPEG 1. Since the original was 20 fps Toast had to add more frames for the DVD spec. If you look in the Roxio Converted Items folder after Toast does the encoding you can see the resolution and whether Toast encoded as MPEG 1 or 2. What do you get from Toast?

[PTM]

tsantee, on Dec 30 2006, 04:27 PM, said:

Are you sure they are 240x480? That's a very strange aspect ratio for something that is supposed to be wider than taller.

I just did a test with a 352x240 file shot with a digital camera. Toast encoded it as a 352x240 MPEG 1. Since the original was 20 fps Toast had to add more frames for the DVD spec. If you look in the Roxio Converted Items folder after Toast does the encoding you can see the resolution and whether Toast encoded as MPEG 1 or 2. What do you get from Toast?

My bad - I should have typed 240x180.


I'm not sure if this is what you mean, but here's something:
Original is 240x180 14.57 fps Sorenson 3 encoding. Toasted, it is: 352x240 MPEG1 29.97 fps.

That's a better size, but not the 720x that I need for TV.

Is that what you meant?

[tsantee]

PTM, on Dec 30 2006, 04:41 PM, said:

My bad - I should have typed 240x180.
I'm not sure if this is what you mean, but here's something:
Original is 240x180 14.57 fps Sorenson 3 encoding. Toasted, it is: 352x240 MPEG1 29.97 fps.

That's a better size, but not the 720x that I need for TV.

Is that what you meant?

Yes, that's what I mean. Toast encoded it at Video CD quality which required interpolating additional pixels that aren't in the source video, making it look a little blurry. Then your DVD player upscales it for output to the TV, which means gaps between the pixels. I don't know of any way to make a video that small in resolution look good when enlarged to a TV's resolution.