anamorphic encoding without resizing

[hardy]

What is the best way to accomplish this? I have been doing some research and it seems to be the best way to convert a standard 16:9 DVD to MP4 (or MKV) H.264 without resizing to get better quality. Are there any guides for this? The file size is not an issue, as long as it fits on a single layer disc.

Thanks, Ally!

[dragonkeeper]

Are you sure you want anamorphic video? Anamorphic is designed to to stretch the video's width or shrink the video's height to fit the display unit the video is being displayed on, hence the video really doesn't have a native width and height.

here is a handbrake guide that details the various methods to encode anamorphic video.
https://trac.handbrake.fr/wiki/AnamorphicGuide#visual

[hardy]

I thought it doesn't stretch the video but I may be wrong. Is there a way to just encode to get rid of the black bars? Or is that even possible.

[jagabo]

I always leave the frame size the same as the DVD except for cutting away the black bars in the source. Then set the encoder's and/or container's pixel aspect ratio or display aspect ratio flags. That way there's no loss of resolution. Just be sure your playback device(s) support aspect ratio flags.

[hardy]

What software do you use?

[jagabo]

For DVD sources? DVD Fab to rip the DVD, DgIndex to build an index file, an AviSynth script to open the index and perform any filtering, then x264 to encode.

[hardy]

Do you use a program? Like staxrip or handbrake

[jagabo]

No, I do each of the steps manually.

[dragonkeeper]

No, I do each of the steps manually.

Ditto Jagabo.

Ally68, I can't speak for Jagabo the main reason I chose to do it manually, is to achieve the best quality this is something that is hard to do with one click tools. If you choose to use handbrake you can disable anamorphic by clicking the picture tab and from the Anamorphic drop down select none. Make sure to check the box "keep aspect ratio". If "Cropping" is set to automatic handbrake will crop out the black bars.

[TBoneit]

I thought it doesn't stretch the video but I may be wrong. Is there a way to just encode to get rid of the black bars? Or is that even possible.

Sure encode it keeping in mind that to get rid of the black bars you either have to distort the video or cut part of it off. If the bars are top and bottom cut off the ends.
This method means you lose things on the sides of the screens.

or if the bars are the sides cut off the top and bottom.
This method means you may be cutting off feet and the tops of heads.

Or just encode to fill the screen without cutting. Then you can have either short fat people or super skinny to tall people.

Myself I'd rather have the bars.

[jagabo]

Note that widescreen TV screens have a 16:9 aspect ratio. That is not a common movie aspect ratio. Common movie aspect ratios are 1.33:1, 1.37:1, 1.66:1, 1.85:1, 2.20:1, 2.35:1, and 2.4:1. So almost any movie you watch should have some black bars at the edges. The exception would be made for TV movies and modern TV series. Many computer monitors (and some TVs) have a 16:10 aspect ratio, not 16:9. So even 16:9 video should have black bars on those TVs.

http://www.widescreen.org/aspect_ratios.shtml