Please read this sticky: http://forum.cyberlink.com/forum/posts/list/50105.page#post_box_263484 . Attach a screenshot of your dvd playing on your pc. Let us know the dvd player or viewer on the pc that you are using. This problem has been reported many times when the settings are not correct.

Quote Please read this sticky: http://forum.cyberlink.com/forum/posts/list/50105.page#post_box_263484 . Attach a screenshot of your dvd playing on your pc. Let us know the dvd player or viewer on the pc that you are using. This problem has been reported many times when the settings are not correct.

Thanks, I will do that when I get home from work. Just curious for now, but which settings are you refering to? Settings in the DVD player or in PowerDirector?

Also, I tried again using 4:3 format and aside from getting a menu that is formatted in 4x3, the video is exactly the same.

Is there a way to get Letterbox for 4x3 viewers?

Quote Please read this sticky: http://forum.cyberlink.com/forum/posts/list/50105.page#post_box_263484 . Attach a screenshot of your dvd playing on your pc. Let us know the dvd player or viewer on the pc that you are using. This problem has been reported many times when the settings are not correct.

Ok, I'm trying to attach 3 pictures. The preview window in PowerDirector 15 (so we know what a shot should look like), a picture of the DVD player with the same shot, and one of the Blu Ray player with the same shot.

I created a Blu Ray version of the same production and it plays back exactly as we see in Power Director's preview window. You can see how the DVD crops the right side. I see the same phenomena on a different PC based DVD player and on a consumer grade DVD player attached to a TV. While it is true that I exceed the safe title area by a little bit, this is completely forgiven (possibly even padded) on the left side of the frame but not at all on the right. When I view on a 4:3 television, I do notice that the picture is a little off center as well (shifted right as you might expect).

I also notice that when I burn a 4:3 version of this same production, it looks exactly the same as the widescreen version except for the 4x3 menu backgrounds. However, the blue outlines around selected thumbnails in the menu do line up correctly (unlike with the widescreen version where the outlines are vertically shifted high or low depending on Y location. Is there some setting somewhere that I don't know about?

Thanks!

So you are just losing part of the title? Looks like an old time "TV Safe Zone" issue.

From the help Preview/Display Options

"CyberLink PowerDirector includes some preview and display options that help make your editing experience easier. Click on to set the preview quality, show the TV safe zone, display grid lines, or enable dual preview." .
.
BoilerPlate: To posters who ask for help -- it is nice to thank the volunteers who try to answer your questions !
Anything I post unless stated with a reference is my personal opinion.

Quote So you are just losing part of the title? Looks like an old time "TV Safe Zone" issue.

No. That's not the issue. At extreme risk of sounding arrogant, I've been in broadcast television for 27 years largely in the capacity of video engineer and technical director on some very large shows. I'm well acquainted with safe zones and why they exist and why they are much less of an issue today.

To reiterate, the Blu Ray renders and plays back correctly, with NO loss in the regions beyond safe title. That process is working well (except for a different issue with black level stretch which is introducing video noise). The DVD rendering, as you can clearly see with the photos I posted, shows:

1. NO left side crop (in fact it appears to slightly pad it).

2. Right side crop that seems to invade even the save title area.

3. Related to the above, the picture is shifted right. This means that center is not really in the center of the screen. Yes, it IS noticable on the TV screen.

This appears to be an error in the way the MPEG stream is rendered prior to being written to the DVD iso file. Shifting video to the right is not a proper reproduction. Whether it's a setting I have wrong or a bug in the authoring software, it is improper.

TV-Safe is classically a function of televisions. When we produced 4x3 shows back in the day, ALL the frame is transmitted (except for a line or two here or there blanked in transmission through frame syncs, etc). The whole 525 lines from sync pulse to sync pulse DID go home! It's just that televisions would not display all lines or the full width of each line. As this varied from manufacturer to manufacturer, an approximate "safe area" was established. But the end result of the production and transmission to a TV is still full frame. VHS tape still reproduced the same full frame, subject to the same restrictions of the television. With this anomoly I'm experiencing with the DVD burning, the full frame is apparently NOT being recorded and played back. What the TV can and can't see isn't even an issue.

Again, the problem is either: 1) Some setting I have wrong or, 2) A bug in the way PowerDirector 15 preps and/or burns the DVD. I don't know which it is but I would like a solution. I will happily fix anything I'm doing wrong if someone can help point it out. If, however, this is a bug on the part of PowerDirector, then PLEASE accept this matter as an analysis toward fixing it and making PowerDirector a better product.

I appreciate your help with this.

