Convert 4:3 SD to 16:9 HD with highest quality

[luciofulci]

Hi All,

I know you would never normally do this, but I'm putting some SD MPEG 2 laserdisc footage onto blu ray for disc space reasons. I've made a short video of clips to play during the disc menu but black bars on the left and right don't look good for the menu video and SD means I have to use low res menu graphics.

So if you had to convert 4:3 SD to 16:9 HD and wanted the best quality output how would you do it? I know I'll lose image at the top and bottom but it's only for the menu. I've done it through Adobe Premiere and the results are ok but if they can be improved upon that would be good. I'm not expecting miracles though.

Thanks

[DB83]

Keep the 4:3 and mask the black bars with a still image blur which could even be from the same video.

[luciofulci]

Thanks I'll look at that. In terms of the SD to HD conversion is there one converter you would recommend over another?