Aspect Ratio, Borders, AVIs to DVD

[quantass]

I'm still not clear on DVD's standard resolutions, my .AVI conversion, and the final output on my composite TV set.

I have several .AVI movie files ranging in video resolution from 576x432 to 640x480 to 720x400. I've used TMPGEnc Xpress to convert these files to a DVD compatible object by selecting DVD-NTSC, Aspect Ratio 4:3, Output Image Resolution as 352x480 (or sometimes as 720x480 - whatever TMPGEnc Xpress auto selects for my multiple sources).

How does TMPGEnc go about converting my .AVI file to a DVD compliant video all the while retaining my aspect ratio? For instance the AVI video at 576x432 to DVD's 352x480, does TMPGEnc scale down the 576 portion to 352 and proportionately scale down the 432 to 265 but then pads the 265 with 215 lines of black to create a letter box? Does the final DVD video appear as full screen from left to right or are there borders?

What happens if i select 720x480? Does it scale up the 576 to 720 and proportionately scale up 432 to 540 but since it exceeds 480 about 60 lines vertically are cropped from the display? Or does it scale up the 432 to 480 and so 576 becomes 640 but padded with 80 lines of black bars?

What image resolution should i be setting TMPGEnc for proper display on my TV set? When should i consider 4:3 and 16:9? Why does my output MPEG file display larger than its supposed to (ie. an outputted 720x480 file is played in VLC Player as a 850x480 yet the MPEG header states it as a 720x480).

I want my .AVIs to fill the screen but always keep their aspect ratio.

Thanks.

[underwurlde]

Hi!

LOL - Not too many questions then!

Aspect ratios and video frame sizes etc are facinating. Let me point you at some internet stuff that helped me out.

http://www.mpeg.org/mpeg/dvd/boob_b/letterbox.html
http://www.arachnotron.nl/videocap/site/capture_area2.html
http://www.uwasa.fi/~f76998/video/conversion/
http://www.snellwilcox.com/knowledgecenter/whitepapers/papers/digital_arc.pdf
Also check out this page that has an excellent reference table half way down...
http://www.nanomessiah.com/dvd-backup/dvd-to-divx.html

Hope this helps,

Andy.

[underwurlde]

oops typo!

http://www.mpeg.org/MPEG/DVD/Book_B/Letterbox.html