4:3 Mpeg2 Source to 16:9 SVCD/VCD

[zeming]

I captured a video which is wide screen. Since my capture card do not support 16:9 aspect ratio, the resulting MPEG2 file is 4:3. I tried to use the frame cripping in TmpgEnc to remove the top and bottom black strips, and set the video aspect ratio to 16:9. But the resulting SVCD is still showing full screen as images streched vertically. My questions are as the following:

Is it possible to make aspect ratio 16:9 on SVCD?

If it is, how could I do that?

Your help is greatly appreciated.

Ming

[EnNiS]

mess around with the aspect ration and the source aspect ratio in tmpgenc
that wat i do
u'll find a combination that works.

[SaSi]

I am almost certain that you can't have 16:9 in SVCD. The original capture with letterbox bars is what you should encode.

I have found that removing these bars (with Tmpgenc cropping filter) and resizing the video frame for 16:9 letterboxed size improves is better because the letterbox bars are totaly black and therefore encoded as pure black (instead of flickering almost black that takes more bitrate).

[zeming]

Sasi,

Thanks for the suggestion. I am not clear about where to set the 16:9 aspect ratio, at video source, or at video target?

Ming

[DJRumpy]

Yes, you can have a 16:9 aspect ratio in an SVCD, but you must set it as 4:3 to remain in spec. It will basically be squeezed to fit into a 4:3 aspect ratio. On playback, it will be stretch to the proper 16:9 size.

When you capture your video, you simply clip off the letterboxing. Your capture is probably 1.85:1. If you captured it at 720x480, you can probably crop it at 720x360, but you may need to fudge with the 360 number to make sure your not cutting out too much of your actual video image area.

Use AVISynth. It's the easist to use, once your familiar with it.

avisource("c:\capturefolder\capturefile.avi")
Crop(0,60,720,360) # left, top, newwidth, newheight
BicubicResize(480,480)

The above script wil will create a SCVD compliant 1.85:1 aspect ratio (NTSC). When encoding, encode it as 4:3

If your captured file is actually 2.35, then it shuold look like this:

avisource("c:\capturefolder\capturefile.avi")
Crop(0,104,720,272)
BicubicResize(480,360)
AddBorders(0,60,0,60)

This will give you a compliant 2.35:1 aspect ratio SVCD. Encode it as 4:3

You can do the same in VirtualDub, using the NullTransform filter, and then selecting the CROPPING button. It will be grayed out until you pick the NULL TRANSFORM filter. Use the Y1, and Y2 values to crop off the top and bottom of your capture.