Quote The DVD rendering, as you can clearly see with the photos I posted, shows:

1. NO left side crop (in fact it appears to slightly pad it).

2. Right side crop that seems to invade even the save title area.

3. Related to the above, the picture is shifted right. This means that center is not really in the center of the screen. Yes, it IS noticable on the TV screen.

This appears to be an error in the way the MPEG stream is rendered prior to being written to the DVD iso file. Shifting video to the right is not a proper reproduction. Whether it's a setting I have wrong or a bug in the authoring software, it is improper.

Tried to duplicate as much as possible with the old equipment that I have that are still working. I have seen all those defects and distortions you mentioned in the past on old analog crt televisions not sold anymore. The cheaper and older the TV the worse the distortion and they all have considerable overscan when compared to a modern flat widescreen TV.

Created a dvd using the sample files and a 16:9 bbc test chart downloaded from the internet. The project is in 16:9. Using a previous 4:3 created custom menu found no menu highlight bug when used with the old crt television. The dvd player is set to 4:3 letterbox. See the attached chapter menu.

The old analog TV display all of the top and bottom with black bars because the dvd player is set to 4:3 letter box mode. The test chart image is centered on the screen with about equal left and right side chopped off with the inherent overscan of an old analog TV. Compare that with the attached 16:9 test chart. The barrel distortion in the attached images is from the still camera.

I don’t see any problem here with the 1, 2, 3 you have listed above and see on your TV. There appear to be no error in the way the MPEG stream is rendered here. It looks perfect on my 16:9 TV and computer monitor using PowerDVD which are all digital.

You may want to contact Cyberlink support with the findings you have about the way it displays on your old TV to see if they can help.

Let us know if this help you in some way.

Quote Tried to duplicate as much as possible with the old equipment that I have that are still working. I have seen all those defects and distortions you mentioned in the past on old analog crt televisions not sold anymore. The cheaper and older the TV the worse the distortion and they all have considerable overscan when compared to a modern flat widescreen TV.

{snip}

Let us know if this help you in some way.

Tomasc, thanks for taking the time to help me out with this!

To clarify, the "old" 4x3 TV I use is actually a large video monitor from the 1980s and is calibrated well enough. It is fed by a 5 year old DVD player so I don't think antiquity is the issue in either the player or the monitor. The right shift of the video is indicated both in the monitor and in playback through a Windows Media Player so I'm convinced the problem sources from the DVD itself.

You have demonstrated that there IS a successful formula, so I'm trying to figure out what the difference is. I used the "smart fit" option as the DVD Creator was begging for something in excess of 7GB. I wonder if that encoding does something odd. I also installed a patch distributed by Cyberlink about a week or two ago. No idea if that makes a difference.

What's next for me is to take what you've done and duplicate your steps. That way I can (largely) rule out a faulty install and go from there. As I'm out of town, it will be a day or two before I get to it.

Thanks again!

Quote To clarify, the "old" 4x3 TV I use is actually a large video monitor from the 1980s and is calibrated well enough. It is fed by a 5 year old DVD player so I don't think antiquity is the issue in either the player or the monitor. The right shift of the video is indicated both in the monitor and in playback through a Windows Media Player so I'm convinced the problem sources from the DVD itself.

There is probably something about your setup that I suspect is causeing this issue. That is why in my initial response that I ask for a screenshot but you supplied only a cropped photo. Would like a full screenshot from your pc with that dvd playing in a window or PDVD playing in a window. That could give us the information we need to determine the problem… and .. the possible solution at the very beginning.

An alternative to that could be to supply a DxDiag.txt of the pc. See this sticky: http://forum.cyberlink.com/forum/posts/list/50105.page#post_box_263486 . That would allow users to maybe see the problem.

Quote There is probably something about your setup that I suspect is causeing this issue. That is why in my initial response that I ask for a screenshot but you supplied only a cropped photo. Would like a full screenshot from your pc with that dvd playing in a window or PDVD playing in a window. That could give us the information we need to determine the problem… and .. the possible solution at the very beginning.

An alternative to that could be to supply a DxDiag.txt of the pc. See this sticky: http://forum.cyberlink.com/forum/posts/list/50105.page#post_box_263486 . That would allow users to maybe see the problem.

I'll do both. I'm attaching the DxDiag.txt file and two screen shots.

The first screen shot is of the preview mode in the DVD authoring section. Once I completed all setup for burning, I previewed the DVD and you'll see what the authoring tool "thinks" the DVD will look like. No cropping.

The second screen shot is of both PowerDVD and Windows Media player playing back the very same DVD I burned after that preview. These player windows are sitting on top of PowerDirector which is positioned so that the "test scene" is visible in the preview window.

