A perfect 4:3 picture when your widescreen TV is still set to 16:9!

[Atlantis]

I’ve seen some new DVDs with strange capability that I didn’t know possible before. I have seen some 4:3 materials on new DVDs that show a perfect 4:3 picture on a DVD player set to 4:3 and the same picture squeezed horizontally if the DVD layer is set to 16:9 so you can see a perfect 4:3 picture when your widescreen TV is still set to 16:9! Atlantis DVD is like this. Is it possible to do this, to horizontally squeeze the picture? How can you do this with Scenarist or do you think that the same materials are encoded twice!

[Atlantis]

Asking again!

[easy2Bcheesy]

Er, I don't quite understand. Are you referring to anamorphic widescreen DVDs? Quite often the main feature will be optimised for 16:9 while supplementary materials (mostly done for TV) are in 4:3. When authoring it is simplicity to set up different movies to use different aspect ratios. This isn't anything new, however.

If I have misunderstood, sorry - what are these DVDs you have noticed using this new technique?

[Atlantis]

Atlantis DVD as I said and Tron. To make it easier to understand I will try to explain it by asking a question, please answer it.

Imagine you are watching an anamorphic widescreen movie on a widescreen TV with the player set to widescreen. Now without touching any configuration, you watch a behind-the-scene feature that is 4:3. How is it going to look on your widesreen TV?

[easy2Bcheesy]

If the DVD author has done his job properly, the TV should automatically switch to 4:3 or whatever your standard viewing set-up is (mine is 14:9 which cuts a little off the top and bottom of a 4:3 window).

[Atlantis]

My widescreen TV doesn’t do that. Imagine that your DVD player is connected by a simple s-video cable to your player. Asking the same previous question, what will you see?

[easy2Bcheesy]

I've no idea what the situation is with your particular set-up. However, when authoring you simply select 16:9 or 4:3 on the video assets. The TV should automatically switch between anamorphic and non-anamorphic assets.

The Matrix definitely does this, as does Lara Croft Tomb Raider and a massive list of others - it's the standard way of authoring with different aspect ratioes.

However, I have found a couple of issues on some Maestro-produced DVDs I have produced, where a 4:3 menu will switch to anamorphic 16:9 for the movie, but not switch back to 4:3. But even that's only on my Sony player - works fine on my Pioneer 444 and PS2.

[Atlantis]

easy2Bcheesy, do you have a widescreen TV?