(widescreen)AVI TO DVD(fullscreen) possible?

[exumas05]

(widescreen)AVI TO DVD(fullscreen). I just would like to take a widescreen avi and convert it to dvd and watch it on the tele in fullscreen, is this possible?

[thecoalman]

Encode and author as 4:3, this sets a flag on the DVD that tells the DVD player what the correct aspect is. I'm assuming by full screen you are referring to a regular TV full screen. This is goung to ruin the aspect though. Balls are going to look like eggs.

Most DVD players will allow you to force it full screen too.

[guns1inger]

Balls are going to look like eggs

and with easter just around the corner

A widescreen avi can be encoded in one of 4 ways.

1. As 16:9 (widescreen). If the player is configured correctly, this will letterbox automatically on play back.

2. As letterboxed widescreen. The frame is 4:3 with the black bars top and bottom. This preserves the correct aspect ratio for 4:3 TVs, but isn't a good option for widescreen TVs.

3. Distorted and ugly 4:3 - basically resized vertically to 4:3. Unwatchable in most cases

4. Cropped and Zoomed. An uglier version of Pan and Scan, whereby the image is zoomed to fill the 4:3 screen, at the cost of loosing both edges. Any action occuring at the side of frame is lost.

So which do you want ?

[exumas05]

I dont mind widescreen, it's just some widescreen is thicker than others if that makes any sense. I can deal with an inch or two of black.. but not the like 5 inches.. kinda annoying. My tv is fullscreen though.

[guns1inger]

Movies come in various aspect ratios. 1.85:1 is the most common, and is very close to filling a 16:9 TV frame. At the other extreme is 2.0:1 - the epic cinemascope type aspect ratio, which is very wide a necessitates large black bars. Even on a widescreen TV you get several inches of black bars.

The only way to make the bars smaller is to crop off the ends.

I have yet to buy a widescreen TV (although while mine is 4:3, it is 16:9 switchable for anamorphic source), so I watch all my widescreen movies with whatever bars are required. And in all these years, I have never seen them. I watch the movie instead.

[exumas05]

I used convertXtoDVD and converted an avi with small bars.... ratio was on auto... movie came out fullscreen on the tv after being burnt.. then I converted an avi with big bars and it came out on dvd with small bars.. BUT on BOTH movies the credits/names at the begining we a bit cut off on the sides of the screen but the picture wasnt stretched.. it seemed fine... im not sure where I prefer the bars or not. IF i use winavi the movies widescreen bars remain the same as the avi played on the pc... I need to decide whether to go with the entering credits a bit stretched and picture fine or go with the avi played on pc default... opinions? sorry im confusing when i explain things

[guns1inger]

What you did was encode one as 4:3, the other 16:9. One was stretched to some degree, the other wasn't. Neither would have been cropped, as ConvertXtoDVD doesn't cropped. However you may have lost the edges due to overscan. In which case you would also lose them on a commercial DVD release as well.

As I said in my previous post, I don't understand the issue with the bars. I never crop, and only ever purchase the widescreen version of movies (unless the original was fullscreen), and wouldn't want it any other way.

[j4gg3rr]

Take one of your WS DVD's and zoom in with your DVD players controls and tell us which looks better. The whole picture on half the screen(as the director and cinematographer intended) ,or half the picture on the whole screen(what you wan't to do).

TMPGEnc, Canopus Procoder and Conema Craft Encoder SP2 have cropping function if you further wish to defy the purpose of WS.

AVISynth also allows you full control over what you feed into an encoder.

[RabidDog]

compromise... crop your widescreen movies to 14:9, known as the safe area. This has the best (or worst) of both worlds.

[exumas05]

Thanks everyone for the help. One last small question. When I convert a WIDESCREEN avi(tvshow) in convertXtoDVD the TV SCREEN option is set to Automatic and the WIDESCREEN show comes out in FULLSCREEN final product. If I want to have the final product come out as Widescreen like it is on the pc, do I need to put the TV screen option on 16:9? I would think automatic would leave it the same but it makes it fullscreen.

[guns1inger]

I always leave it Auto, and it always converts widescreen to widescreen, fullscreen to fullscreen. I'm not sure at what point it cuts over from one to the other (e.g. 1.66:1 as widescreen). I haven't seen it do anything else.

Check the aspect ratio (DAR, PAR) with mpeg4modifier.

[exumas05]

That is weird, If I leave it auto it takes a widescreen movie and makes it fullscreen on my tv after being burnt... every single time... guess ill try putting it on 16:9 and test that... Its weird cause I do a movie with big widescreen caps it turns them small... and if I do a movie with small caps.. it makes it full screen... it like downsizes it no matter what... really weird.

[Lester Burnham]

(widescreen)AVI TO DVD(fullscreen). I just would like to take a widescreen avi and convert it to dvd and watch it on the tele in fullscreen, is this possible?

Why?

Given you are watching it on the TV, why not watch it with (presumably) the correct aspect ratio - given it's widescreen in AVI format?

You're not one of those people who'd prefer to cut out viewable video, just so that it fills a 4:3 screen with no black borders, are you?

[exumas05]

no, I keep converting widescreen avi movies and they come out fullscreen.... the TV SCREEN / ratio on CONVERTXTODVD is set to automatic and it takes my wide screen movies and makes them full on automatic... i want to know what to put it on to keep the current format of the avi (widescreen).. i guess even though it is wide screen i have to put it on 16:9 havent tryed yet

[Lester Burnham]

no, I keep converting widescreen avi movies and they come out fullscreen.... the TV SCREEN / ratio on CONVERTXTODVD is set to automatic and it takes my wide screen movies and makes them full on automatic... i want to know what to put it on to keep the current format of the avi (widescreen).. i guess even though it is wide screen i have to put it on 16:9 havent tryed yet

Well I use FilmMachine to convert AVI to DVD, and that gives you options on this.

I take non-anamorphic widescreen AVIs, and make them anamorphic (they display better, and look better on my TV, than simply converting to letterbox widescreen) widescreen in DVD format.