Makemkv letterboxed the results.

[netmask56]

I was given the 2 disc DVD boxed set of the British TV series from 1998 Ultraviolet, an interesting take on the vampire mythology. I used Makemkv to produce the 6 episodes as MKV files. Loaded them into my NAS and Zidoo Home Theatre duly found all the details. Well and good. When I played them they were all effectively letterboxed with a wide black bar either side and a narrow one top and bottom. I suspect the aspect ratio was 1.66:1 ?

Anyway any suggestions as to how I can enlarge the image so that it fills the screen vertically but maintaining correct aspect ratio laterally. This will mean the left right black bars will almost go. So no clipping of any lateral image.

This is the first time MakeMKV has done this in my experience - as the original discs hail from 1998 my guess is the authoring didn't take into account 16:9 flat screen TV's
1.66:1 aspect ratio was widely used in Europe at one time as was 14:9

Attached is a screen shot and note I've messed with the contrast as the TV is against a dark wall, so as to define where the TV ends and the wall takes over, so not my camera or TV settings!!!

[manono]

I'll assume it's a 4:3 DVD. If you want to get rid of the black bars, you'll have to reencode. Crop them away (in AviSynth) and take it from there.
1.66:1 ratio videos gain only a little from 16:9 encoding. The crossover point is 1.55:1. Why is a PAL DVD 29.97fps? Or is it NTSC?
Edit: IMDB says it's supposed to be 1.33:1. And, apparently, it is NTSC. I can't find out if it was shot on film or not. Have you checked for telecining? Interesting that Idris Elba has only 3rd billing.

[netmask56]

It was shot film I believe and yes it’s NTSC discs. So it’s origins UK probably shot 25fps. Most of the actors were just starting out back in 1998.

[ProWo]

Cut 20 seconds in the middle of your mkv with avidemux and post it here.
Then we can check if only the DAR flag is set wrong or if crop/resize is necessary.

[jan5678]

Sometimes it helps if you in mkvtoolnix set the AR to what you want.
It happens that movie is stored on disc in a different format then it is presented on screen. Makemkv copy's the movie as it is stored on disc.

[netmask56]

Cut 20 seconds in the middle of your mkv with avidemux and post it here.
Then we can check if only the DAR flag is set wrong or if crop/resize is necessary.

MediaInfo file attached of full episode and a an except from ep6 (I checked the Mediainfo on this and it is the same as the full ep.

[netmask56]

Sometimes it helps if you in mkvtoolnix set the AR to what you want.
It happens that movie is stored on disc in a different format then it is presented on screen. Makemkv copy's the movie as it is stored on disc.

Yes I ripped from original discs - I was thinking of copying the file to hard disk and maybe editing the IFO file/s but it is 30 years since I since that and it might take awhile to get my head in gear!!!

[ProWo]

This release was cropped and resized from a 4:3 original source (according to IMDB) so that it can be played on a 16:9 TV as 16:9 fullscreen.
Unfortunately, almost everything was done wrong.
If you don't have access to the original 4:3 material, you can crop and resize your mkv.
I'll show you one way with clever FFMpeg-GUI.

Load your mkv, click main, click encode video stream, click crop detect, check the result with preview and confirm it with OK, done.


[Attachment 71825 - Click to enlarge]

In the next window click on IVTC (inverse telecine). This brings the video back from 29.97 fps to 23.976 fps. The video will also be deinterlaced.
Resize to 720x404 (which is 16:9), set CRF to 20 and click encode.


[Attachment 71826 - Click to enlarge]

When that is done, click multiplex, the selection should fit, click multiplex.


[Attachment 71827 - Click to enlarge]

You will find your new video in the output folder.

[Alwyn]

Those heads are too wide, Prowo.

The original 4:3 video looks right.

[johns0]

If the clip the op sent is a straight cut not re-encoded then the original dvd was produced wrong with wide heads.Gotta resize the picture to get the proper dimensions.

[jagabo]

This is what I'd do:

LWLibavVideoSource("Ultraviolet S01E06 Except.mkv", cache=false, prefer_hw=2) 
QTGMC()
SRestore()
Crop(0,36,-0,-40)

Then encode with 8:9 SAR flags (NTSC MPEG 2 SAR). Or possibly 10:11 SAR (NTSC ITU SAR). The former is attached.

[ProWo]

Those heads are too wide, Prowo.
The original 4:3 video looks right.

Nope, then the two are too thin.
But from an original DVD source should come either 4:3 or 16:9, nothing else.
Therefore, the source is not processed correctly.
Attached a 1.5 DAR.

[Alwyn]

Prowo, your first attempt had fat heads. Your second attempt looks good.

But from an original DVD source should come either 4:3 or 16:9, nothing else.

Based on the snippet, it did come as 4:3 because of the hardcoded letterboxing (on the DVD or put on by MakeMKV?). That's why it doesn't look like it's displaying full screen, top-bottom, on the TV.

With the hard-coded letterbox bars, it's 4:3 and with them cropped off, it's ~1.58:1. There will still be pillarbox bars on the TV:


[Attachment 71844 - Click to enlarge]

In VDub, crop black stuff off top and bottom, resize to 720x456, SAR 1,1.

Jagabo, those ratios are still doing my head in!

[netmask56]

Re-emcoded with Handbrake with these video settings. Looks good.


Complete name : Z:\Archive_001\Ultra Test01.mkv
Format : Matroska
Format version : Version 4
File size : 45.8 MiB
Frame rate : 29.970 FPS
Encoded date : 2023-06-19 22:37:26 UTC
Writing application : HandBrake 1.4.2 2021100300
Writing library : Lavf58.76.100
IsTruncated : Yes
ErrorDetectionType : Per level 1

Video
ID : 1
Format : HEVC
Format/Info : High Efficiency Video Coding
Format profile : Main@L3@Main
Codec ID : V_MPEGH/ISO/HEVC
Width : 716 pixels
Height : 402 pixels
Display aspect ratio : 16:10
Frame rate mode : Constant
Frame rate : 29.970 (30000/1001) FPS
Color space : YUV
Chroma subsampling : 4:2:0
Bit depth : 8 bits
Writing library : x265 3.5+1-f0c1022b6:[Windows][clang 12.0.0][64 bit] 8bit+10bit+12bit

[netmask56]

Prowo, your first attempt had fat heads. Your second attempt looks good.

But from an original DVD source should come either 4:3 or 16:9, nothing else.

Based on the snippet, it did come as 4:3 because of the hardcoded letterboxing (on the DVD or put on by MakeMKV?). That's why it doesn't look like it's displaying full screen, top-bottom, on the TV.

With the hard-coded letterbox bars, it's 4:3 and with them cropped off, it's ~1.58:1. There will still be pillarbox bars on the TV:


[Attachment 71844 - Click to enlarge]

In VDub, crop black stuff off top and bottom, resize to 720x456, SAR 1,1.

Jagabo, those ratios are still doing my head in!

Hard coded on the DVD!

[Alwyn]

I think I'm hanging on too tight. I pulled my calculator out when I saw your 16:10! Then I thought about it.

[netmask56]

I think I'm hanging on too tight. I pulled my calculator out when I saw your 16:10! Then I thought about it.

The result of my test run..