convert 4:3 to 16:9

[nekrosoft13]

what would be the best program to convert 4:3 video files to 16:9?

[guns1inger]

What sort of files ?

To convert NTSC DV files crop 60 from the top and 60 from the bottom, then resize back to 480 and encode as 16:9. For PAL, crop 72 lines form the top and 72 from the bottom and resize back to 576, then encode as 16:9. This can be done easily in virtualdub or avisynth.

However this is a straight crop. If the original was not framed for 16:9, or not shot 1.78 letterboxed, then you may find that heads get cut off, and objects in the lower frame disappear. In these cases I prefer to do the work in an editor like Vegas, where I ca move the frame around inside the crop area to keep the focus.