DVDMaestro Aspect Ratio Issues

[sumotherdude]

This is not a big deal, more or less just a curiosity.

When ever I author a movie in DVDMaestro and select 16:9, the movie plays and looks fine of course but I always end up with "lighter" sections above and below the movie itself. Above and below these "lighter" areas are the normal black letterboxing. So I have to bands above and below the movie that aren't as dark as I'd like them. I've tried adjusting the aspect ratio with no luck...

Am I making sense? And if I am is there a way to adjust this so it appears more like traditional letterbox? I've read all the information here on the site concerning aspect ratios and have went over the DVD9-DVD5 tutorial several times to maybe catch something I'm missing but have not had success.

Thanks for listening to my rambling...

J

[tatayet]

I'm personally using smartripper, and DVDMaestro after .
I have a widescreen TV, and the picture always appears correctly in 16:9 mode.
In 4:3 mode, on the other hand, I have the picture enlarged vertically... and I never have those black bars at the top and bottom of the screen.

I'd like to know the options to take to keep those black bars -> The movie could be read on both 4:3 and 16:9 TV's ...

[auenf]

the widescreen i think you are talking about tatayet is 2.35:1 where normal widescreen is about 1.85:1, so the movie is actually wider than widescreen ;)

if you used CCE to encode, you might have to change the setting for 'Luminace Level' to the oposite of what you picked the first time ;)

if you didnt use CCE, then a similar change would have to be necessary.

if all else fails, you can zoom the picture a little to remove the borders, but you will lose a little of the sides.

Enf...

[sumotherdude]

Thanks for all the info. Actually I'm thinking it might be my DVD player but I'm going to mess with the luminance level to see what happens.

J