Converting to Widescreen format.

[andyg]

Can anyone tell me the best settings to use in TMPGEnc for creating a VCD that will look decent when played on a Widescreen TV? At present I use the advanced settings 1:1 (VGA) and Full Screen (Keep Aspect Ratio) but I find that the result when played on my Widescreen TV is a very narrow picture (about a third of the vertical length of the screen) with about a 3 to 4" black line on the top and at the bottom. I have to widen the picture using Letterbox mode which reduces the black lines to about 1" to 1 1/2" Are there any other settings I should be using or are the thick black lines normal with VCD's? Sorry if this sounds a daft question but I thought that widescreen TV's had a picture format ratio similar to that of cinema screens so I'm a little confused as to why my picture doesn't fill the whole of my TV screen.

[poopyhead]

advanced setting: source aspect ratio should either be 16:9 or 4:3 (dvd2avi's info box will tell you this when you create the .d2v file)

in the video output setting: output video aspect ratio should be set to 16:9 for widescreen TVs. keep in mind with this setting, your VCD will not play correctly in regular TVs. regular TVs require your output video to be 4:3.

[andyg]

I did post a reply saying thanks for the help but where it went I don't know. Anyway, thanks for the advice. I was going to try the 16:9 setting but I heard somewhere that this was only for MPEG2 conversions (ie: DVD) and since I'm converting to VCD is that allowed or will it not play?

I think what's confusing me with this converting is the size of the screen. For example, 352x288 is the standard for PAL but the screen on a widescreen TV is a different ratio than that of a standard TV. So, if I'm converting something to 352x288 isn't that meant for a standard TV and not widescreen? Using 16:9 as a guide then shouldn't a PAL VCD meant for widescreen be more like 352x198? But my logic must be wrong because 352x288 played on a widescreen TV would have bits missing at the top and at the bottom wouldn't it? Oh boy... Am I just thinking too much. I just thought that with a widescreen TV you wouldn't get the black lines at the top and bottom because it is as it says, widescreen??

Okay, an example:

I have an AVI that is 640x272 (2.353:1) - what settings should I use in TMPGEnc for conversion?

[poopyhead]

sorry...can't help you with .avi conversions...what i said previously applies for DVD ripping to SVCDs and VCDs.

source aspect ratio is dependent only on the aspect ratio of the DVD..not on what you're going to watch it on....the easist way would be to use dvd2avi's info box to tell you the aspect ratio...otherwise, most DVD cases indicate if the movie is 16:9 or not.

the output video aspect ratio is completely dependent on the type of TV you're gonna watch your rip on. if it's a regular TV, then 4:3....widescreen TVs are 16:9.

keep in mind, if you set your output to 16:9, your rip will be messed up when watched on a regular 4:3 TV.

[thayne]

VCD doesn't support widescreen. If your movie is widescreen black bars will be added to the top and bottom, but it's still 4:3 aspect

[j1d10t]

What I do is trim off the black bars (if the video is letterboxed), then choose Full Screen in TMPGEnc, and then have my TV stretch the image to the full screen 16x9, and it looks great. I've done this with XVCD and XSVCD. Granted, if you want to watch it on a 4:3 TV it's going to look tall and thin. Otherwise, encode to CVD (352x480, NTSC), telling TMPGEnc that the source is 4:3, and to arrange the video Full Screen Keep Aspect Ratio (if the video is not letterboxed - if it is letterboxed, then just Full Screen), and then use the Zoom feature on your 16x9 TV to make the image 16x9, and your TV will cut off the black bars on the top and bottom, while still giving you something like a VCD resolution picture.