4:3 leterbox VHS to 16:9 DVD : which tools required ?

[Ian Huxley]

I have several VHS tapes where the film is a 4:3 letterboxed 'widescreen'
version; initial results when transferring to DVD via a standalone recorder not ideal.
The resulting DVD output on a widescreen tv either :
a) looks horizontally stretched [when tv in in widescreen mode] or
b) has big black borders on the left, right, top and bottom when the
tv is in 4:3 mode [ but picture looks ok, not horizontally stretched ]

The desired result would be the picture in [b] zoomed to fill most
of the widescreen tv screen; the question is how do I achieve this
- via something like VirtualDub ? ( no, the tv does NOT have a zoom function ! )

Thanks
Ian

[Matt D]

You've got to rid yourself of the letterbox bars to make it look right. Clip them off and then convert to 16:9, then you will have the right aspect to display correctly on a widescreen TV. I usually use TMPGEnc, but you can use whatever you like.

[midnightsun]

avisynth!

crop top and bottom and resize.

If you're in NTSCland:
crop 60pxl top and 60pxl bottom: (720,480)->(720,360)

resize to 720x480
and set the encoder to 16:9

If you're in PALland crop 72pixels top and bottom, resize to (720,576) and set the encoder to 16:9

You now have a true 16:9 movie with no black bars that will play fine on your 16:9 tv screen.

[junkmalle]

Yes, you can use those methods to create an anamorphic 16:9 DVD but watch out for interlace issues (inverse telecine the source if you can). And you will end up with a big fuzzy 16:9 picture.

[Ian Huxley]

Let's see if I've got this straight - I need to crop & re-size [is that 2
separate steps, or both operations at once ?] , either by using TMPGEnc,
or by using Avisynth + something else ( not sure what. VirtualDub
only seems to create .avi files) However the end result will probably have some serious anti-aliasing issues.. !

Thanks
Ian

[junkmalle]

Let's see if I've got this straight - I need to crop & re-size [is that 2
separate steps, or both operations at once ?] , either by using TMPGEnc,
or by using Avisynth + something else ( not sure what. VirtualDub
only seems to create .avi files) However the end result will probably have some serious anti-aliasing issues.. !

Thanks
Ian

Yeah, that's about right. Doesn't your DVD player have a zoom feature? Or your TV? That would accomplish the same thing and save you a lot of trouble.

[edDV]

It will look awful on a decent TV. If your goal is a small window then disregard this reply.

[FulciLives]

Here are a couple of simple AviSynth scripts for converting a 4:3 WS source to a 16x9 WS format.

This is for NTSC assuming you captured at 720x480 29.970fps

AviSource("D:\CAPTURE\capture.avi")
Crop(0,60,720,360)
SeparateFields()
LanczosResize(720,240)
Weave()

This is for PAL assuming you captured 720x576 25fps

AviSource("D:\CAPTURE\capture.avi")
Crop(0,72,720,432)
SeparateFields()
LanczosResize(720,288)
Weave()

Hope that is clear enough

- John "FulciLives" Coleman

P.S.
This method only works if the aspect ratio of the original is at least 1.78:1 or greater (such as 1.85:1 or 2.35:1 etc.)

[junkmalle]

In theory you can do it all in Tmpgenc. Assuming NTSC, you use Setting -> Advanced -> Clip Frame to remove some or all of the black border -- leaving a frame size of 720x360. Then on the same dialog set the Video Arrange Method to Full Screen (that will stretch the 720x360 frame to 720x480).

Since you are capturing from VHS tape you will have interlaced video. If the original source was film you may be able to inverse telecine back to 23.976 fps progressive frames. The automatic inverse telecine that Tmpgenc does isn't very good. If your captures are perfect (no dropped frames) and the original telecine was perfect (no changes in telecine pattern) you can use the manual settings.

[midnightsun]

Junkmalle is correct, you can do it all within tmpgenc. I suggested avisynth because filtering with tmpgenc can be slow as hell, while if you do it with avisynth+frameserve it will be a lot faster.

The sample scripts Fulci posted above are what I was referring to. It may be useful to add that if you plan to use tmpegenc it's wise to add

convertToRGB24()

after the last line, whereas if you use CCE:

ConvertToYUY2()

This way the encoder won't waste precious time doing those conversions.

[FulciLives]

Junkmalle is correct, you can do it all within tmpgenc. I suggested avisynth because filtering with tmpgenc can be slow as hell, while if you do it with avisynth+frameserve it will be a lot faster.

The sample scripts Fulci posted above are what I was referring to. It may be useful to add that if you plan to use tmpegenc it's wise to add

convertToRGB24()

after the last line, whereas if you use CCE:

ConvertToYUY2()

This way the encoder won't waste precious time doing those conversions.

Actually you want to use (interlaced=true) if your source is interlaced ... such as this:

ConvertToRGB(interlaced=true)
or
ConvertToYUY2(interlaced=true)

I think the default is false aka progressive.

- John "FulciLives" Coleman

[midnightsun]

right, it looks like I forgot that his source was interlaced!!

I have to add though that converttorgb does the trick only if the source is already rgb24 (which I'm assuming is what tmpgenc accepts as input, as opposed to rgb32). The avisynth documentation says that if you need rgb24 output (and the source isn't rgb24 already) you have to specify converttorgb24 instead of converttorgb. I have had tmpgenc crash on me before because of that!

[Ian Huxley]

Thanks for the info, I'll give it a go. Something along the lines
of :

AviSource("f:\CAPTURE\VIDEO_TS\vts_01_01.vob")
Crop(0,72,720,432)
SeparateFields()
LanczosResize(720,288)
Weave()
ConvertToRGB(interlaced=true)



If for arguements sake I wasn't using TMPGENC, are the any (cheap or free)
tools out there which will open the above .avs script and allow me
to save the result as a .vob file directly ( ie have the whole process
go .vob >> .vob instead of .vob >> .avi >> .vob ? Or is it time
to finally get round to downloading TMPGENC..... ?

[FulciLives]

Or is it time to finally get round to downloading TMPGENC..... ?

If AviSynth scripting doesn't scare you (and I guess it doesn't ... your script looks good to me) then you might as well go with CCE BASIC as it is a much better choice in terms of quality and speed than TMPGEnc Plus.

The price is about the same too so it's a no brainer if you ask me ... except CCE without AviSynth is somewhat useless so most shy away from that "deadly duo" but it ain't hard and overall is a better method.

- John "FulciLives" Coleman