DVD widescreen resolution

[Shaorin]

Hi my video file is in 16:9 aspect ratio and I'm using TMPGEnc to convert it to mpeg2 but there isn't template for PAL widescreen low resolution so I was wondering what is the resolution size for a low resolution widescreen video?

[guns1inger]

You can't. Widescreen 16:9 is only compliant for 720 and 704 x 576. If you want a lower resolution you have to letterbox it.

[Shaorin]

what if I convert it to 4:3? would it look weird

[guns1inger]

If it is widescreen you can convert it to letterboxed 4:3, so the black bars are encoded in the video and the aspect ratio is maintained. Tmpgenc has settings for all of this, although probably not a template. If you just encode 4:3 without the bars, everything will look stretched tall and thin. Your only other choice it to crop the ends to fill the screen.

I'd either go for full resolution 16:9, or letterboxed 4:3

[Shaorin]

how many pixels are needed for the bars?

[guns1inger]

However many are needed to keep the correct aspect ratio inside your frame. What resolution is your source ? What resolution are you aiming to encode it at ?

[Shaorin]

The source resolution is 704x396. I'm aiming at 352x288 4:3 aspect ratio

[guns1inger]

Your actual image will be 352 x 224, if you don't add any borders. So long as you don't have hard subs that should not be an issue.

Can I ask why you are going to VCD resolution when you have a video that is DVD 16:9 to begin with ?

[Shaorin]

I'm not using VCD resolution. I'm using DVDPAL low resolution which was included in the templates. The source file i have is rmvb so there are artifacts in it so If i were to decrease the size resolution those artifacts disappear

[guns1inger]

DVDVPAL low resolution is in fact VCD resolution. The difference is that when authoring for DVD the audio is 48kHz instead of 44.1, and the bitrate can be higher than the standard VCD bitrate. The resolution is exactly the same. When you play this back on a TV the image is going to be blown up again to full resolution. Having taken a compressed video and compressed is again, probably at a lower bitrate, chances are it will look even worse, but certainly no better than the original.

There are other alternatives, however starting with rmvb makes it trickier. There are deblocking filters for virtualdub and avisynth that might be a better option than reducing to such a low resolution.

[FulciLives]

When using TMPGEnc Plus for MPEG-2 DVD spec encoding all you have to do (with respect to aspect ratio) is use the setting called, "FULL SCREEN (KEEP ASPECT RATIO)", for the VIDEO ARRANGE METHOD.

If you use the PAL (LOW RESOLUTION) setting and the original video source is widescreen you will get a widescreen DVD using that setting I mentioned above ... however the video will not be 16x9 widescreen anamorphic (sometimes called enhanced for 16x9 widescreen televisions).

As mentioned you can only make a 16x9 widescreen anamorphic DVD when using what is called Full D1 resolution which is 720x576 for PAL (and yes 704x576 is also OK but TMPGEnc Plus will always output 720 width instead of 704 width).

- John "FulciLives" Coleman