Aspect ratio problems burning PAL AVI file to DVD

Macfury

I'm attempting to burn an AVI file derived from a PAL source. I can watch it in VLC but have tried numerous times to burn it to DVD using Toast and VisualHub. Each time, I preview the image and "force" the aspect ratio. Each time I wind up with a wide-screen DVD.

Am I missing something obvious here?

__________________
"My life is my own."

MacPro 3.0 GHz

pwstoneman

I've had some experience, some successful but not always, working with a PAL source to dvd before.

What is the aspect ratio of the original PAL avi file? And/or the actual pixel dimensions? And I'm assuming you don't have a widescreen tv and want to end up with 4:3 in the end?

Macfury

Thanks for any advice!

I just want to preserve the original aspect ratio of the broadcast for any TV I might watch it on.

The first broadcast is 512 × 320, but consistently burns into a widescreen format in both Toast and VisualHub, regardless of whether I force the aspect ratio.

The second is 720 × 304 but consistently burns with both sides cut off.

__________________
"My life is my own."

MacPro 3.0 GHz

pwstoneman

Have you tried using iDVD? I found that after I learned the interface, it worked well for handling different aspect ratio TV's. And I could get consistent results.

I'm not entirely sure you can do what you want tough. For instance when I burn a widescreen source and tell iDVD to prepare a 4:3 dvd it will letter box properly, but the same DVD displayed on a 16:9 tv I will have to adjust the aspect ratio on the TV to get proper display.

I thought this behaviour odd until I noticed that I would have to do the same with commercial dvd's as well. ie non-widescreen dvd's would appear all stretched on a widescreen tv until again the aspect ratio on the tv was adjusted.

Sorry I can't be more help. I realized after I posted that the issue I had with PAL source was the frame rate standards are different vs. NTSC.

Cheers,
Paul

chas_m

Two steps:

1. Convert PAL to NTSC
2. Convert AVI to DVD

Lately I've been using Redux Encoder to handle this, but Visual Hub, Hawkeye, ffmpegX and many others can do the conversion. Because I build custom DVDs from such files, I have RE convert PAL AVI to NTSC MP4, then drop into iDVD with a custom theme. The aspect ratio stays correct throughout: for widescreen material (which most PAL material is going to be these days), you'll get black bars on a "conventional" 4:3 set, but minimal (if any) on a 16:9 widescreen (accounting for the slight difference between NTSC and PAL resolution). upscaling DVD players do a great job with this.

Another option, for those lazier than I, is to just go out and buy a $40 DVD player that can handle DIVX, since most players that can do that will also decode PAL on the fly. Burn the AVIs to a data (ISO9000) DVD, stick in player, use built-in crude selection choosing menu, and watch. No re-encoding, no work, nothing fancy but it does the job. I do this for a Polish friend of mine: she just wants to see shows from her homeland. Works great.

__________________
Cheers
chas_m

Evangelist, ACDSee Pro for Mac: Get the beta! Join the community!
Help us build the next great Mac photo manager!

Our life in Victoria BC • Music blog • My Podcast • Film blog
Victoria Macintosh Users Group