Re: DVD Menu Size

Hi Austin,

Good advice from Danny. I don't transcode in Encore, I follow Danny's advice and do that before I get to that stage. In other words, assuming editing in Premiere, use Adobe Media Encoder and export the HD sequence as MPEG-2 for DVD, resulting in a widescreen SD export of .m2v for video and .wav for audio. Check the "Maximum Render Quality" setting when going to from HD to SD for best quality downscaling.

In Encore, use File > Import as import the assets as a Timeline. For menu creation in Photoshop, use 720x480 as suggested, but be sure to set the Pixel Aspect in Photoshop to 1.2 so the results are not distorted on your widescreen DVD.

Do not, I repeat do NOT create a 4:3 "letterboxed" DVD from your HD source! Create a 16:9 DVD to match the source footage. If the viewer happens to have a 4:3 display, their DVD player should add the 4:3 letterboxing to the video output automatically. If you create a 4:3 disc with letterboxing as part of the image, when viewed on a 16:9 display, the entire video will then be surrounded by black, not pretty at all.

Jeff Pulera
Safe Harbor Computers