Change DVD aspect ratio

[drgt]

Hi

I have an NTSC DVD which I am playing on my standalone player. The picture appears with black strips on top and bottom no matter what menu choices I make.

Here are the details:

• TV PAL, aspect ratio 16:9.
• There is no size selector on DVD menu.
• The PLAYER setup menu is:
  • A: 16:9
  • B: 4:3
    • a. Letterbox
    • b. Pan & Scan

No matter what I choose in PLAYER setup I cannot get rid of the the black strips.

What are the steps to recode this DVD on my PC in order to get a full screen picture?

By the way, does anyone know why the duration reported by GSpot is wrong? I noticed it on other video files as well. (v 2.70a)

[jagabo]

Maybe the DVD isn't supposed to fill the screen. Many movies are wider than 16:9 and should have black bars top and bottom on a 16:9 display.

GSpot reports the VOB file as 4:3. So it should have pillarbox bars left and right.

[neomaine]

Those 'black bars' are part of the picture and are supposed to be there. That's why gspot is report 4:3. The best you can do is zoom and lose part of the picture.

I'm still amazed how many people are willing to distort video so they can 'fill the screen'. Sorry, doesn't work that way. Well, it can, but there's always price to pay.

[PuzZLeR]

Where did you get "PAL"? It looks very NTSC to me (480 width and 29.97 fps). And without looking at your clip, I'd suggest it's a 16:9 video letterboxed in a 4:3 clip. Regardless, technically it's still a 4:3 video as Jagabo says.

What are the steps to recode this DVD on my PC in order to get a full screen picture?

Yes, there is a price to pay as Neomaine mentioned and one method is a full re-encode.

If you want a full, true, wide-screen picture, without distorting the picture, you'd probably need to crop 60 pixels off the top and bottom, resize back to 720x480, and re-encode with a 16:9 aspect ratio.

There are apps that can do this, but I prefer AviSynth and CCE.

But AFAIK I don't think you can do it with a DvD all-in-one app. You'd need to rip out the streams first to do this and re-author to a new DvD afterwards.

[drgt]

Where did you get "PAL"?

The TV is PAL.

Certainly I do not want the end result destorted. That said, the answer is it cannot be done?

No comment on the wrong GSpot reported duration?

My opinion regarding those bars: What good is even a big 60" TV if half of it is filled by those bars?

[netmask56]

Check the name of the movie on IMDb and see what the original aspect ratio is. If it is a widescreen blockbuster type movie then most likely it will be 2.35:1. 2.35:1 or Cinemascope or Todd-AO etc just dont "fit" into a 16:9 without either cropping the sides off or having black bars, the equivalent of movable curtains or black screens in a Cinema viewing. When buying DVD's make sure it is an anamorphic release rather than simply cropped to fit a 4:3 canvas.

Have a look and read the comments at

http://www.widescreenmuseum.com/index.htm#main%20index

[jagabo]

You can get a super widescreen TV: http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2009/01/philips-extra-w/

[drgt]

... If it is a widescreen blockbuster type movie...

That is the puzzle! Not a movie. It's a DVD recorded from orchestra performance. As such, the format should have been made to fill the TV screen. Not a theater adopted format.

[jagabo]

That is a 16:9 video in a 4:3 DVD. Hence the black bars are part of the picture. Your player or TV may have a zoom feature that will let you zoom in to fill the screen.

[bendixG15]

You can get a super widescreen TV: http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2009/01/philips-extra-w/

Nice .... 56-inch LCD TV

[jagabo]

Just don't watch 4:3 material on it!

[bendixG15]

Just don't watch 4:3 material on it!

You could probably watch two 4:3 movies side by side