DVD Studio Pro 3: In the Studio

Still Images

You can use still images in two distinct areas of DVD production: menus and slideshows. Menus often use multilayer Photoshop images. (Chapters 3 and 4 contain several menu projects that detail the specifics of creating menus.) Slideshows also are a fun way to present scanned photos in a video environment. If you've been building all the projects in this chapter, you've already encountered both scenarios. However, when you're preparing these still images, you should be aware of a few things, starting with screen aspect ratios and pixel aspect ratios.

Screen and pixel aspect ratios

Let's take a look at screen aspect ratios—sometimes called display aspect ratios—first. Regular television has a screen aspect ratio of 4:3. That is, the entire display screen is rectangular: 4 units (just pretend those units are squares of some size) wide and 3 units high. Most televisions available today, as well as those that have been sold over the past 50 years or so, use this 4:3 aspect ratio, which is often called a full-screen aspect ratio. Newer, widescreen televisions, on the other hand, have gained favor with consumers over the past few years, as they simulate the theatrical aspect ratios of feature films. These televisions have a 16:9 aspect ratio, which is often known as a widescreen aspect ratio.

DVD video frames are stored at the same image resolution (720x480 for NTSC or 720x576 for PAL), whether the video is intended for standard or widescreen display. But that doesn't mean ...