Resizing?

[drwho]

I have another question related to resizing movies which sometimes show diagonal streaks and signs of bad compression.
I wonder if videos can be resized to an optimal level and what would the ratios be or how ratios are calculated to obtain an optimal resize without distortion?
thanks

[guns1inger]

There is no optimal level of resize. All resizing has a detrimental effect on the video. Resizing down is usually less noticable than resizing up. If you must resize, make sure you maintain the aspect ratio to prevent stretching and distortion. Apply deblocking filters before resizing to smooth out artifacts from over compression.

You also need to understand that TV display differently to PC monitors, and will show up many issues that you don't normally notice. There is only so much you can do to remove them, and after than, you just have to live with it.

If you are looking at avi to DVD type conversion, the best image quality comes from a stand alone Divx certified player, however these have their own issues.

Basically, any movie compressed to 700 MB, or even 1.38GB, using Divx/Xvid is image compromised beyond repair. You have to learn to live with the effects.

[drwho]

Oh I see!
Now, perhaps you can answer this one.
If I wanted to display a movie on tv that originally came to me as mpeg, 320*288, 29.97. Should I resize it to optimal tv screen currently 4.3 or other aspect ration first?
Thanks

[guns1inger]

If you look at What is DVD (top left corner), you will see that this is closest in size and framerate to the lowest resolution NTSC spec for DVD. You could re-encode to this, adding whatever padding required to maintain aspect ratio. Because the source is so low, I would not attempt to resize it to full D1 resolution.

You could also convert it to a normal VCD, again be resizing and re-encoding.

Finally, you could just try burming the mpeg to a CD and playing as data. Many players will play raw mpeg files from disc.

The simplest tool for determining resolutions for resizing is FitCD. If you don't have this in your kit, download it now. It works for avi 1:1, VCD, SVCD, DVD, PAL, NTSC, Anamorphic etc. If you need it, it also creates the basic avisnth script required to perform the resize. It will also give you a script to add borders to keep hard subs inside the overscan area. Get it now and use it always.

[drwho]

Yes thankyou I had thought to be a low resolution file.
Nice tool and hints for next time