My first entry into digital videorecording has presented a challenge. I picked up a camcorder (being given away, the owner had upgraded) that records onto mini dvd. Here’s the challenge, though: it records 16:9, but when I copy it to dvd with a standalone dvd recorder (the kind that you’d hook to a dvr to record stuff you want to keep), it records as 4:3, so everybody looks a little taller and thinner.
It copies to my computer fine, but I don’t have a dvd burner. So. . . what are the options–other than taking my disks somewhere and paying someone to do it? The dvd recorder did not seem to have any options for altering the aspect ration of the input signal.
And that’s probably what I’ll end up doing. But, I like technical challenges, and was first going to try to jerry-rig something with my available equipment.
It could be in the camcorder settings. There’s probably a setting for TV-Out that may allow you to change from a 16:9 screen to 4:3, giving you a letterboxed image.
Yeah, but that will mean that it with a huge black border around it on any HDTVs.
The only way I can figure the OP can do it with the equipment he mentions is if he can hook up the DVD recorder to his computer somehow. Then you’d just make the DVD, play it at the right aspect ratio, recording it onto another DVD.
Or, if he has a DVD player that lets you switch aspect ratios, he could rerecord from that.