Converting my wrong 16:9 vids to real 4:3

[stevencarl]

I've been spending the last couple months using my standalone dvd recorder to put all my old home movies onto dvd. I've been doing this on my widescreen tv and wrongly assumed that they would be recorded in their correct aspect ratio of 4:3 anyways. Just tried editing them and realized they have all been squished down to faux letterbox in a 4:3 frame. There was a setting that I didn't change on the recorder unfortunately . Is there any method to take my dvd files and convert them to their proper 4:3? I've tried nero and dvdshrink but setting them to 4:3 isn't doing what I want. Any help would be appreciated!

[XicoPT69]

DVD Rebuilder can do what you want. You need to set the following option: Options -> AVS Options -> Advanced (Expert) Options -> Convert from LB 4:3 to 16:9 -> Apply to All.

In any case, no matter what solution you use, you will need to re-encode.

[stevencarl]

Thanks for the reply I'm not looking to convert it to 16:9, though...it's already in that format. I want to encode it to true full frame 4:3..

[XicoPT69]

Yes. DVD Rebuilder will put the video in a full frame with a 16:9 aspect ratio. Then all you have to do is change the aspect ratio flag to 4:3 using, for example, IFOEdit.

Aspect Ratio is only a flag. The important thing is to expand the video to a full frame, and DVDRebuilder does that.

[usually_quiet]

Sometimes the aspect ratio can be corrected to either 16:9 or 4:3 by changing some flags, without any re-encoding. DVDPatcher can change the flag in the video headers and Restream can change the aspect ratio flags for the elementary video stream. IFOEdit can change the aspect ratio flags in the IFOs. I have to change everything for my DVD player to display video correctly, but some people only have to change the IFO flag.

If none of this works, then you need to use Avisynth to crop and re-size plus you need to re-encode.

[stevencarl]

IFOedit worked perfectly! It really was just changing the flag. Brilliant! Thanks!!