Cap Analog TV/VHS to DVD so it looks like widescreen on TV

[rickoz]

Thanks to your guides and these forums, I've become pretty good at capturing vhs and analog tv to avi using virtualdub and MMC8.5 from AIW 8500dv. I'm now ready to convert to DVD with Tempgen. What settings/capture resolutions do I use either in Virtualdub or Tempgen to make my captures "LOOK" like widescreen (16:9 ) on a 4:3 TV. In other words if I captured "The West Wing" at 720x480 using huffy compression. How would I get it to look like a commercal dvd widescreen played back with my DVD player and 4:3 TV ie(with black bars on top and bottom) while maintaining proper ratios (no stretching, shrinking or cropping). I will burn to DVD+R and would like best quality possible

I've seen discussions that capturing VHS/analog tv @ 720x480 is overkill others say D1 half 352x480 is ok. Should I capture at other resolutions to acheive this or just capture at highest resolution possible then filter and encode to DVD in Tempgen. I noticed setting in Tempgen for 16:9. Does this have anything to do with what I what to accomplish??? Thanks all, I have learned so much from this forum.

[aklendathu]

If your captured video already has the black bars you're all set. Just use one of the TMPEGenc templates (with or without tweaking) and you'll get the MPEG-2.

16:9 DVD movies usually have the whole 720x480 frame filled up by the (stretched) picture which is then 'squeezed' during play to give proper aspect ratio on the TV screen. This can be done by the player or by the TV itself. Sometimes you will find DVD movies which 'seem' 16:9 but are in fact 4:3 with black bars already in the 720x480 picture.

Most DVD authoring programs affordable by the home user only create 4:3 DVD movies. If you have a true 16:9 movie however, it is possible to modify the VIDEO_TS_xx.IFO files to change 4:3 AR to 16:9 (IFOEDIT)

Hope this helps.

[rickoz]

Thanks for your reply. This helps some. If I'm reading you right, are you saying making my analog captures "look" widescreen on a 4:3 TV is impossible without expensive dvd authoring sw. My captured avi is 720x480 with NO inherent black bars. It is broadcast I assume for 4:3 TV. I am capturing various television broadcasts and vhs tapes using AIW 8500DV using MMC8.5 tv or Virtualdub. I now want to encode to DVD with Tempgen. I see options in Tempgen for 16:9 aspect ratio. Does this have anything do with with what I want to accomplish. Perhaps I should capture in 16:9 resolution???
ie 528x288
576x320
672x368
688x384

I will author using Ulead, or Nero express.

Thanks again. With each new post I learn more.

[thayne]

Why would you want to do this? There are two ways to do it, but both would result in a really bad picture.

1) edit the ifo to 16:9 which would squish the picture down making people look fat

2) Add black bars to the top and bottom, which would cut off a good portion of the viewable screen

[rickoz]

I suppose I perfer the 16:9 format for the same reasons 16:9 is used for many feature films and DVD. Also I really like watching "ER" when it is broadcast in widescreen even though I have 4:3 television ie. shows black bars without limiting picture or squashing. Other shows are not broadcast this way, I guess in 4:3 filling the entire screen. I'm just wanting to make these 4:3 captures look as if they are widescreen, but I guess you are saying this is impossible without lossing some viewing area or squashing? What resolution do you recommend for best quality of broadcast TV or VHS captures.

Thanks again for your reply,

[thayne]

I have my PVR set to record at different resolutions depending on what I want to do with it.

For example I have one show I like and I like to burn it to SVCD cd's so I capture it at 480X480

For once watch programs that I dont save I capture at CVD resolution and burn to a DVDRW (352X480)

and cartoons I usually keep in DivX so I capture them at full D1 720X480 and a high bitrate so that I get the best quality, then convert to DivX with Dr DivX.

I have a Hauppage PVR-250

[rickoz]

Should I give up on the idea of making my captures look like widescreen without losing viewable image or squishing picture? Is this everyones opinion? I'm sorry I just hate to give up.

[aklendathu]

Should I give up on the idea of making my captures look like widescreen without losing viewable image or squishing picture? Is this everyones opinion? I'm sorry I just hate to give up.

Reading your further posts I think I now have a better idea of what you want - you have 4:3 TV captured video and you want to convert the picture to 16:9 aspect ratio. You can do this e.g., by cropping the picture vertically and replacing the cropped picture with black bars. This is the reverse of the 'Pan&Scan' versions of widescreen movies.

However, you will be missing maybe significant parts of the video because the framing of the scene by the camera is different whether it is broadcast in 4:3 or 16:9 (chopping heads off is a possibility). Also, a more subtle problem is that the pixels on the TV are not square. Check out
http://www.uwasa.fi/~f76998/video/conversion/#the_connection for info on this.

Hope this helps...