If you play in the timeline and the image is normal 16x9 in preview
Any profile you choose in Produce should result in a video with 16x9 AR
If not, in the timeline, right click on the video and select, Set Clip Attributes, if not marked 16x9 then tick 16x9, OK or click button Detect and sugestt XEON-E5-2680 v4 / Mem. 16GB DDR4
M.2 NVME 512Gb / 2-SSD Sata3 1TB
AMD RX570 / Display Philips 272V8
Windows 11_64Pro / PD22/365

Hi The_Sandman -

All that stuff can be pretty confusing.

You're right: 720x576 is actually 5:4 & where you read about using 1024x576 that's because it's 16:9. Sorta. Trouble is, those calculations only work if the pixels are square (1:1) & sometimes they're not.

If you'd like to get more confused, have a read of this.

720x576 is PAL DVD resolution.

In PDR16, when you go to Produce you can choose H.264 > MP4 > then click the + button to create a custom profile. Select 720x576 (DVD PAL) under the Video tab & you're set. I guess that's what you've done.

The produced video will display as 16:9 and, as you've found, MediaInfo will report:
Width : 720 pixels
Height : 576 pixels
Display aspect ratio : 0.002
Original display aspect rat : 16:9
Frame rate mode : Constant
Frame rate : 25.000 FPS
Standard : PAL

MooO VideoInfo reports:
Width: 720
Height: 576
Pixel Aspect Ratio: 1:720
Display Aspect Ratio: 1:576
Pixel Format: yuv420p
Has B Frames: Yes

So - any wonder people get confused?

The main thing is, does your produced video display as 16:9 without distorted images? You're right again. VLC & MPC HC will play it as a thin line unless instructed otherwise. Win 10's Film & TV & Photos apps both display it correctly. That only shows that some players cannot (by default) interpret the non-square pixels.

Cheers - Tony
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Thanks very much for the reply guys, appreciate the help and info!


Yes that's exactly what I had done - created a custom MP4 profile with 720x576 and produced the video from that.


I have a better understanding now thanks to your reply and link. I think my best option is to just continue doing that and to set the 16:9 playback option in VLC etc? Or is there a better method for creating Standard Def MP4's? Should I be looking at converting it to 4:3 instead and then encoding in that resolution or would that display letterbox bars on my widescreen TV for example?

Thank you!

Hi The_Sandman -

If your source footage is 16:9, I wouldn't be messing around changing it to 4:3 (unless you had a particular reason for doing that).

Am I assuming correctly that your source clips are 720x576?

Another possibility is to create a custom MP4 profile that doesn't use non-square PAR, like 1024x576. That can't be done in PDR's interface but it can be done by editing the Profile.ini (where PDR stores custom profiles).

If you go to C:\Users\UserName\AppData\Roaming\CyberLink\PowerDirector\16.0\UserConfigure, you'll find the Profile.ini, which can be opened with NotePad

Attached are two 1024x576 profiles (one is 29.97fps the other 25fps).

1. Open it in NotePad - select all & copy the text.


2. Open Profile.ini & place the cursor either at the very start or end of the text.


3. Paste the new profiles into Profile.ini


4. Save & close

When you open PDR16, & go to produce, select H.264 > MP4 > Custom & you'll see the profiles called "SD 1024x576/30p 8Mbps" & "SD 1024x576/25p 8Mbps".

Produced files will play back in any player without the need for manipulating aspect ratio.

Cheers - Tony
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Fantastic Tony - that text for the custom profiles you attached works great!

Thanks very much for your help, really appreciated!