Aspect Ratio with TMPGEnc

[SEALs1230]

Hi,
When encoding an avi to mpeg using TMPGEnc, following this guide:
https://www.videohelp.com/forum/userguides/186739.php In section three when you are changing the settings in advanced, it says to select "Full Screen (keep aspect ratio)" in the "Video arrange Method" option. The avi files I'm using have huge black borders, bigger then a normal widescreen video. If I use an all in one converter it fixes this to make the borders smaller (more like the widescreen I'm used to) Which option should I select to make the borders shrink a bit so its more like the normal widescreen? I hope that makes sense.

[reboot]

Best to crop the video to it's real frame size (minus the borders) in virtualdub, and frameserve to tmpgenc.
This way, you're not wasting bitrate encoding a bunch of extra black stuff, and you can get the correct aspect, so things aren't squished or stretched.

[SEALs1230]

When should I do this...before or after extracting the ac3 audio??

[reboot]

If you're NOT cutting the video at all, then you can extract audio before or after, doesn't matter.
If you ARE cutting bits out, then after you've finished the cuts.

[SEALs1230]

I've been looking for guides on how to use Virtualdub to crop the avi to the right aspect ratio and found no luck. All I got are guides that tell you how to split an avi file into smaller files. If you know of a guide to do this that would be great. Also, is this the basically the right sequence of processes for this kind of thing: cut to aspect ratio -> extract ac3 audio -> frameserve and encode -> author -> burn??

[greengate69]

In virtualdub select video/filters (you need first tto select "full processing mode" for video). Add the "nulll transform" filter and click on "cropping". You can then adjust the "x" and "y" offsets left/right and top/bottom to chop off content (or borders) till the video has the shape (I'm guessing you are after 16:9) that you prefer.

As long as you are not cutting any frames out (e.g. advertisements) I don't think it should matter when you cut out the ac3. However, since it is ac3, I suggest you select "demux" rather than "Save wav", then you can use the demultiplexed ac3 as your sound source at the "author" stage without any encoding (and preserving the dolby digital quality).

If you then frameserve to TMPGEnc (numerous guides on this on this site), and slect "Full Screen Keep Aspect Ratio" you should have the result you like.

Then take the encoded video and add it you your "author" application along with the .ac3 sound demultiplexed earlier and you should be OK.