Aspect ratio problem

[nlaak]

Hello,

I've searched for answers to this, but if I missed a good thread on the subject, please point me to it.

I'm using TMPGEnc Authoring Works 4 to convert my DVD collection to DIVX. DIVX because my Phillips DVP5990 plays DIVX Ultra files with soft coded subtitles and AW4 because it makes DIVX Ultra files that play nicely on the DVP5990.

The problem I'm having is that some of the movies Lethal Weapon 2, The Abyss, and Die Hard 1/2/3 to name a few, show up in AW4 as 4:3 rather than 16:9 and once converted and I play them they show up letterboxed in a 4:3 format on my LCD TV. The aspect ratio on the screen is correct, but instead of having the LB 'bands' on the top and bottom I also have large bands on the left and right. I've played around with the options in AW4 control the aspect ratio, but no matter what I do, the output in the AW4 simulation window shows the video LB in a 4:3 window.

I'm not necessarily wedded to the idea of using AW4, though I like the way it works, but I haven't seen any other single applications than can produce a DIVX Ultra file with soft subtitles. I've played around with Handbrake and for the short term I've recoded the problem movies with it, but as far as I can tell it only does hard coded subtitles. I've got .SUP files of the subtitles, but I haven't found any application that can put .SUP subtitles into a DIVX Ultra file with first OCRing the SUP into something else (SRT I'd guess) and I'd really rather not spend my time OCRing and proofreading the subtitles.

I've also played with IFOEdit, and set all of the 4:3 references I could find in the main movie to 16:9, but, unless I'm an idiot that didn't seem to have any effect.

Can someone give me some reasonable suggestions on how to proceed?

Thanks.

[minidv2dvd]

some movies were produced to dvd as 16/9 encoded as 4:3 with permanent black bars top and bottom. check a movie vob with mediainfo to see if it says it's 4:3. if so then you can either keep it that way, or crop the source top and bottom to 16/9. i don't use taw but the old tmpgenc plus had a crop function so i'd guess it does also.

[Baldrick]

I have no solution for taw but you could use vsrip to rip dvd subtitles to sub/idx and add them to the .divx using for example AVIAddXSubs. No ocr but not one single app though.

[nlaak]

some movies were produced to dvd as 16/9 encoded as 4:3 with permanent black bars top and bottom. check a movie vob with mediainfo to see if it says it's 4:3. if so then you can either keep it that way, or crop the source top and bottom to 16/9. i don't use taw but the old tmpgenc plus had a crop function so i'd guess it does also.

I've never seen that, but I'll take your word on it. MediaInfo says LW2 is 4:3 as does GSpot. I did encode it entirely with Handbrake, and when I play it in VLC I get a 16:9 window without and black bars, so I'd wager that it wasn't hard encoded with the bars in it.

I'll have to look in TAW4 again, but I don't remember seeing a crop in it.

I guess I'll have to keep looking, thanks for the help.

[nlaak]

I have no solution for taw but you could use vsrip to rip dvd subtitles to sub/idx and add them to the .divx using for example AVIAddXSubs. No ocr but not one single app though.

I've played with VSRip, but I didn't know I could rip directly to sub/idx without OCR. Thanks for the tip, I'll definitely give that a try.

I don't mind an extra step on the occasional movie, I just don't want to go through what I see some people post (5+ apps and a dozen steps some of them seem like). I'm sure I could probably get better quality that way, but I don't want to spend my whole like encoding my 300+ DVDs, it's taking long enough as it is.

Thanks for the help.

[minidv2dvd]

handbrake has an automatic crop function, that might have taken care of it.

[nlaak]

handbrake has an automatic crop function, that might have taken care of it.

Ok, now that you mention it, I do seem to remember seeing that. You're probably right.