SVCD>>DVD, How to get the right aspect ratio?

[bacardi/avt]

Just wondering if there is someone that would know an easy way of getting the right aspect ratio when doing a SVCD to DVD conversion?

What I am wondering is how to go from the 480x480 (NTSC) or 480x576(PAL) to DVD 720x480(NTSC) or 720x576(PAL).

Let's say I have a movie in SVCD 4:3 format which I do not know what aspect ratio it had originally(before it was converted to SVCD). I now want to convert it to 16:9 DVD format. How much of the "black bars" will I crop before I resize it? Is there any formula I can use to calculate this?

[DJRumpy]

(From Doom9)
1:2.35 movies: 720x304, 640x272, 576x240, 512x224, 480x208, 400x176

1:1.85 movies: 720x384, 640x352, 576x304, 512x272, 480x256, 400x224

1:1.33 movies: 720x544, 640x480, 576x432, 512x384, 480x368, 400x304

As you can see from above, your movie should fit one of the categories above (without letterboxing), either 480x208, 480x256, or 480x368. They get these by taking the full target width, and dividing by the aspect ratio of the movie. A 16:9 movie is actaully about 888x480.

888/2.35 = 480

When it is encoded for DVD, the movie is squished inward from the sides to 720x480
( -->[ ] <-- )
The DVD player stretches the width on playback, to preserve the proper aspect ratio.

A quick search on google should yeild the aspect ratio of your source movie. Just use the keywords 'aspect ratio', and your movie title.