The symptoms I noted earlier are all there. Right side cropped, left side isn't. Also, the center of the frame in the PD preview window plays back shifted to the right due to the right crop.

Len

I suspected the setup from the very beginning. The problem can be easily fixed. The 16:10 AR monitor can be causing the issue when used with the old quadro card. Have seen this issue before with other user’s setup.

Try this:

1. Temporarily substitute the computer monitor with a 16:9 AR monitor.


2. In PD Preferences/Hardware Acceleration uncheck both checkboxes and click OK.


3. In the Final burn screen ensure that the hardware encoding is not checked.

You can do the above 3 steps on a created short project with the sample files, titling, test chart, etc. to see that the problem is solved either with burn to folder or to a dvd+rw.

Let us know your result.

Quote I suspected the setup from the very beginning. The problem can be easily fixed. The 16:10 AR monitor can be causing the issue when used with the old quadro card. Have seen this issue before with other user’s setup.

Try this:

1. Temporarily substitute the computer monitor with a 16:9 AR monitor.


2. In PD Preferences/Hardware Acceleration uncheck both checkboxes and click OK.


3. In the Final burn screen ensure that the hardware encoding is not checked.

You can do the above 3 steps on a created short project with the sample files, titling, test chart, etc. to see that the problem is solved either with burn to folder or to a dvd+rw.

Let us know your result.

I made a change in monitoring and am uploading a new DxDiag text file. I have disabled hardware acceleration in the Preferences menu as described in the instructions. I restarted PD-15 and loaded my project. I went through the burn process being sure that no acceleration was checked in the burn menu (which I couldn't do anyway as it was greyed out). I burned a DVD-RW and the same problem still exists.

What now? Are there any cached files that should be deleted or anything?

Len



[Edit] I noticed something interesting and just attached a picture. The menu plays back from the DVD exactly as expected (with no change in aspect or cropping). All scenes exhibit cropping. Not sure if this helps.

There are many HD1080 file types like mov, mp4, along with the more common avchd. It is possible that the timeline interaction with a resized type of video and title is causing the problem. Try this: Do a 10 second range produce of that part of the timeline in mpeg-2. View that in PD15 and in the vlc. See if they agree. Make sure that title is right aligned with the safe zone enabled.

The heavily cropped menu chapter thumbnails are normal with cyberlink menus Some of them have less cropping.

Quote There are many HD1080 file types like mov, mp4, along with the more common avchd. It is possible that the timeline interaction with a resized type of video and title is causing the problem. Try this: Do a 10 second range produce of that part of the timeline in mpeg-2. View that in PD15 and in the vlc. See if they agree. Make sure that title is right aligned with the safe zone enabled.

Yes! I tried this with my credit roll (a little under 6 minutes in length) and it worked! It produces the Mpeg-2 file exactly right. Authoring that to DVD also works just as it should. Next I rendered the whole production. It took a long time! Then I went through the DVD arrangement and the burned 1.5 hour DVD reproduces the picture perfectly! This means that I now have an ISO file for duplication.

Quote The heavily cropped menu chapter thumbnails are normal with cyberlink menus Some of them have less cropping.

I have no problem with that. It is what it is.

I would still like to find a way to reference projects as the Contents while creating a DVD and not rendered files. On my PC it takes about 2.5 to 3 hours to burn a 90 minute DVD from project files. To render individual projects and reference those Mpeg-2 files in the Content list costs about 4 hours in rendering and 1.5 hours in burning to the DVD. What's worse, if I have to make a simple correction somewhere in that 90 minute production (which happened twice) then I have to re-render one of the 4 projects that make up the final video, mark off all my chapters (15 in one case) and then do the 1.5 hour burn again. I'd much rather work from the project files directly, retain my chapter definitions, and let the DVD creator do it all while I sleep.

I think the hardware acceleration is somehow involved (even though I have it turned off). Maybe Direct Draw is involved. Maybe something from the graphics card misleads the authoring code. Maybe the processor has some inherent capabilities that are not being turned off. I did check for "off size" video that might fool the software, but everything is 1920x1080. The problem makes me wonder if somewhere along the line there is confusion between square pixels and the aspected ones (.9 or 1.2) in the DV format based around 720x480.

Anyway, thanks for the help! Any more info or troubleshooting advice is appreciated but at least now I have a finished product.

Len

As a test you might try taking one of your source clips and right mouse clicking on it in the timeline and manually setting the proper aspect with "Set clip atributes". I've seen PD get this wrong and it has an effect which you describe. If that works, you may have to do it to all source clips when moved to the timeline prior to any splitting and such.

Jeff