Seeking Guidance on conversion to DVD

[tswielder]

Description of problem or question:

I apologize for this newbie question. I've done some reading online and tried my best to find a solution, but it's been hard, so I am hoping to get some help here. Sometimes I burn movies onto DVD-R. Most of the times, it works just fine. I often use AVC Ultimate, which has a DVD burner built-in. But, once in a while, a result comes out distorted (characters appear tall/stretched). My understanding is that, for whatever reason, the black bars on top and bottom have gone away, resulting in this stretch. I just don't know what causes this. I'm guessing that it has to do with source videos and that I need to prep source videos before running them through AVC to be burnt onto DVD. My confusion is, I've done many 720P source video files without this issue while some other 720p videos end up with this issue. I once worked around this issue by using Handbrake to convert a source video to fit a native DVD size/ratio by adding black bars on top/bottom/sides. This worked, but this forced the actual image area to be far smaller. So, it was a trade-in between image size vs distortion/stretch. I would love to know the best way to convert/burn high res video files without this issue, either by using Handbrake or any suggestions for other software. During my search online, I tried Freemake Video Converter, and it successfully converted and burnt a video without stretch/distortion, but that software is full of ads and has issues.

As an example, I have a source video file that is 1280 x 536 (m4v - 265 format). When I view this with VLC, it plays fine. Once I use AVC to convert/burn it onto DVD-R, it gets stretched without top/bottom black borders. Any help would be appreciated. Thank you.

HandBrake version (e.g., 1.0.0):

1.3.3

Operating system and version (e.g., Ubuntu 16.04 LTS, macOS 10.13 High Sierra, Windows 10 Creators Update):

Windows 10

[rollin_eng]

It sounds like you need better authoring software.

You don’t want to encode with HB then again with your authoring software, better to do it just once.

[Woodstock]

The distortion you describe would normally be the player not obeying the aspect ratio and anamorphic flags in the source video.

When you have DVD as a source, you should start with the handbrake presets that are "aimed" at DVDs. For NTSC, these would be the ones with "480" in their name, while PAL will usually be better with the "576" presets. These presets include filters intended for DVD sources, such as deinterlace and detelecine.

Of course, if the target is a disk that can be played in a stand-alone DVD player, handbrake isn't what you want; you need something that will encode in MPEG2 format, rather than the more advanced codecs used by handbrake, so your DVD burning software will re-encode the video to make it fit the standard.

[tswielder]

It sounds like you need better authoring software.

You don’t want to encode with HB then again with your authoring software, better to do it just once.

Do you know of a good one? I also read that Handbrake had pad filtering that could maybe help? But, it seems a bit complicated since it's command line only, if I understand correctly.

[Deleted User 13735]

First of all, Handbrake can encode from a DVD, but it cannot author or create a DVD structure or folder. So at its best, this is the wrong place to ask.

Now, in order to create a DVD in another program that is not stretched or squished, your source must be in the proper aspect. That could be NTSC or PAL, 4:3 or Widescreen. You will have to make your source fit the format, not the other way around. Wikipedia is your friend, and best of luck.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DVD-Video#Video_data

[tswielder]

The distortion you describe would normally be the player not obeying the aspect ratio and anamorphic flags in the source video.

When you have DVD as a source, you should start with the handbrake presets that are "aimed" at DVDs. For NTSC, these would be the ones with "480" in their name, while PAL will usually be better with the "576" presets. These presets include filters intended for DVD sources, such as deinterlace and detelecine.

Of course, if the target is a disk that can be played in a stand-alone DVD player, handbrake isn't what you want; you need something that will encode in MPEG2 format, rather than the more advanced codecs used by handbrake, so your DVD burning software will re-encode the video to make it fit the standard.

The source isn't DVD. I's the other way around. I have high res movies that need to be converted/burnt onto DVD. The problem is, like I wrote in my example, sometimes a source video doesn't have the correct aspect ratio or a black bars to maintain it. I tried converting it to 480p, but it still got messed up when burning on DVD (same vertical stretch because there was no black bars on top/bottom). It looks to me that the only way to work around this is to add black bars (I guess they are called letterboxing?) tot he source video before converting or to use software that can do this automatically, like freemake can. Do you have any suggestions for this situation?

[Deleted User 13735]

The formats Wikipedia gave you in the link I provided are gospel.
Your source must fit in an appropriate DVD aspect, regardless of how it started.
You must teach yourself PAR, DAR, and SAR to be able to understand this. Did I mention Wikipedia?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pixel_aspect_ratio

Putting your source on a DVD-appropriate canvas is not a job I suggest undertaking in Handbrake. It wasn't made for that, and as mentioned, a redundant encode is not advisable.

A nonlinear editor is the proper place to do that. Davinci Resolve is free.

[tswielder]

The formats Wikipedia gave you in the link I provided are gospel.
Your source must fit in an appropriate DVD aspect, regardless of how it started.
You must teach yourself PAR, DAR, and SAR to be able to understand this. Did I mention Wikipedia?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pixel_aspect_ratio

Putting your source on a DVD-appropriate canvas is not a job I suggest undertaking in Handbrake. It wasn't made for that, and as mentioned, a redundant encode is not advisable.

A nonlinear editor is the proper place to do that. Davinci Resolve is free.

It's not that I don't understand the basics or what you are saying. I have my own reason why I was asking for other options. I still appreciate your help, but please know that I did read your post too. Just don't want you to feel that you have to repost what you already posted so you won't need to waste your time for me. Thank you though.