Encoding a movie in 16:9...

[stick1977]

After I encode a move and watch it on the TV, it looks as if it is squised just a little, but not enough to make it unbearable to watch. I think is may be stretching it. How can I change it to encode it to 16:9 format or at least keep it from stretching? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[SLK001]

You resize a video that is 854x480 to 720x480, and encode this. Set the AR in your authoring program to 16:9, then it will appear normal on display.

[JimJohnD]

Using MediaStudio Pro 6/6.5 with the ADVANCED=1 added to the ini file:

I record shows like "Star Trek Enterprise" from tv i.e. 4:3 but shown 'Letterboxed'. To make a amamorphic DVD from this I use the following steps.

1. Record to HD, (duh).
2. Select the DVD template (duh again ).
3. Edit out the commercials.
4. Go to the "Cropping tab" and set the top at 59, bottom at 419 and check the "Keep Origional Frame Size"
5. Go into the advanced button and select 16:9 for the output.
6. Render the project.

NOTE: some capture cards shift the picture some so if you see a black line at the top or bottom you may need to adjust the cropping values a tad.

You will end up with a DVD that when played on a 16:9 display will automatically fill the screen and when played on a 4:3 T.V. the DVD player will automatically "Letterbox" it for you.

Now I know the purists out there will complain that this is "Not Really" 16:9 but it looks and works great on all the displays I've had a chance to play them on.

[SLK001]

Now I know the purists out there will complain that this is "Not Really" 16:9 but it looks and works great on all the displays I've had a chance to play them on.

Why anyone would want to crop off 59 pixels from the top and bottom is beyond me - but then, this world allows for everyone's preferences.

JJD's method will cost you resolution (RE:detail), because he is discarding "real" video info in his crop. (But I don't know how much he is really discarding, since there is some sort of letterboxing already being done in the broadcasted 4:3 video. It would be better for Jimmy to cap in HDTV, since I believe that the AR is already 16:9.)

But back to stick's original problem. To keep your video from being "squished", you need to maintain the proper AR throughout. Perhaps if you could tell us what the original AR was, we could come up with the proper encoding parameters so that you keep the proper ratio.