2 Issues: Anamorphic & Pal->ntsc

[bluefish]

I'm having onr problem with Toast and there's one additional thing that I'd like to know if Toast can do...

 

I have a (non-commercial) PAL DVD, no copy protection, and I want an NTSC version. Initially I tried doing the conversion in Toast, which went well with an acceptable amount of quality loss, but the DVD is in French with subtitles, and I wasn't able to find a way in Toast of adding the subtitles to the render. Any solution for this?

 

Now my Anamorphic problem: My alternate solution to the PAL/subtitle issue was to use an older Chinese DVD player that can convert from PAL to NTSC on-the-fly, so I played the disc via S-Video to my DV camera and then into my Mac (an older G4 tower) via Firewire. Capture was done in Finalcut Pro, and the import setting was DV Anamorphic. Then, in FCP, i trimmed the ends and re-rendered the file to a stand-alone DV Anamorphic file. When I played it back in QuickTime Player, it stretches out to the widescreen mode and has the subtitling.

 

The Toast step... I took that DV Anamorphic file, dropped it into Toast 10 (Video mode: DVD-Video), clicked on the MORE button and made sure the Aspect Ratio was set to 16:9, and rendered/burned the disc. No matter what I try, when I put the disc into any of several DVD players (including upscalers with HDMI-out), the image is 4:3 squeezed. It just won't be recognized as a widescreen DVD. What am I doing wrong?

[tsantee]

I don't have any advice regarding the subtitle issue.

 

As for the anamorphic issue Toast can be very stubborn and disregard the force-widescreen mode when Toast doesn't get info from the source video that it is, indeed, anamorphic. This same issue happens when people shoot video with a camera that has an anamorphic lens.

 

I know how to fix the DVD so it will play properly but I do not know how to get Toast to do it in this kind of situation.

 

The way to fix the disc is to use MyDVDEdit and to modify the IFO file. Somewhere here I've posted instructions on how to do that so I'll look to see if I can find a link.

[bluefish]

thanks, i'd love the help. is MyDVDEdit a Mac shareware app? and this is the odd part... the DV file is definitely widescreen. QT player shows it in widescreen, as does FCP. so does Toast not support standard apple video file conventions?

 

edit: nevermind on the MyDVDEdit... just found it on versiontracker.com. freeware!

 

thanks, tsantee... i found your instructions, which i've pasted in below:

 

 

Toast won't force the 16:9 ratio if it truly believes the video is 4:3. I have found it stubborn that way at times. The solution is to edit the .IFO file yourself so the DVD player is told that this is an anamorphic video. Here's how to do it:

 

1. Go to mydvdedit.com and download the donation-ware application MyDVDedit.

2. Drag to the desktop the VIDEO_TS folder from either your burned DVD or saved disc image file.

3. Select the VIDEO_TS folder in the Finder and choose Get Info. At the bottom of the Get Info window change your permissions to read and write and apply it to the entire folder contents. This makes it possible for you to make changes to the IFO File. This is also explained on the MyDVDedit Web site.

4. Open MyDVDedit and use it to open the VIDEO_TS folder. In the top left window click on VTS 1 (you'll also do this for VTS 2 and so on if there are multiple titles on the DVD). Click the middle of the three vertical buttons that are to the left of the lower window area. It also will be VTS 1. Now you should see where the aspect ratio is set to 4:3. Click on the button and select the 16:9 auto Pan&Scan and Letterbox setting. You can change

5. When you have finished doing that for all titles choose Save and then Quit MyDVDedit.

6. You now can burn that VIDEO_TS folder to DVD using the VIDEO_TS folder setting in the Toast Video window or the DVD-Rom (UDF) setting in the Data window.

[tsantee]

thanks, i'd love the help. is MyDVDEdit a Mac shareware app? and this is the odd part... the DV file is definitely widescreen. QT player shows it in widescreen, as does FCP. so does Toast not support standard apple video file conventions?

Thanks for looking it up. There may be a difference in the actual resolution of an anamorphic DV video and a 16:9 DV video. I think the former is 854x480 for NTSC. Is that the resolution of your DV video? I'm not an expert at this so I'm venturing into some guessing here.

 

[bluefish]

hmm, i followed your directions but the DVD was apparently already done correctly. the VTS1 aspect ratio was already 16:9 auto Pan&Scan and Letterbox. so i still don't know why it shows up as 4:3 and squeezed horizontally. the original disc (PAL) shows in 16:9 when i use an international DVD player. and i even went into the other menus in MyDVDEdit... there was another one that was set to 4:3 (VTS Menu 1 en), which i changed, saved, and reburned, and it still shows up as 4:3. the menus, however, are 16:9.

