iDVD 3 does not produce PAL widescreen (16:9) movies by default, but can be tricked into doing so...
If you have a camcorder that can shoot anamorphic DV (e.g. Sony DCR-TVR60e PAL), you will need Final Cut Express rather than iMovie to edit the footage.
- Once editing is complete, save the movie in Final Cut Express format including any markers (e.g. Chapter markers), but uncheck the box that makes the file self-contained.
- Open iDVD and create your project file; when the status indicator shows that encoding is complete, save the project file and quit iDVD.
- Right-click on the DVD project file and select Show Package Contents.
- Navigate throught the folders Contents and Resources to locate the MPEG folder.
- Option-drag the MPEG folder to another location (e.g. your Desktop) to make a copy.
- Download HexEdit and use it to open in turn each file within the copied MPEG folder.
- Use HexEdit's Find and Replace option to find every instance of "2D 02 40 23" (describing 720 x 576 PAL in 4:3 ratio at 25 fps) and replace it with "2D 02 40 33" (describing 720 x 404 PAL in 16:9 ratio at 25 fps), saving each file. For more information about the changing the MPEG header, click here.
- Delete the original (4:3) MPEG files from within the Package, and replace them with the new (16:9) files you have just saved.
- You can view the effect this change has by opening each file in QuickTime if you have purchased the QuickTime 6 MPEG-2 Playback component (you might need to give the file an ".mpg" extension to get QuickTime to recognize it). Alternatively, use VLC: neither will playback sound.
- Close the Package and burn your DVD.
Note that the menus created by iDVD will still appear in 4:3 format.
![[Photo of Bruce McKenzie]](data:image/jpeg;base64,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)
Bruce, I can't really suggest anything, I've never used Final Cut Express. I didn't realise it even supported 16:9 footage natively. In regards to 16:9 support in iMovie, that's exactly what I do, you do need to be careful in your font choices for titles etc.
I've written a perl script which is wrapped in a little Mac OS X app called Drop16x9 to automate this process so you don't have to fiddle about it in HexEdit, you just drop the encoded iDVD project onto it. Also I've found that I can shoot in 16:9 with my Canon MVX1i and edit the resulting video in iMovie fine.
very very helpful site. it finally answered the question i've been crawling around the net asking. thanks.
In the process of trying your app Matthew something funny happened. Since the last time I made a widescreen DVD I've upgraded to Panther, reinstalled Final Cut Express, and updated to QuickTime 6.5 Pro + the new version of the MPEG2 Component. When I hooked up my camcorder and imported widescreen footage, it showed under Properties: Pixel Aspect Ratio "PAL - CCIR 601", above a checked box "Anamorphic 16:9". When I dragged this clip into the timeline and exported it as a FCE movie and opened it in QuickTime Player, it appeared to be letter-boxed. A test DVD-RW created from this movie played letterboxed on the Mac and PC (inside a 4:3 window), and auto-expanded to widescreen on my 16:9 telly without further modification. When I tried to repeat the process (re-capturing the same footage), FCE exported anamorphic footage again! Any ideas what happened?
A point of clarification: you can edit 16:9 footage using iMovie if all you're doing is trimming and re-arranging clips. Problems may arise when you try to add titles, effects etc which are 4:3 and overlay these on anamorphic footage. If you then burn your movie using iDVD the disc will play back as a "squashed" picture; if you were to edit the MPEG headers to make a widescreen version, the titles etc will appear stretched. Choosing your fonts carefully make overcome this.