16:9 and SD Projects
The DVD specification and DVD Studio Pro require 16:9 video to be anamorphic. An
anamorphic 16:9 video frame has the same number of pixels as a 4:3 video frame. When
displayed on a 16:9 monitor, the frame is horizontally stretched to fit the screen, and the
content appears normal. When viewed on a 4:3 monitor, however, the video content
appears horizontally compressed (see the illustrations in
Choosing an Aspect Ratio
).
The most common error is to letterbox your 16:9 video assets before bringing them into
DVD Studio Pro. Once a 16:9 asset has been letterboxed, it becomes a 4:3 asset with black
bars along the top and bottom of the video image. If you flag letterboxed source video
as 16:9 video when encoding it, you will have problems when you play it back later.