Adobe Premier Elements and CyberLink PowerDVD, picture aspect ratio problem

28 Dec 2005 4:10 PM

_bojan

Hi,

I have JVC GZ-MC500E camera which record on mini drive in MOD file format.
Camera has option to record with pixel aspect ratio 1.433 (16:9 format).

When I play recorded tracks in PowerDVD it works fine, picture is in 16:9
format, but when I make DVD with software that comes with camera (CyberLink
PowerDirector), DVD is recorded in 4:3 format. Anyone knows why and how to
solve this problem ?

Also when I import these MOD files in Adobe Premiere Elements, files are
also recognized as 4:3 format.

What am I doing wrong ?

Thanks in advance,

Bojan

29 Dec 2005 12:19 PM

David Sommers

What you are doing wrong is trusting that a new technology is mature enough
that common folks can use it without knowing how things really work, and how
to deal with it. At least you did the right thing by asking the question
here.

I have been using SD card MPEG-2 camcorders for a few years. I had the very
first one, a Panasonic SV-AV100, and now a Panasonic SDR-S100. They both
used the MOD file format (MPEG-2 in disguise). The older one only recorded
in 4:3, while the newer one records natively in 16:9 with 4:3 as an option.
The Panasonic supplied software does a good job of off-loading the camera by
taking the MOD files, changing the names to the date-time-stamp of their
creation and then changing the file extension to MPG. Now they are much
easier to deal with. I used to do the same thing manually with the old
camera. The Panasonic editing software also properly recognizes 16:9 or 4:3.
That is nice, but the Panasonic video editor is kind of lame. I prefer to
use Womble Video Wizard. It's inexpensive and very capable. It also deals
with 16:9 and 4:3 fairly well.

However, MOD files do not seem to have the correct flag set in each MPEG-2
header to signal that this is a 16:9 format MPEG-2 file. This can confuse
some software, as you have experienced. One cure is this freeware:

http://www.videohelp.com/download/DVDPatcher_v106.zip

This program will correct the 16:9 flag error in the MOD files. They must be
changed to MPG first and you must choose to change all the headers, not just
the first one. From that point on, there should be no problem with 16:9
verses 4:3.

And I do highly recommend Womble for MPEG-2 editing. www.womble.com

Bye.

Show quoteHide quote

"_bojan" <bojan.fulanov***@zg.t-com.hr> wrote in message
news:doudfp$mtc$2@ss405.t-com.hr...
[...]
> I have JVC GZ-MC500E camera which record on mini drive in MOD file format.
> Camera has option to record with pixel aspect ratio 1.433 (16:9 format).
[.....]
> When I play recorded tracks in PowerDVD it works fine, picture is in 16:9
> format, but when I make DVD with software that comes with camera
> (CyberLink PowerDirector), DVD is recorded in 4:3 format. Anyone knows why
> and how to solve this problem ?
[....]
> Also when I import these MOD files in Adobe Premiere Elements, files are
> also recognized as 4:3 format.
[....]
> What am I doing wrong ?
[....]

29 Dec 2005 7:44 PM

_bojan

"David Sommers" <dsomm***@ACM.org> wrote in message
news:fvQsf.6851$pE4.2092@tornado.socal.rr.com...
> What you are doing wrong is trusting that a new technology is mature
> enough that common folks can use it without knowing how things really
> work, and how to deal with it. At least you did the right thing by asking
> the question here.

Hi David,

Thanks for help and for comprehensive answer. I find it very helpful.

Regards,

_bojan