Movie looks over streched while converting PAL 4:3 to 16:9

[maass]

Hi all,

i have been converting all my old DVDs(most of them are PAL 4:3) into x264 using Xvid4PSP and i was converting them into 16:9.
the movies are excellent but they are looking little overstreched.

is there any way to atleast make them look little streched and maintain 16:9

thanks

[jagabo]

4:3 movies cannot be made proper 16:9 without cutting off part of the frame or padding the left and right edges with borders.

[PuzZLeR]

The only way you can encode 4:3 -> 16:9 with the correct aspect ratio (no distortion or "stretching") is, as Jagabo says, you need to crop pieces off it (top and bottom).

And the only time you should want to do this when re-encoding is when there are indeed black bars at the top and bottom of your picture, which is really a 16:9 video capped within a 4:3 screen, otherwise you'd need to cut into the actual movie frames if it's a true 4:3 (which you don't want to do).

I don't use Xvid4PSP, so I can't help you there. But to give you an idea how I would do it with AviSynth and x264:

For PAL (which I assume is in India):
Crop(0,72,0,-72) #crop 72 pixels off the top and bottom
LanczosResize(720,576) #resize again to source rez if you want to maintain it

then encode with x264 with the commandline for the correct aspect ratio:
--sar 64:45 (but you can also use --sar 16:11)

Similarly for NTSC (just in case):
Crop(0,60,0,-60)
LanczosResize(720,480)

and either one of the below x264 command lines:
--sar 8:9
--sar 10:11

Again, only if there are those black bars top and bottom. If not, then I would keep it at its true 4:3, otherwise you'd need bars left and right to go to from 4:3 -> 16:9 with correct aspect ratio, and I'm not going to get into that.

[guns1inger]

AVStoDVD can do this if you are converting to 16:9 DVD. It will just do a blind crop of the top and bottom and re-encode and re-author.

DVD Rebuilder can also do this, but is probably easier and will preserve menus etc.

[maass]

Thanks for your replies...i will work on this and let you know