Influence when selecting PAL or PAL 16:9 with TMPGEnc

[Purno]

Hey guys,

Got some noobish question. I've been converting all my movie files to the PAL 4:3 format in TMPGEnc, which works fine on our 4:3 TV. But I suddenly started to wonder, what if we ever get a widescreen TV (16:9, assumingly)? Would those movies, converted to PAL 4:3, still be displayed correctly at a 16:9 TV? I noticed some subtitles been displayed half in the 'black section' under the film, would those still be fully visible on a 16:9 TV?

Thanks in advance.

[mats.hogberg]

If you have hard subs, then the subs will be out of the viewable area if you switch your TV to 16:9 mode.

/Mats

[manono]

Hi-

Would those movies, converted to PAL 4:3, still be displayed correctly at a 16:9 TV?

Yes, if you have your TV and player set up correctly, the 4:3 DVDs will display with "pillarbars", or black bars added to the right and left sides to maintain the AR.

..would those still be fully visible on a 16:9 TV?

Yes. I take it that these are widescreen movies encoded for 4:3. In such cases there will be black on all 4 sides of the active video. There will be the pillarbars added by the player, and there will also be the black above and below that was encoded with the video. It's in the lower black bar that the subs will still be partly displayed.

[Purno]

Hard subs meaning the subtitles are coded in the movie file? They indeed are.

Anyways, if I understand correctly, you can always set your 16:9 TV in a 4:3 mode, in which the movies will display 'correctly'?

But I guess it'd be better to select PAL 16:9 from now on, when converting movie files?

EDIT: Ah, a new reply while posting...

[mats.hogberg]

Anyways, if I understand correctly, you can always set your 16:9 TV in a 4:3 mode, in which the movies will display 'correctly'?

Yes, it will look the same as on a 4:3 TV

/Mats