Need HELP/ADVICE HDTV capture to 16:9 Conversion

[farnlc]

Ok here's the scenario. I want to record HDTV programs onto a DVDrecorder (iLo for $149, nice btw except the black levels). I know that the recording wont be high def, but in my opinion the downgraded HD is a better option than recording the analog sister channel. But here is where I am running into probs. I have a 16x9 TV so when I capture the HD material through the SVideo cable it is recording the 16x9 aspect within a 4:3 signal so basically it would look fine (like a letterbox DVD) on a 4:3 tv, but when I replay through my 16:9 TV its too thin and streched out. What I would like to do is record the HD show onto a DVD+RW then rip it to my computer, crop the video, and output to DVD so that when I play on my 16:9 TV it will fill up the entire screen as it did originaly.

1) Is there an easier way? Such as a DVD player that will zoom the exact amount that I need to erase the black bars and restore the correct image to my video? (Im assuming that the height would have to be streched, but if you can picture what I am describing the width would not have to be streched?)

2) Whats the easiest way step by step to rip the file from my DVD (I only know how to copy DVD not play with the contents)

3) Then how do I Crop the video and then process it so that it would be full fledged 16:9, Im assuming this will entail an anamorphic author?

Thanks for the help
Luc

[farnlc]

Any help would be appreciated

[bunyip]

I find it odd that if it is recorded in 4:3 format that your DVD player doesn't play it as 4:3 on the widescreen, allowing you to zoom into the 16:9 portion and view it correctly. This would suggest that the recording does not indicate what the aspect ratio is so the DVD player just plays it full screen, stretching it both ways to fit.

Does your system usually handle 4:3 material correctly on the wide screen?
I'm assuming that your recorder creates a compliant DVD disk (i.e. VOB files) - is this correct?

If so, the first thing I would try is to extract the Video & Audio streams from the VOB file, re-stream the video forcing the 4:3 aspect ratio and re-authoring the DVD and see if this plays back as 4:3 so you can zoom.

If that doesn't work or you would prefer to have full 16:9 support, I would then go to option 2 ...
- Extract the streams from the VOB file(s).
- Use TMPGenc to crop the black bars and re-encode the video to 16:9 format.
- Re-author the DVD as a 16:9 program.

The tool-set you would need for these options is ..
VobEdit - to split the VOBs into Video & Audio streams.
ReSteam - to try forcing 4:3 ratio without re-encoding.
or
TMPGenc (or some other encoder that allows cropping and aspect ratio setting).
A DVD Authoring tool - to recreate the DVD after fixes.

Either way there is a bit of work to do -but that's part of the fun !