Problem with Widescreen vs. Fullscreen when burning to DVD? [SOLVED]
 

I have a movie from Itunes, that I want to put onto DVD, both for backup and so that I can watch it on the TV instead of just the computer. The DRM is removed. But this is my problem. It is a widescreen movie, and plays as widescreen in Windows Media Player. But when I burn it to DVD, with Corel VideoStudioPro5, It comes out fullscreen, so everybody is tall and skinny. All the settings in VSP5 are 16:9, but for some reason, it only recognizes the file as full screen, so that automatically overrides the settings I use. I hate VSP anyway, and this isn't making me like it any better. (Nothing beats Ulead's MediaStudioPro, but unfortunately, that program doesn't open m4v files, since it hasn't been updated for years). So how can I get the movie to burn properly to DVD?

Except for your statement the movie is an mp4, that doesn't tell us much. mp4 can be a 2.35:1 wide image that is encoded as 1:1 pixel aspect ratio and plays correctly in PC media players. Or it could be 16:1 square pixel, who knows? Non-square pixel DVD might stretch the image vertically. But that's a guess. We need more info about your mp4. Try posting more details about the mp4 with the free MediaInfo utility http://www.videohelp.com/tools/MediaInfoXP. You can copy text from the display window and post it here.

Can't say I blame you.

It's all gibberish to me, so I just copied and pasted the whole thing:

The DVD format has specific requirements. I seriously doubt that either Corel or ULead can convert that video correctly for DVD.

From your MediaInfo text (and thank you for posting). I'll try to explain some of the basic stuff:

Video #1:
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Format: AVC
Format/Info: Advanced Video Codec
DVD is encoded with the MPEG2 codec. AVC/h264 encoding is not allowed. Whatever conversion program you use, the video will be re-encoded at unspecified parameters as MPEG2. It can't simply be "copied" and burned to a DVD disc.

Format settings, CABAC: No
CABAC is a specification that is required by DVD. Roughly, it refers to interlacing.

Format settings, GOP: M=1, N=120
Long GOP's are not allowed in DVD or BluRay. The maximum GOP length for NTSC DVD is ~18 frames, not 120. That fact alone means a complete re-encoding of the video.

Bit rate: 1 406 Kbps
This is a very low quality target bitrate and is not usually acceptable for DVD.

Width: 640 pixels
Height: 478 pixels
Display aspect ratio: 16:9
This is a standard definition frame size (almost) but is not valid for DVD. The aspect ratio of a 640x478 image is 1.33:1 (4:3), meaning that during playback on a media player the image is stretched to 16:9. This frame size is not allowed in DVD. The height of 478 pixels is not mod-8 (i.e., it cannot be evenly divided by 8), which is required for almost all standard video formats. Usually a 16:9 display aspect ratio for DVD is encoded at a frame size of either 720x480 pixels or 704x480. A proper conversion program would resize the video to one of those frame sizes for 16:9 playback. Otherwise, it's a 4:3 image that gets "squished" when played as DVD.

Frame rate: 23.976 fps
This frame rate is not allowed in DVD. The video is film-based and must use 3:2 pulldown to play at 29.97 fps. DVD cannot be encoded at 23.976 fps. Also, standard DvD is usually interlaced or telecined. DVD can't be encoded as entirely progressive without playback problems on many players.

Video #2:
---------
Format: JPEG
Codec ID: jpeg
DVD cannot be encoded as JPEG, but these are menu images. Some authoring programs will re-encode jpeg to something like png, but not always.

Width : 640 pixels
Height : 360 pixels
Display aspect ratio : 16:9
The images at 640x360, a 16:9 ratio, so they bare encoded as square-pixel.
Frame rate mode: Variable

Frame rate: 0.003 fps
Minimum frame rate: 0.002 fps
Maximum frame rate: 0.006 fps
These are motion menu images.

Audio:
------
Format : AAC
Format/Info : Advanced Audio Codec
AAC audio cannot be used for DVD, which must be Dolby AC3 or uncompressed PCM.

Sampling rate: 44.1 KHz
This audio sampling rate is invalid for DVD.

The fact that you can play this DVD at all is a wonder, so your software did make some conversions that got things going on the DVD disc. I'm not a user of free no-cost conversion programs. One possibility might be AVS2DVD. Others who use freebies might be able to advise. A few conversion programs can also import the mp4 menu and images. I would use an entirely different process if I had to make a DVD from this video, but I don't think you'd want to go through all that.

Other members will have to advise on easy to use software that can properly make this conversion. Some external players or media servers can play mp4 as-is, or mp4 can be burned to a DVD disc as "data" rather than as "DVD", or an mp4 can be copied to USB or hard drive -- a few players will recognize it, most will just choke on it, and those will probably be advanced BluRay players.

Suggestions,folks?

Thank you very much for your explanation. I guess Itunes has it rigged so that it can't be put onto disc, even with DRM removed. Hopefully someone can suggest some free programs I can try, but if not, I'll just back it up on flash drive, and I just won't be able to play it in the DVD player.

No, iTunes doesn't have it rigged to make it impossible to transfer to DVD disc. DRM isn't that difficult to remove with the right hackware, so anyone with any of several software apps (such as Avisynth and a good encoder) can make that conversion, and it will play at the correct aspect ratio. Like many web services, iTunes cuts many corners such as bitrate, frame size, etc., to make web streaming cheaper and easier for its customers, whom iTunes and similar providers know are typical consumers with no video knowledge beyond clicking the "Play" icon.

Someone with fairly basic knowledge of video formats and formatting would do this:
1. Decode the original iTunes video to a lossless format for cleanup and other processing.
2. Run some filters to clean up low-bitrate artifacts and other visual problems.
3. Resize the frame size to a slightly larger 720x480 pixels.
4. Resample the audio to 48KHz and convert it to Dolby Ac3 stereo .
5. Encode the new video to a higher bitrate, specify a 16:9 display ratio, and apply 3:2 pulldown for 29.97fps playback.
6. Extract menu pictures and other menu items from the original video, usually with free software.
7. Use an authoring program to make new menus, chapter marks, and a DVD folder structure.
8. Burn the newly organized folder structure and menus to DVD disc.

The above can be accomplished with free software.

All videos and all video formats aren't required to be on DVD disc. Many people keep volumes of movies in various formats on flash drives and external hard drives (all of my HD captures off cable are on external hard drives. Many of my DVD's are copied directly to external hard drives). Some DVD players can read mp4, some can't. BluRay players generally handle a wider range of formats than DVD players, and some of the better BD models can read from external USB-connected hard drives as well as USB sticks.

I doubt it needs much filtering, because iTunes source is usually fine.

So simply:
- extract source video (download local, remove DRM)
- convert to DVD-spec MPEG using Avidemux
- author menu-less with freeware Simple DVD Creator

Thank you very much. I'll try these suggestions. The DRM is already removed. So that's one step down.

Good idea from lordsmurf. You'll likely get better results with AviDemux.