Convert 4:3 Vob to 16:9 vob

[Escape]

I have several 4:3 movies that I ripped to vob files. I want to convert them to 16:9 vob. Is their a way to do this? I tried DVD Patcher and it seemed to stretch the image...circles looked oval. I play these movies on a network media player that is conneceted to my 50" plasma TV. The media player has a zoom feature that brings the image foward in increments without stretching the image. The image looks great but I don't want to use the player to zoom the picture all the time. You loose some of the edges of the picture but it is not stretched. The TV has a zoom feature that stretches the picture and it does not look good.

Is there something I can use to convert the vob for the same effect.

I think the same thing is done when watching HD movies on Cable that fill the entire screen...you loose some of the edges of the picture but it is not stretched or atleast it does not appear to be.

[manono]

You loose some of the edges of the picture but it is not stretched.

If you convert to 16:9 you'll lose some of the edges also. It's the TV overscan responsible.

You can convert to 16:9 but it'll require a full reencode and will look about the same as when you use your zoom on the remote control to do it. With the full DVD on the hard drive (IFOs, BUPs, as well as the VOBs), you can use a setting for that available in DVD Rebuilder. With only VOBs it's an entirely manual process. For NTSC crop 60 from both top and bottom and resize to 720x480, reencode and author. For PAL crop 72 from top and bottom, resize to 720x576, etc.. It's easy enough to do and just takes time but, as I said, the results won't be any better than using the zoom. There's just not enough resolution in a widescreen 4:3 movie to make it worth blowing up to 16:9. If none of that made any sense to you, it's probably beyond your capability.

Oh, and if your movies aren't really widescreen to begin with, and in cropping you cut off active video from the top and bottom, then what you're proposing is not only pointless but stupid as well. With a widescreen 4:3 movie being viewed on a widescreen TV set without the zoom on, you see black on all 4 sides. With so-called 'fullscreen' movies you see black only on the sides. The 'fullscreen' movies should remain fullscreen.

[Escape]

Thanks manono

If its going to be the same as the TV zoom then its not worth the trouble of converting

I tried DVD Patcher and it was very easy and quick to use but it has the same effect as the TV zoom....everything looks stretched

The media player's zoom feature brings the pitcure foward without stretching and you can do it in increments. Too bad their is no software that can do this

[manono]

If the result looks stretched than it's not a zoom you're using. A zoom keeps the aspect ratio. I think you must be using a stretch mode which makes everyone look fat. That's also what DVD Patcher will do if you use it to change the DAR from 4:3 to 16:9 for a real 4:3 DVD. You don't want that. No, the methods I described crop from the top and bottom to keep the original aspect ratio. The problem there is that you also lose what was in the top and bottom if the source is a 1.33:1 video/movie/TV show.

[Escape]

Can you explain the process with DVD rebuilder.

Can I just use the vob that I ripped to the Hard Drive or do I need to re-rip the entire dvd or can I just rip the main movie

Normally what I do is rip main movie with DVD Decryptor in IFO Mode using the streaming tab (selecting main movie and the audio AC3 5/6 channel) to one VOB. I then send VOB to my NAS on the network and played it with my media player connected to my TV.

In the past I would then convert the VOB to AVI to save a little space but I had problems fast fowarding and rewinding the AVI files with my media player. Player would freeze and would need to be rebooted. I found that the VOBs did not have that problem and the quality was better.

[guns1inger]

You can just do a main movie rip in file mode, or use DVDFab Decrypter. You need the full video_TS structure - ifo, bup and vob files. You then load this into DVD Rebuilder, and use the options menu : Options > AVS Options > Advanced AVS Options and chose the 4:3 Letterbox -> 16:9 option.

Note : if your source is true 4:3, and not widescreen that has been letterboxed and encoded as 4:3 then you will be cropping image from the top and bottom before resizing and re-encoding. This means that you could be cropping off heads or other important parts of the frame. Just be ware of this before you begin.