AVI to DVD..... vary aspect ratio

[GJF]

I have some AVI files and I have been converting them to DVD using convertx2dvd which has worked well. They were originally PAL 4.3 and that is what I have been setting convertx2dvd.

However some of the episodes when converted end up slightly too wide with a small thin black section at the top and bottom of my TV 4.3 screen. Its not as much as when showing a wide screen movie but enough to make the characters slightly too wide and short.

Is there some software to SLIGHTLY vary the aspect ratio. I have tried using 16.9 in Nero 7 to convert to DVD and then there is a black section at either side and the characters seem slightly too narrow.

[guns1inger]

It sounds like problems with the source video. You might be able to make small adjustments with avisynth and feed that to ConvertXtoDVD. That would save you re-encoding the video several times for no reason.

The other thing that *might* help is mpeg4modifier, which will let you make certain adjustments to aspect ratios without re-encoding. I might help, it might not.

[GJF]

I have D/L avisynth and have been looking at some guides but I cant work out how to use it for my purposes. Can you point me to an appropriate guide or tell me how to use it.

[Jim44]

In basic terms, AviSynth is a frameserver. You'll write a script, basically a text file with extension .AVS, that loads the video and applies whatever filters/functions/etc you want. you then load the .AVS file into your encoder (you can also load the script file into VDub or MPC to "preview" the output).

The documentation that comes with AviSynth is pretty good. I've use it regularly but in a very basic way most of the time. But it still has a bit of a learning curve and may take some trial-and-error on your part to get the results you want (I'm a hardware engineer, and have done some software work as well, and I *still* need to trial-and-error nearly all of my complex (for me) scripts ).

It's a very powerful tool, but does take some time to learn.

My 2 cents,
Jim

[GJF]

Many thanks for your replies. I guess I was looking for a simple solution so it seems like I will just have to put up with the episodes that are slightly distorted

[guns1inger]

If you are happy to use a different encoder, or have plenty of disc space to losslessly compressed files then you may find virtualdub's resize filter easier to use. But it means you have to make at least part of the process manual.