ADVANCED Aspect Ratio Conversion

[rogerramjett]

Hi,

I have an .avi file that was obviously recorded from a widescreen source but was somehow encoded into 4:3 format (so it looks like it has been horizontally squashed).

I want to recode it into true 16:9 format but every program I use simply adds black vertical bars on the sides instead of stretching out the actual video.

How can I get this video back into true 16:9 format?

Thanks a million for your time, help and crazy mad skillz!

Jeff.

[jagabo]

What codec? If it's an MPEG 4 variant you can use MPEG4Modifier to change the aspect ratio without reencoding. Most media players and recent MPEG4 decoders will respect that.

If you're making a DVD, just tell your MPEG encoder that the source is 16:9 and encode as 16:9 anamorphic.

[rogerramjett]

Thanks for the help:

How do I figure out which codec it's encoded with?

I tried MPEG4Modifier and got an error message that said "File isn't an .AVI" when I tried to browse to the file.

None of the conversion software I have lets me select the aspect ratio of the source. The only let me select the aspect ratio that I want. What software let's me select the aspect ratio of the source?

None of the software I use gives 16:9 anamorphic as an option either...

[guns1inger]

Start by opening the file with g-spot to find out what you actually have. The try FitCD and avisynth. You can tell FitCD that the source is anamorphic, and it will create a resizing script that will take this into account. You can then load this script into your encoder, or even ConvertxtoDVD, to encode it correctly.

[MysticE]

MainConcept MPEG Enc will easily do it. It has quite a few ways to play with/adjust the AR.

http://www.mainconcept.com/site/?id=825