Partial upconvert of DVD, add black border = Bluray

[HDTV's Frank]

Here's my plan:

I hate having DVD subtitles displayed over a movie. So, my idea is to PARTLY up-convert the video and add a black border around it. The matted video will then = 1920x1080. Then I will clean up the subtitles and use a nice font to display them on the black border.

My only confusion is how to "partly" up-convert video. My understanding was that up-converting is done with a rather intense algorithm, not just zooming in by doubling the number of lines displayed... so I don't know if that can be done to an arbitrary figure, something less than 1920x1080, before adding the border to achieve those dimensions.

This will all go onto a Blu-ray format, or perhaps a big MP4.

Has anyone ever tried this? I think I have all of the editing tools, but I want to be careful not to degrade the quality with unneeded re-encodes or using the wrong format.

[manono]

However you do it, the video'll be degraded. That's what reencoding does. And if you don't know how to do it properly, it'll be degraded more than necessary. If it's a 2.35:1 movie, you can just shift the black bars around so that there are more on the bottom and have the subs display in the black. If it's 1.85:1 then what you're suggesting is possible (but pointless, in my opinion). Yes, you have to be careful when upscaling or you'll just get blurry aliased video.

so I don't know if that can be done to an arbitrary figure, something less than 1920x1080, before adding the border to achieve those dimensions.

It can be done to whatever resolution you like before adding the black all around. Me, I use AviSynth's NNEDI3 for upscaling and the AddBorders command to add in the black. I follow the upscaling with sharpening. A lot of work for little gain, if you ask me.

Has anyone ever tried this?

I upscale all the time, usually VCD to DVD. I don't care about the subs on the video, although I do make my subs quite low on the screen, much lower than normally seen.

[HDTV's Frank]

I upscale all the time, usually VCD to DVD. I don't care about the subs on the video, although I do make my subs quite low on the screen, much lower than normally seen.

Interesting, I forgot about VCD. I only own one of them, but but it's not going to look good in 1080p... Most of my movies are Chinese or Japanese, and the subtitle translations are pretty bad. That's another reason I'm doing this - to practice my language skills.

[manono]

Most of the Japanese and Chinese films with which I'm familiar, if later than maybe about 1960-65, are 2.35:1, so maybe reencoding for DVD and just putting all the black on the bottom will be enough. You'll get faster encodes and won't have to mess around with upscaling, just cropping away and replacing the black.