Aspect ratio hell! I need some help!

[lbecque]

I've been recording programs from cable TV, which is 4:3 format, but some are aired in 16:9 with the black bars at the top and bottom of the TV screen. When I record this in 4:3 and play back on a DVD player connected to a TV it looks as originally broadcast which is fine. But if I play the same DVD on my portable DVD player which has a small 16:9 widescreen I get black bars on all four sides of an already small screen. How can I fix this so I fill the screen on the portable display without changing how its displayed on the TV??

My current PVR recording software, MPEG2 editor and DVD authoring programs all show me that the files are recorded and played back in 4:3 format but none of these programs allow me to change this setting. I know what is happening is that I have a 16:9 box recorded within a 4:3 box.

[Kunta Kinte]

I'll say you need help. Just wait until the mods find out you've been double posting.

You are in breach of the forum rules and are being issued with a formal warning. Creating a new alias to sidestep a previous ban is against the forum rules. Sorry, Tommyknocker. Them's the rules. Banned.
/ Moderator lordsmurf

[lbecque]

Sorry for the double post.
After I already put it in the DVD author forum I realized it probably belonged here.

[daamon]

Sorry for the double post.
After I already put it in the DVD author forum I realized it probably belonged here.

If that's the case - leave it where it is and request that the forum be changed by reporting the post using the "Report this post" link in the bottom right of every post.

It'll take you to a thread that's monitored by the mods and they'll move it.

I've done it on this occassion so you can see what's going on.

[guns1inger]

The only way to stop it happening it to crop the black bars, resize and author as 16:9. Then it will play back correctly on any device.

[lbecque]

The only way to stop it happening it to crop the black bars, resize and author as 16:9. Then it will play back correctly on any device.

I figured as much but I need some help to do that.
My current software, Ulead Videostudio for editing and Ulead DVD Moviefactory does not allow cropping, resizing or authoring as 16:9.

Can you point me to some of the better tools referenced on this site that can do that (hopefully free ones)?
Thanks...

[Abond]

FitCD, Avisynth, HC and Gui for dvdauthor - all free.
Edit - and Cuttermaran - also free.

[lbecque]

FitCD, Avisynth, HC and Gui for dvdauthor - all free.
Edit - and Cuttermaran - also free.

Abond,
Thank you very much for the suggestions.
I think this will get me started. Looks like exactly what I need.
Using avisynth looks very complicated but I'll figure it out in time.
Looks like with the frameserving of avisynth I could continue to use my current Ulead editor and DVD authoring programs if I want.

[lbecque]

Well I'm finally starting to get a handle on this.
I'm using fitcd to calculate my crop and resize.
Wrote the .avs script and am using avisynth and virtualdubmod to view the results and it looks good.

One problem, HC doesn't seem to be very stable for me, it just exits in the middle of the second pass of an encode. If I restart it a bunch of times sometimes I can get it to finish.

Would I be better off using one of the other free MPEG2 encoders such as QuEnc or FreeEnc??

Or would I be better off trying to use VFAPI to frameserve directly into Ulead Visual Studio since I need to edit out the commercials and can render / encode the resulting file there?

Any recommendations?

[gadgetguy]

I use and like QuEnc.