How do I resize an avi to mpeg2 conversion??

[DocD]

I'm trying to take an XviD avi video with the size of 608X256 and convert it to an mpeg2 file. I can't figure out how to make it where everything is not all whacked out of shape. What settings do I change? Can I use VirtualDub to change it to another size first??

[antoniosgubba]

What are you using to encode?...TMPGenc?...if so then just select full screen (keep aspect ratio) under "video arrange method".

Also...you say its all out of shape....are you watching it in windows media player?...if you are then yes it WILL look stretched!..WMP can't play back mpeg2 in its correct aspect ratio..it should look fine on your home DVD player though.

[Pugsly456]

I dont know! Ive tried just feeding the fie as is into TMPG and letting it do the conversion but I ve read in some guides that you should change the resolution first. Anybody know why they say that?

[Vejita-sama]

Just to add a bit of background to the above post. First TMPGenc will resize for you, if you're using CCE try frameserving with either VDub or avisynth using bicubic resize.

Video is encoded to be displayed at different display aspec ratios (DAR). There are 3 DARs that you're likely to see:

1:1 PC
4:3 TV
16:9 Film, widescreen TV

Now under the 16:9 DAR you might find different ratios
1.85:1 academy flat
2.35:1 anamorphic widescreen

People sometimes confuse DAR with resolution. You can have a DAR of 4:3 (for example) at ANY resolution. Now on the PC resoltuion = DAR (cause it's 1:1) but that's not true for TV and film.

Let's say you want to show a 16:9 movie on your 4:3 TV and keep the original DAR. Well to do that you need to stretch the picture, and then add black bars to the top and bottom to full up the screen.

This is known as letter boxing. Letter boxing only exists for TVs. You don't need to letter box on a PC because there's no reason to 'full up the screen' and as resolution = DAR it's just not necessary.

So much like watching a 16:9 movie on a 4:3 TV stretchs the picture, watching a 4:3 (or 16:9) encoded video on a 1:1 PC monitor will look strange. But it'll play back correctly on your standalone DVD player.

For more info on DAR, aspec ratios and letterboxing check out the two links below:

http://www.doom9.org/aspectratios.htm

http://www.thedigitalbits.com/articles/anamorphic/aspectratios/widescreenorama.html

[Mr Grumpy]

I always let FitCD work out the resizing for me then use the AviSynth script it produces.

Works for me

[videocheez]

Do you have a link to a place where I can download FitCD?

Thanks in advance,


VC

[Mr Grumpy]

Believe it or not, it's listed in the Tools section of this site

You'll find the FitCD site here

[1576]

Ive just used FitCD along with cce to resize an avi file (which it did perfectly). However, if I use the script produced, I dont get any audio, regardless of my settings in cce. Has anyone had the same problem?
Its the first time Ive used a script.

[videocheez]

Will FitCd work for encoding avi to dvd instead of avi to vcd or svcd? I just dowloaded it and I only see templates for vcd and svcd on the top half of the GUI.

Thanks in advance,

VC

[Mr Grumpy]

1576: I don't do the audio in CCE - I use BeSweet. Sorry.

VideoCheez: No I don't think it does. There's a different version called fit2disc from the same site, but this requires a 'donation'!

[videocheez]

All the good stuff requires money.

Thanks for the tip,

VC