As I’ve been wrestling with this recently and Googling didn’t immediately show me the light, here’s an answer for video nerds. If you shoot anamorphic video (with or without a lens, but using the full frame to record a 16:9 image) and edit with iMovie HD (v5) you can now burn an anamorphic DVD with iDVD 5. Yay! (Anamorphic footage from iMovie HD plays back with grey bars top and bottom and the note “widescreen preview” in the bottom right corner, so it’s not just letterboxed 4:3.)

However, anything edited in Final Cut Pro (anamorphic flag set or not) and brought into iDVD 5 is interpreted as 4:3 footage and appears stretched (tall). Doesn’t matter what setting you use to export, iDVD gets it wrong.

Anyway, there’s a flag set by iMovie HD to indicate to iDVD that this footage is anamorphic and should be thus interpreted. (Why they couldn’t use the same method as FCP?) You can fake this flag with some fancy footwork.

The solution: visit Apple – Discussions – Anamorphic DVD from FCP – Solution where a kind and generous person has provided an Applescript application that solves the whole problem neatly. Thankyou Colin McFadden. [EDIT: link fixed]

Perhaps iDVD 5.0.1 will work without it, but I’m not waiting and will be using some of the great new iDVD menus for some video of my sister and I on holiday. Cool!

Oh, and back to the par-tay mentioned earlier: big, special thanks to my mother, who slaved away to create an excellent birthday cake with my name on it. And it’s her birthday too. Raise a glass one and all.

3 thoughts on “”

  1. im having that exact problem. my dvds are not letterboxed. ouch. and the link youve posted has dissappeared….any suggestions

  2. Thanks for the tip!!! It took me forever to figure out what was wrong. Much appreciated!!!

    Note: the link for Apple did disappear, but the link for Colin’s download page is still there. Thanks to Colin as well!!

  3. Looks like Apple has now removed the link to Colin’s page as neither link works. Andy ideas for where this script might still be found?

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