Square pixels or 16:9 Pixel aspect ratio?

[Scherwin]

Hi,
I am going to convert a bunch of my AVCHD (*.mts) videos to H.264 (*.mp4). Videos was taken by Canon Legria HF200 (Pal version of Canon Vixia HF 200) in 1920x1080 XMP. I have Adobe Media Encoder CS4 and prefer to use it.
I have a simple question! Which of setting below is better?
a) 720 x 405 : Pixel aspect ratio = Square pixels or
b) 720 x 576 : Pixel aspect ratio = Widescreen 16:9
Ps. 2nd option is a Adobe Media Encoder preset for PAL DV Widescreen High Quality!
Thanks.

[Baldrick]

It depends what you are going to do with it. Square pixels might be best for portable devices or flash playback.

[Scherwin]

It depends what you are going to do with it. Square pixels might be best for portable devices or flash playback.

Thank you for your interest. I always keep my AVCHD files. Sometimes I share my videos with my family etc. so I have to convert them. In this case H.264 files will use in Laptop and LCD monitors. And also I have about 15 hours’ family video memories that I had taken in DV format (MiniDV Tape -> IEEE 1394: 13GB/h). I intend to convert these files to H.264 too (DV avi 720x576 PAL –to-> H.264 mp4 720x576 PAL) and then watch in Full HD TV by WD Tv (Connection type: HDMI). As you know WD Tv media player does not support DV files.
Thanks again.

[jagabo]

Many players (hardware and software) will not respect PAR/DAR flags. If you want to be sure people will see the correct AR you should use square pixels. And you can't use a 405 pixel high image with h.264 encoding. It has to be mod4, at least. So use 400 or 404.

[2Bdecided]

1920x1080 is better!
then 1280x720
then 1024x576
then 960x540
(no one uses 720x405)
then maybe 852x480
then 768x432
then maybe 704x396
then all the way down to 640x360
or even 512x288

Take your pick! and make sure it plays in the target device(s).

High quality double-rate deinterlacing is strongly recommended (assuming the source is interlaced).

Cheers,
David.

[Scherwin]

Many players (hardware and software) will not respect PAR/DAR flags. If you want to be sure people will see the correct AR you should use square pixels. And you can't use a 405 pixel high image with h.264 encoding. It has to be mod4, at least. So use 400 or 404.

Thank you Jagabo. I did not know the relevant H.264 with MOD4. I was set to 720x405 resolutions, but the result would always be 720x408. This situation made me pretty angry

[Scherwin]

1920x1080 is better!
then 1280x720
then 1024x576
then 960x540
(no one uses 720x405)
then maybe 852x480
then 768x432
then maybe 704x396
then all the way down to 640x360
or even 512x288

Take your pick! and make sure it plays in the target device(s).

Thank you David. I will consider the common file resolutions.
I think 704x396 is the best common file resolution for converting a 1920x1080 file to a non HD video format.

High quality double-rate deinterlacing is strongly recommended (assuming the source is interlaced).

Cheers,
David.

I have not been able to deinterlacing a *.mts (AVCHD) file with Adobe Media Encoder yet! But I will try to do. Thank you again.