Non-anamorphic widescreen to anamorphic

[GnatGoSplat]

Is there a program that will convert non-anamorphic widescreen VOB files to anamorphic widescreen? More and more, I find non-anamorphic widescreen DVDs to be very annoying.

I realize the lines of resolution used for the letterboxing are lost, but there are 2 reasons I'd like to do this:

1. Convenience - not having to hunt for the zoom button on the DVD player.
2. Picture Quality - Potentially better if the resizing is done with a good resampling/anti-aliasing algorithm. Some DVD players don't have a very good Zoom mode unless they use the Faroudja chip, but none of mine have Faroudja.

If such a utility exists, please point me to it. I already did a search and didn't find much.

[junkmalle]

Just about any editing program that accepts and produces MPEG2. Try TMPGEnc. Nothing will work well with true interlaced material. Your letterboxed source will almost certainly need to be inverse telecined too (unless you're in a PAL country).

[dphirschler]

I believe you are going to be re-encoding. If you are okay with this, then look into dgIndex/dgMPEGdec. I don't hink you'll have to inverse telecine if the DVD was authored properly. Just crop 60 from the top and bottom and resize to 480 lines (assuming your source is NTSC). However, you'll have to take special care with interlaced sources (bob, crop, resize, weave).


Darryl

[hp_lovecraft]

I've done that with Tmpgenc, but never really like the results.
But, its pretty easy to crop the black bars off, then reencode with 16x9.

Its nice because some players handle non-anamophic widescreens wierd, adding a seperate letterbox, often using 2 different colors!

Reencoding solves that, but as dphirschler pointed out, you need to be carefull with all the 3:2 settings.

Nick

[junkmalle]

"bob, crop, resize, weave" can create annoying artifacts with a lot of material. Consider a thin white (intensity 100) horizontal line on a black (intensity 0) background:

(one column of pixels, Odd/Even scanlines, intensity of pixel)
O:000
E:000
O:100
E:000
O:000
E:000

Bob to separate the fields:

O:000   E:000
O:100   E:000
O:000   E:000

Say you're increasing the height by 2 and you use a smooth filter:

O:000   E:000
O:050   E:000
O:100   E:000
O:050   E:000
O:000   E:000
O:000   E:000

weave them back together:

O:000
E:000
O:050
E:000
O:100
E:000
O:050
E:000
O:000
E:000
O:000
E:000

You now have three horizontal lines where you had one before.

IVTC is better if it can be done.

[guns1inger]

You are better off looking for an enhanced version of the movie instead

[dphirschler]

I was not saying he shouldn't IVTC, I was saying he shouldn't have to. If he rips a 3:2 movie, it will be progressive anyways. Bob, crop, resize, weave was my strategy for true interlaced source. You really don't have a choice. It's the best way to resize interlaced video.


Darryl

[FulciLives]

I was not saying he shouldn't IVTC, I was saying he shouldn't have to. If he rips a 3:2 movie, it will be progressive anyways. Bob, crop, resize, weave was my strategy for true interlaced source. You really don't have a choice. It's the best way to resize interlaced video.

Darryl

Could you provide a sample AviSynth script for your bob, crop, resize, weave method?

- John "FulciLives" Coleman

[dphirschler]

Sure. Here you go.

function anamorphVideo(clip v)
{
	# deinterlace the video
	v=assumeTFF(v)
	#v=assumeBFF(v)
	v=bob(v)

	# resize and reinterlace
	v=v.crop(0,60,720,-60) #assumes 720 width
	v=v.BilinearResize(720,480) #DVD res (anamorphic)
	#v=v.SeparateFields.SelectEvery(4,0,3) #BFF (even)
	v=v.SeparateFields.SelectEvery(4,1,2) #TFF (odd)

	#v=converttoyuy2(v) #corrects for wierd YV12 problem
	v=weave(v) #reinterlace

	return(v)
}

Things to watch for...

temporarily stick a "return v" right after the bob and test to make sure that TFF works, otherwise, use BFF. Depends on your video source. The "SeparateFields" calls are for your output. So if you want TFF, then use that one, otherwise, use BFF. It is independent of the assumeTFF/BFF commands.

