Authoring a dvd as 4:3 letterbox from 16:9 MKV

[dave_van_damme]

Hi,

I wish to author a dvd as 4:3 letterbox from a 16:9 MKV video source. I'm using DVDflick - how can I do this with this program?

Edit - just to confirm, I wish to take an anamorphic video and make it into letterboxed fullscreen. Is this possible with Dvd Flick and if not, are there any free programs or guides which can help me?

Many thanks!

[Baldrick]

Can't you choose to output as 4:3? or does it not make it letterboxed?

Or else use AVStoDVD.
Add(+) the mkv. Right click on the video track and choose Edit title. Deselect Auto Video Setup. Select Video Aspect Ratio: Standard 4:3.


You can then right click on the track and choose Preview Title output too check so it's 4:3 letterboxed(black bars).


Start encoding. Burn the VIDEO_TS folder with Imgburn.


But why?

[Keyser]

In DVD Flick, double-click on the title you want to configure and in General section, Target aspect ratio, choose Normal (4:3).

[Skiller]

Technically there is no reason to do this as every DVD-player is required to be able to letterbox anamorphic 16:9 when needed during playback.

The only two benefits I can think of is doing the letterboxing in software could yield a better result (vertically) compared to the player's letterboxing; and you could get away with a lower bitrate.

[netmask56]

Maybe he is watching on a 4:3 monitor? If the file is 16:9 I don't understand why he doesn't do it as a 16:9 project?

[Cornucopia]

My thoughts exactly.

[dave_van_damme]

Thanks for the help everyone.

I'm doing it because I'm converting a film to VHS for my friend. If I run the dvd at 16:9 into the VCR it'll record it anamorphically, but he wants it letterboxed.

Oh crap...hang on. I could just change the output settings on the DVD player, right? So rather than have the player output 16:9 I could change it to 4:3...right?

[Cornucopia]

Yes.

But why go to the trouble and time and quality loss by converting to dvd. Just set your monitor's resolution to a 4:3 ratio, such as vga, and play your mkv out via composite/svideo in fullscreen mode (which would add letterboxing). Or do you not have any analog outputs?

Scott

[dave_van_damme]

Yes.

But why go to the trouble and time and quality loss by converting to dvd. Just set your monitor's resolution to a 4:3 ratio, such as vga, and play your mkv out via composite/svideo in fullscreen mode (which would add letterboxing). Or do you not have any analog outputs?

Scott

Sadly no analogue outputs on my laptop. Well, that's not true, I have VGA but no way of connecting it to the VCR.