Hi,

If you have a big screen TV, I suppose you use a Blu-Ray player and need best quality in movie. The TV screen size is 1920 x 1080 and the movie size must be 1920 x 1080 or 1280 x 720 normally bigger is better. High definition (HD) = Blu-Ray disk. If you create, a DVD output size is 720 x 480 in NTSC, that means less quality and more grainy on TV you must use the zoom on your TV. With software you can create Blu-Ray or HD and DVD this SD both disk can be read on Blu-Ray player but a DVD player can read only a DVD this is SD (Standard definition)
Screen size 1920 x 1080 =HD = 1.777 ratio between length and height
Screen size 720 x 480 =SD = 1.50 ratio give black bars on side.

Regards,

YR

Did not mean to use capitals, was in a hurry to get msg posted before going to offer some assistance to a neighbour.

It is full HD 1920x1080 and PAL. I am only using a standard DVD player and not Blue Ray.

I do realize that I can use the zoom on my TV to fill the screen, however what I'd like to try and do is to create a standard output that will ultimately play on anyone's DVD player and without them needing to use their zoom facility. I also realize that if I go down in picture quality then that too will also fill the screen, however that rather defeats the object of using Hi-Def footage in the first place.

Hi,

You work on Pal Secam standard DVD is 720 x 576 pixels all recent TV can reach 1920 x 1080.  If you see black borders on screen image you have no choice to use the zoom function on TV display.

No function on DVD can do automatically for you.

By default picture quality is set to 9, you can use up to 15 also you can use VBR or maximum bitrate allowed this help to obtain cristal color but better is Blu-Ray output using a Blu-Ray player. Blu-Ray disk price drop month after month and about same for the player price.

Regards,

YR

I am most grateful for the help you have given. I will do as you say and use the zoom facility.

I had a similar situation and got help here:
http://www.magix.info/us/43-pal-to-ntsc-widescreen.knowledge.861666.html

Currently I am working on The Rifleman series.  The owners of the franchise have released 50 episodes which can be downloaded from hulu.  (I used PlayLater software.)

While the programs come as MPEG-4 at 720 X 404 (and a overall bit rate of 2615 Kbps I can expand them to 16:9 using the settings below.  Mind you, nothing can increase the bit rate of something already recorded, so if you can it is best to employ the highest bit rate possible if you are doing the recording or capturing.
Still, as has been pointed out, the highest you can get with the DVD format is 720 x 480, even if you get a store-bought one.  Yet we watched professional-quality DVDs for years and thought they gave us a great picture. 

But back to my settings for The Rifleman.  My MEP global settings are Settings — Program Settings: NTSC, Full resolution, and Settings — Project/Movie:  1920 x 1080, 16:9, 29.97.  (Naturally you will have to adapt yours if you are using PAL.) 

To get the picture to fill the screen I use
Position:    -340 Left,            0 Top, 
Size:           2600 Width,  1080 Height.

Now while MPEG-4 certainly is no High-Def, it displays on a medium-size wide screen TV without noticeable graininess.  I'd hate to have to look at it on a 10' projector screen, but at least it fills the TV's screen without using the zoom settings to distort it.

Happy viewing!

P;.S.  A handy tool for evaluating your video and audio contents is MediaInfo
http://mediaarea.net/en/MediaInfo  (Free, but donations gladly accepted.)

Hi Ray

Thanks for the info about the imported video format, however you have not answered the other two parts of my question ie the project settings and the settings you are using to burn the DVD, 

Your countr setting indicatesyou are from the US yet you are using PAL video is this correct?

As the imported movie is 1920 * 1080 HD I would suspect that if you see it 'full screen' ie no black bars in the preview monitor, then something is not set correctly in the DVD burn dialog.

Screenshots ot hte following dialogs would be very useful  Project settings,  Part of the timeline including the preview monitor, the DVD burn dialog and which options you are setting  as shown in this image

John

Hi John

Will experiment and get back to you as soon as I am able with some information, however due to commitments it may not be possible to actually do anything for a couple of days. As a matter of interest, I do live in  the UK in Surrey, England, hence PAL system.

Ray