Finding original film aspect ratio when all DVDs say 720x480

[Musician]

It seem whatever DVD VOB files I drag into ffmpegX (or anything else I've tried) show as 720 x480. I would like to know the original film aspect ratio so I can shrink accordingly (wide or full screen).

As of now, short of watching the DVD, I have no way of telling if it was formatted for wide or full screen.

I would like to get them into the ipod (which I know how to do), but with the best resolution so they can go out to TV also.

Thanks

[Case]

It seem whatever DVD VOB files I drag into ffmpegX (or anything else I've tried) show as 720 x480.

That's how it's suppost to be. Both 4:3 and 16:9 presentation movie data is stored in a 720x480 grid, then streched to it's corresponding aspect ratio for viewing.

I would like to know the original film aspect ratio so I can shrink accordingly (wide or full screen). As of now, short of watching the DVD, I have no way of telling if it was formatted for wide or full screen.

Watching the vid is a fast way of finding out. The box might have some aspect ratio info as well. Or look it up at IMDb.

I would like to get them into the ipod (which I know how to do), but with the best resolution so they can go out to TV also.

The Autocrop feature might help eliminating the bars on 2.35:1 (and 1.85:1) movies.

[Musician]

Thanks a lot for the reply

went to that site:
Don't see any aspect ratio info (full or wide)

Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith (easiest thing to click on)
PAA: Rated PG-13 for sci-fi violence and some intense images.
Runtime: 140 min
Country: USA
Language: English
Color: Color
Sound Mix: DTS-ES / Dolby Digital EX / SDDS
Certification: Taiwan:GP / USA:PG-13 (certificate #41633) / Iceland:10 (original rating) / Iceland:12 (video rating) / Argentina:Atp....

The whole point is I don't want to watch each film, I just want to get a lot of them to my ipod. I am doing concerts, & instructionals-- not movies mostly.

I understand that Dvd's are geared to stretch, but I would like know without watching the movie, which format (wide or full) is going to cause the least stretch.

Thanks again

[Case]

went to that site:
Don't see any aspect ratio info (full or wide)

It's usually under Technical specs or DVD details.

The whole point is I don't want to watch each film, I just want to get a lot of them to my ipod. I am doing concerts, & instructionals-- not movies mostly.

Currently, the "iPod for tv" preset in ffmpegX assumes 16:9 (480x272), so you have to manually adjust for anything that is not 16:9. You could ask the author to implement an auto-detect aspect ratio for the next version...

[jagabo]

Just resize 4:3 material to the iPod's native resolution of 320x240. For 16:9 resize to 320x180. The remaining black bars won't take up much bitrate.

[AntnyMD]

Or if you're using MPEG-4 (but not H.264), you can actually get a movie to play at 640x360 widescreen 16:9 uncropped.