from 16:9 iMovie to 4:3 DVD? possible?

[Seannie]

This seems simple enough but I haven't been able to make it work. I created a beautiful widescreen imovie (06) and iDVD of a wedding and some of the clients would like it in the 4:3 aspect ration. I chose a standard theme and was prompted with the "change project to 4:3" box and selected yes. But all that was changed was the menu itself, not the video and it still plays back widescreen, thus losing the left and right margins of the images on a 4:3 television. What step am I missing?

Thank you!

 

[cohibadad]

some of the clients would like it in the 4:3 aspect ratio

Do you want it to display full screen on a 4:3 screen or letter-boxed (with black margins above and below)? and what is the source? DV anamorphic?

 

[Seannie]

letterbox would be okay...

I just want them to be able to watch it on a 4:3 television and not lose the left and right portions of the video and images.

I'm new at this so not familiar yet with anamorphic, but the source was my mini DV camera shot at 16:9 and imported into iMovie 06 where I created a 30 minute montage of video and still shots to music. Turned out wonderful, but the customer wants some of the DVD's to be viewable on her relatives' older tv sets.

 

[cohibadad]

AFAIK once you have created the 16:9 iMovie, your choices are to either import it into a program like FCP set at 4:3 to letterbox it or to recapture the raw footage in iMovie to letterbox it, edit and send to iDVD.

 

[cohibadad]

hmm. after rereading this post I'm confused. a 4:3 set should not cut off the sides of a widescreen video, it should letterbox or at worst squish http://www.thedigitalbits.com/articles/anamorphic/anamorphic185demo.html. If you want the whole 16:9 video to display on a 4:3 screen you would want to set the menu to 4:3 as you did and leave the rest alone. If you wanted to make a 16:9 video imported into a 4:3 project (which letterboxes it) display 16:9 it requires some work. That is what I was referring to.

 

[MacNut]

Was it shot in HD.

 

[Mernak]

...it still plays back widescreen, thus losing the left and right margins of the images on a 4:3 television. What step am I missing?

Thank you!

Sounds like the DVD is using Pan & Scan to make the video play at full screen, even if the source is widescreen, just by cutting off the sides. This website has some stuff to fix that. It is near the middle. Don't know whether this is still relevent, but it sounds like the .IFO file is messed up. You might want to copy the files from the dvd onto the hard drive, the edit the .IFO and .BUP file with HexEdit to change the circled value to 4E (see attached picture). Then you need to re-image it (i think), you can use ffmpegX for that, its under tools > img.

P.S. I think this would work, but I would keep a backup of the normal one first

 

[Super8Guy]

HDV on a DV Format DVD

HERE IS HOW I DO IT

1. I make an iMovie HD 06 movie in HDV

2. Save it as an iMovie File

3. Open up a NEW iMOVIE in DV

4. Give it a title - Save it

5. With BOTH movies open on your screen
Grab and Drag the HDV movie on to the Time Line
of the DV Movie file

6. SAVE IT

7. IT IS NOW A HDV LETTERBOX movie inside a DV iMovie File

8. Watch it.

9. Make a DVD out of it.

JOHN LONGENECKER
http://JOHNLONGENECKER.com
800 470-4602
email: JL.Company@mac.com

 

[Seannie]

I appreciate everyone's input and...

because of my beginner status, Super8Guy's advice is the most understandable to me and I copied a few frames into the new 4:3 imovie and the program converted it instantly to fit... thank you!!!

I have a question. is there a way to grab and drag a whole project... clips and music all at once... or do I need to do one timeline "layer" at a time. It's about 40 minutes of movie with a variety of sound clips, too.

Even if I have to do it separately, you have saved the day.

Thank you to the others for your advice, too. It was over my simpleton head but I'll still look into it and see what I can learn.

Seannie.

 

[Super8Guy]

HDV TO DV for DVD

Hi Seannie

Thanks.

I am delighted your test worked.

HERE IS HOW I DO IT

Sometimes I put the HDV iMovie file into what I call
CLIP VIEW on the Time Line
rather than TIME LINE on the Time Line.

Click on the first CLIP and hold the shift key
and go to the last CLIP and select it
-- then all the clips ought to be selected.

If they are all selected
then carefully drag all CLIPS at once
from the HDV iMovie file to the DV iMovie on the Time Line
- it ought to work fine.

SAVE the new DV iMovie file.

Watch the movie in the DV iMovie file.

See if it looks like you want - Letterbox.

See if all the images and audio got transfered properly.

SAVE IT

Watch It.

Make a DVD out of it.

Sometimes I make a QuickTime file
out of the new DV iMovie - Letterbox inside a DV movie.

Then I see if I can make a DVD from the QuickTime Movie.

That's it.

Please send another Forum comment and let me know if it works

You can send an email directly to me anytime.

If there is anything I can do, just ask.


JOHN LONGENECKER
800 470-4602
http://JOHNLONGENECKER.com
email: JL.Company@mac.com

 

[Seannie]

only partially working

Hi John,

Sorry it's taken me this long to get back... been a very busy week at work.

I selected the clips as described after creating a new imovie in standard format... and dragged them across. The audio does not transfer with them... I'll have to rebuild that separately.

But my big problem at the moment is that some of the video clips transfer as letterbox and some do not... is there a way to have them all transfer as letterbox?

Thank you!

Seannie

 

[Seannie]

Ha! Got it

Very very simple answer. When the drag and drop wasn't working, I made a quicktime movie of the original widescreen version and simply imported that into a new imovie file that was set up for the standard definition.... worked perfectly. It's embarrassing how easy this was to do and only two steps. But for some reason I couldn't readily find the answer. Hope this helps some other relative newbie who goes looking. Thanks!

 

[Seannie]

Footnote...

I wanted to add that with a little experimenting I learned that if I make a quicktime movie from the widescreen imovie and import that straight to idvd then I do get a 4:3 aspect ration dvd but it fills the 4:3 screen (no bars at top and bottom) so the result is a squished up picture throughout the film... so if you want the letterboxing, first make the quicktime movie and THEN import the quicktime movie into the new imovie, which is set for 4:3 and has preferences selected to letterbox.

Seannie

 

[Seannie]

Final note... project completed

...and I did discover that I had to make the 4:3 imovie that was comprised entirely of the imported quicktime movie from the widescreen...that I had to make THAT movie into a quicktime, too, for idvd to accept it. DVD is now burned and looks just like what I wanted.

Seannie