 

i don't think there is a difference in resolution between regular DV and anamorphic. it's just a marker that lets the player know if it's widescreen or not. the pixels are longer vertically than horizontally, so they just stretch to square, i believe, when shown anamorphically.

 

yes, i just checked, and the original DV file is 720x480.

[tsantee]

hmm, i followed your directions but the DVD was apparently already done correctly. the VTS1 aspect ratio was already 16:9 auto Pan&Scan and Letterbox. so i still don't know why it shows up as 4:3 and squeezed horizontally. the original disc (PAL) shows in 16:9 when i use an international DVD player. and i even went into the other menus in MyDVDEdit... there was another one that was set to 4:3 (VTS Menu 1 en), which i changed, saved, and reburned, and it still shows up as 4:3. the menus, however, are 16:9.

 

i don't think there is a difference in resolution between regular DV and anamorphic. it's just a marker that lets the player know if it's widescreen or not. the pixels are longer vertically than horizontally, so they just stretch to square, i believe, when shown anamorphically.

 

yes, i just checked, and the original DV file is 720x480.

I'm stumped. The DVD has the 16:9 flag. The video is obviously anamorphic or it wouldn't appear squeezed and 4:3. How did it look in the display window in MyDVDEdit? That window cycles between 4:3 and 16:9 by clicking on it.

 

What are you using to view the DVD where it shows the horizontally squeezed video?

[bluefish]

I'm stumped. The DVD has the 16:9 flag. The video is obviously anamorphic or it wouldn't appear squeezed and 4:3. How did it look in the display window in MyDVDEdit? That window cycles between 4:3 and 16:9 by clicking on it.

 

What are you using to view the DVD where it shows the horizontally squeezed video?

 

oh, didn't even realize it had a display window. i'll check that now.

 

as for what i'm using to view it, i've tried it in dvdplayer on my mac and on 2 dvd set-top players, an Oppo and a panasonic combo DVD recorder/VHS recorder. the tv is an Epson 720p LCD projector, and i've watched it both through the HDMI port and the S-video. anamorphic DVDs show in the full 16:9 normally.

[bluefish]

ok, i've checked the aspect ration in MyDVDEdit... now i'm even more confused. when i switch it to 4:3, the image gets even more tall and thin. so it appears that Toast rendered the video with black on the sides... it IS showing it 16:9. maybe i need to remake the DVD with 4:3 as the settings, then change the settings with MyDVDEdit to 16:9. very confusing. i'll report my progress here.

 

btw, i double-checked the DV file again and it's definitely 16:9, no black on the sides.

[tsantee]

ok, i've checked the aspect ration in MyDVDEdit... now i'm even more confused. when i switch it to 4:3, the image gets even more tall and thin. so it appears that Toast rendered the video with black on the sides... it IS showing it 16:9. maybe i need to remake the DVD with 4:3 as the settings, then change the settings with MyDVDEdit to 16:9. very confusing. i'll report my progress here.

 

btw, i double-checked the DV file again and it's definitely 16:9, no black on the sides.

Yes, it appears Toast window-boxed your video. Bizarre. You might find some tips at kenstone.net or the Final Cut discussions at discussions.apple.com. Unfortunately I don't have Final Cut so I'm not able to experiment with the export settings.

[bluefish]

well, that solved it, though i'll be damned as to why... so what i did:

 

originally imported the video via FinalCut Pro as NTSC DV anamorphic, then re-rendered it as the same (to get rid of handles). then when rendering/burning it to DVD via Toast 10, i put all of the settings as 4:3 (though probably should have left the menus at 16:9). then i took the burned DVD, copied the VIDEO_TS folder to my hard drive, then used tsantee's instructions of how to change the markers of the DVD to 16:9. saved it all, then dropped the VIDEO_TS folder back into Toast but in Data: DVD-ROM (UDF) mode to make the final DVD. works great!

[tsantee]

well, that solved it, though i'll be damned as to why... so what i did:

 

originally imported the video via FinalCut Pro as NTSC DV anamorphic, then re-rendered it as the same (to get rid of handles). then when rendering/burning it to DVD via Toast 10, i put all of the settings as 4:3 (though probably should have left the menus at 16:9). then i took the burned DVD, copied the VIDEO_TS folder to my hard drive, then used tsantee's instructions of how to change the markers of the DVD to 16:9. saved it all, then dropped the VIDEO_TS folder back into Toast but in Data: DVD-ROM (UDF) mode to make the final DVD. works great!

Great job!