Aspect Ratio Hell

[MKayHavoc]

Hi all.

I have a DivX movie with an Aspect Ratio of 576x256. I have been encoding it as MPEG1 using MainConcept MPEG Encoder and it works fine. The problem is when I come to burning it onto CD. I use VCDEasy and it complains that the Aspect Ratio is wrong at the for a VCD Pal it needs to be 352x288. If I tell it to do it any way then burn it to CD is is all stretched. I've read through these forums and stubbled across what seemd like a good idea. Resizing the avi in VirtualDub and adding boarders then running frame server through MC however every time I put in the value to re-size the video:

eg

New Width: 352
New High: 288

Frame Width: 352
Frame Height: 157

And the filter keeps reseting to 576x256 356x288. Has anyone got any idea of how to fix it or another way for me to get this movie onto a VCD without stretching it and loosing the quality?

Cheers All

[willie1]

1: use AVIsynth and create a frameserver that is the correct aspect ratio.There is a template for this in Gordian Knot if you are uncomfortable with scripts.

2: use TMPGenc to encode the file and select "full screen keep aspect ratio" on the second tab.

There are many other ways but these 2 are the easiest I have used. Gordian Knot is free. Avisynth is free. TMPGenc is available as a trial and is not that expensive to keep. You only have 30 days of MPEG2 encoding in the trial, but I believe mpeg1 continues to work.

[MKayHavoc]

Thanks for the advice I will give it a go.

[DJRumpy]

The AVISynth script will look like the one below. I rounded your vertical off to 156 to avoid changing the field order. Of course you'll have to put in your own filepath's:

AVISource("c:\my folder\mymovie.avi")
BilinearResize(352,156)
AddBorders(0,66,0,66)

This will produce a file that is 352x288 (letterboxed).

[EddyH]

That's wierd... you are pressing OK instead of Cancel right? Odd that it resets like that.

If you reduce to 352x160 (better encode efficiency - clips to a block border without much visible twisting) or 352x176 (closer to what the real PAL size should be, also a block border) with precise bicubic, bordered out to 352x288 with the same filter, and run the frameserver it should work fine

Not sure why the field/frame order should get changed, unless this is a case of changing a telecined NTSC DivX (an example of dodgy encoding) to PAL.. 'native' PAL DivX of a film should be functionally progressive to start with.