converting widescreen dvd

[Syndrome]

I was wondering, if convert a 16:9 widescreen to a 4:3 using tmpg, will it distort it at all by stretching it? is there a way to do it without distorting it? or is it best left encoding as 16:9 the same as the source?

Syndrome

[Nitemare]

Hello,

I'm a little unclear on what you're asking here so I'll just blunder on with some random information...

IF you're trying to keep the movie as widescreen without screwing up the aspect ratio then use the 16:9 Display setting as the source and "full screen (keep aspect ratio)" as the video arrange method. This is still "converting" the anamorphic widescreen to 4:3 widescreen by adding black borders to the final encode.

IF you want to convert the movie from widescreen to full screen, then set the 16:9 Display setting as the source and "No margin (keep aspect ratio)" as the video arrange method. This will place the center of the 16:9 movie (chopping off the left and the right sides of the movie) as a full screen 4:3 encode with no borders.

The aspect ratio should still be correct although this will not be a true pan and scan version. I've seen a 3rd party pan and scan filter for virtualdub but haven't played with it. If you want TRUE pan and scan, using the filter and frameserving to TMPEG as a 4:3 source seems like the way to go..although you can get very good results by just using the TMPEG "no margin" setting and grabbing the center of the film.

FWIW, I "believe" that pan and scan versions on video tweak the aspect ratio a bit to get more of the film onto the video. I can SEE that my TMPEG "no margin" conversion is exactly like my 16:9 only closer... but it almost NEVER looks like the videos I've seen of the same films. Has anyone else noticed (or can confirm) this?

Regards,
nitemare