rendering a 16x9 wmv?

[Jeremiah Rickert]

This is vaguely in the "web delivery" sort of category, but I'm struggling with vegas.

I have a project that is set to NTSC DV Widescreen. (720x480)

I would like to render a low-quality WMV of this clip (using the 512kbps template).

Project set to widescreen..."do not letterbox" is checked, but no matter what, I end up with a 4:3 squished image. Windows Media Player, VLC, Quicktime, Core Media all play the file 4:3. Is there supposed to be some "flag" in the wmv that tells the player to default to widescreen and I have overlooked it?

Am I going to have to just render the 16x9 image in a 4:3 letterbox?

If I render to avi, DV Widescreen, Media Player will actually play the image in 16x9, but all other media players play it 4:3. I can force Core Media Player to 16x9, but I can do that with any file. That seemed odd as well.

Thanks for any input...and if this isn't in the right forum, feel free to move it over.

JR

[Guy Bruner]

When transcoding from DV widescreen to WMV or other codecs that use square pixels, I have found it better to convert the anamorphic pixels to square. A 720x480 DV widescreen frame when converted to square pixels is 872x480. If you want to keep the full frame in WMV, then set your WMV render template to 872x480. This will play in proper aspect ratio in any media player. I find 1/2 size works very well. That would be 436x240.

[Seth Bloombaum]

Dealt with this issue once. If Guy's suggestions don't work for you, try the freeware Windows Media Encoder from microsoft.com. It exposes a few more encoding controls than Vegas, including the widescreen flag. Quality is the same, though you'll have to render to DV out of Vegas.

[Sean Seah]

I render the 720p wmv to solve the prob.. but that only makes sense if u r using m2t.. I cant solve the wide looks if I render to anything else in wmv too

[Jason Robinson]

Originally Posted by Sean Seah

I render the 720p wmv to solve the prob.. but that only makes sense if u r using m2t.. I cant solve the wide looks if I render to anything else in wmv too

I fought with this for quite a while too. I eventually gave up and render to quick time in wide screen because it can do it just fine. Sorry, I know that isn't an actual solution. Now I haven't used this solution with 1/2 size renders (to keep DL size small), so I'm not sure how that works.