The converttoYUY2 is there for YV12 sources. Sometimes you will see some weird color shifts between fields if it is a YV12 source. Converting it to YUY2 corrects that. Depending on your encoder, you may have to convert it back to YV12 when done.


Darryl[/code]

[FulciLives]

Thanks I will have to play around with that next time I capture a 4:3 widescreen source.

Just so I understand ... in the end you get 16x9 interlaced video ... correct?

- John "FulciLives" Coleman

[dphirschler]

Just so I understand ... in the end you get 16x9 interlaced video ... correct?

yes.

[FulciLives]

Just so I understand ... in the end you get 16x9 interlaced video ... correct?

yes.

I remember there being some talk a while ago that 16x9 interlaced video might not be 100% DVD compliant and that 16x9 video should be progressive but I've created 16x9 interlaced DVD content before without playback issues and I have some "official store bought" commercial DVD releases that are 16x9 interlaced so I guess it ain't no big deal?

Anyways exicted to try this new method when I get a chance.

- John "FulciLives" Coleman

[nwo]

you can also rip the dvd to DIVX 6, it rip non-anamorphic
movies into a anamorphic movie and just burn it back to dvd,
also it no let you pick two mode for best video, one cd 700mb
or 2gig best mode.

[dphirschler]

I remember there being some talk a while ago that 16x9 interlaced video might not be 100% DVD compliant and that 16x9 video should be progressive but I've created 16x9 interlaced DVD content before without playback issues and I have some "official store bought" commercial DVD releases that are 16x9 interlaced so I guess it ain't no big deal?

That might have been me questioning it. I remember being involved in a discussion about that because I did not think it was practical for players to resize interlaced anamorphic content. Turned out that it is somewhat easy. Players throw out every so many lines or something like that.


Darryl

[CliffS]

I've actually spent the better part of the last two weeks reencoding my 4:3 letterbox stuff to 16:9 and, for the most part, the results have been pretty good. I've been using DVD2SVCD with the D2SRoba and CCE2.50 (you can also use tmpgenc - and keep it all free). The important thing is to set your aspect ratio out to "anamorphic" and under the Frameserver tab, set your Avisynth setup to "BicubicResize" and use this script:

0=Import(!RoBaConditional.avs)
1=BicubicResize(720,480,1/3,1/3,0,60,720,360)
2=AddBorders(0,0,0,0)
!RoBaConditional.avs=D:\Program Files\DVD2SVCD\Tylo\RoBaConditional.avs

When you select "Go" on the conversion tab, you can choose "preview video" to see what your new image will look like just to make sure you've done it correctly.

Within about 3.5 hours you'll have a newly encoded 16:9 version.

Now, I do see interlace artifacts from time to time (maybe two frames every 20-30 minutes, just enough for me to know I saw something). The biggest thing to remember though, is that your output will only be as good as your input. I've done a few titles that I would have sworn were originally 16:9 if I hadn't done them myself (and with no visible interlace artifacts - Mystery Science Theater: The Movie, Encino Man, Private Parts) and some that were decent, but not great (The Three Musketeers -93). The more artifacting in the source, the more obvious it's going to be vertically stretched.

But I agree with you, non-anamorphic discs are a pain and even with a great player like the Oppo, the zoom mode still makes it impossible to watch these. I've found this to be a most pleasant (if not completely time consuming) alternative. Hope that helps.

Cliff

[MaxBlack]

...I've been using DVD2SVCD with the D2SRoba and CCE2.50 (you can also use tmpgenc - and keep it all free)...

CliffS it turns out this is not true i.e. you can only use CCE with D2SRoba--found this out the hard way last night. I was able however to use my TMPGEnc encoder and these lines:

Crop(0,60,720,360)
LanczosResize(720,480)

and this appears to have worked just fine, altho it took fully 13 hours for TMPGEnc to complete (at Highest quality (very slow))!!!

Tonight I will look at the original DVD (zoomed) and the converted anamorphic version to see if the effort was worth doing. Thanks for your post to get me started! I'm not sure I'd ever have tried the poorly-named DVD2SVCD otherwise!!

EDIT: As I said in the other thread on this subject, my converted anamorphic disc looked no better than zooming w/my Sony 60XBR800. So I won't be going-back and converting my 4:3 letterboxed discs. Still, it's good to know about this tool because it appears it can also be used to run other filters vs just resize...