How can I encode a 4x3 Letterbox to proper 16x9 Widescreen??

[MoovyGuy]

I'm trying to convert the Planet of the Apes boxed set to proper 16x9 widescreen.

I bought the set figuring that they would already be in that format, since the box said "widescreen" format, but low and behold all 5 Movie DVDs are 4x3 letterbox.... Piss me off. (Don't care about the 6th "making of" DVD.

Anyway, using TMPGenc Plus as an encoder, what can I do to ensure maximum quality on a conversion to 16x9.

I don't mind using tools like FitCD or AviSynth to take advantage of filters to help with the resizing, but my experiments to date have not been very good.

So what I need help with is the whole shooting match ... Bitrate, Aspect ratios, frame clipping ....

Has anyone managed to do this successfully ?

[DJRumpy]

If your TV is 4:3, or you DVD player specifies that your TV is 4:3, then your player will automatically add letterboxing to maintain the aspect ratio. Depending on the movies aspect ratio, you may have letterboxing, even for the widescreen version ( 2.35:1 movies have letterboxing, even when viewed as 16:9 ).

Once you rip the movie, look at the IFO with IFOEdit. It will tell you the aspect ratio of your movie VOB's.

Final question, what format and resolution are you moving your movie to?

[MoovyGuy]

If your TV is 4:3, or you DVD player specifies that your TV is 4:3, then your player will automatically add letterboxing to maintain the aspect ratio. Depending on the movies aspect ratio, you may have letterboxing, even for the widescreen version ( 2.35:1 movies have letterboxing, even when viewed as 16:9 ).

Current TV is 4:3, Projector is 16:9.

I understand that this is how a TV or DVD player will adapt, this is not what I am trying to acheive.

Once you rip the movie, look at the IFO with IFOEdit. It will tell you the aspect ratio of your movie VOB's.

Ifoedit tells me that the movie is 4:3. What I want to do is reencode this as proper 16:9, actually 2.35.1 would be even nicer.

Final question, what format and resolution are you moving your movie to?

I'm trying to convert a movie whose existing properties are 4:3 720x480 and renecode it to 16:9 or 2.35:1, 720x480 so that it becomes a proper widescreen DVD.

I do not want to have to use the artificial digital zoom in my projector or future HDTV to "zoom" the letterbox to full screen as all this does is distort the image.

What I am trying to do is to reencode it properly to a widescreen format using what ever tools and filters that are at my disposal in order to retain as much of the picture quality as possible and no longer be letter box.

Thanks for the reply though ...

[DJRumpy]

I see where your going. To accomplish this, you only need to clip out the letterboxing, and resize appropriately.

If your source movie aspect ratio is 2.35:1, resize your movie to 720x352 + letterboxing to fill out the resolution to 720x480. This should reproduce the animorphic widescreen. Letterboxing is necessary for 2.35:1, to maintain the 16:9 aspect ratio. This will leave a sliver of letterboxing on the vertical edges, but it will only be about 1/10th the height of the movie, rather than the 4:3 setup, which takes about half the vertical height of the movie.

If your source movie apsect ratio is 1.85:1, remove all letterboxing, and resize to 720x480.

On a side note, make sure you use Bicubic resize when enlarging. This will help reduce blur in your end product.

[Fozzee]

DJ I'm not sure u do follow.
Or is it just me being thick??
What i think he is saying is.......
His source is 4:3 and he wants his final product to be 16:9
Am I right???

Fozzee

[DJRumpy]

His source is Letterboxed 4:3, so he can just clip out the boxing, and maintain a proper 16:9 movie. If it was just 4:3, then he wouldn't be able to resize to 16:9 without stretching.

[MoovyGuy]

His source is Letterboxed 4:3, so he can just clip out the boxing, and maintain a proper 16:9 movie. If it was just 4:3, then he wouldn't be able to resize to 16:9 without stretching.

That is indeed correct. I'll give your suggestion a try tonight. FitCD has never made much sense to me, I'll post back my results with my test clips....

Thanks

Fozzee: My source is 4:3, but is widescreen.

[MoovyGuy]

If your source movie aspect ratio is 2.35:1, resize your movie to 720x352 + letterboxing to fill out the resolution to 720x480.

OK, I know this will make me sound a little dense, but where do I specify letterboxing as referenced from your quote ?

[MoovyGuy]

No matter what I do, regardless of the changes that I make regarding resizing using FitCD/Avs script, they do not seem to have any effect.

I know that TMPGenc is properley reading the AVS script 'cause when I make a typo in the script, it pukes all over the place.

It does seem to recognize temporal smoother settings though ..

I've found that I can clip out the black stuff directly in DVD2avi and I then tell TMPGenc that my source is 2.11:1 and that my output is 16:9. Seems to work quite well, but I'm not terribly satisfied with the picture quality.

So I think I'll try to pipe the clipped video through AVISynth so that I can use a filter or two and see what that does for me .....

Later Y'all 8)