Widescreen to Fullscreen Conversion

[bubbabyte]

Hi guys, i'm in desperate need of some help, this is driving me nuts.

The Home movies i record from my DVD cam, are widescreen. I rip them onto my computer using SimpleDivx at a resolution of 352 X 192, so they are small file size to send to people. However, because they are widescreen you can't upload them to alot of video websites because they will be stretched to fullscreen format. What is the easiest way to keep them at their widescreen resolution but adding black bars to both the top and bottom so that the resolution is fullscreen. If it helps any my DVD cam is a Hitachi DZ-BX35A, and know very little about video editing so forgive me if i haven't made much sense, but i need help badly so i can upload the videos for family to see.

[guns1inger]

virtualdub or avisynth can be used to add borders.

Load the video into Virtualdubmpeg2, and click on Video -> Filters. Click on Add, and select the Resize filter. In the New Size fields put your existing resolution (352, 192) because this is going to change. Tick the box marked Expand Frame and Letterbox Image, and enter 352, 288 into the fields for width and height respectively. Click on Preview, and you should now see letterbox bars top and bottom, with your image inbetween, undistorted.

Click OK, then OK. Click on Video -> Compression and select a codec and configure it for your output. Finally, click on File -> Save As and save your new video.

[bubbabyte]

gunsl1nger i owe you big time.. i'm familiar with virtualdub but i could not locate that setting at all.

I can't thank you enough, you saved me so much trouble.