widescreen out of 4:3 VCD material...

[Dwight]

Yes, I know fiddling with the original aspect ratios is ..well no use
But if I'd want to crop up a 352 x 288 or 320 x 240
or even 352 x 576 resolution videos that are in 4:3
into widescreen, how should I do that. ?

Both for captured avi and ready encoded mpg files...

I know there's this setting for TMPGENC about centered (custom size)
but how do I calculate the new size for the video ? any formula ?

[Teshia]

Wait. Are you saying you're trying to take a 4:3 video and widescreen it somehow? Either you stretch it horizontally by squishing it vertically or you blacken out the top and bottom of the frame. If you're wanting to do that in TMPGEnc, load your video source in the project wizard and when you get to the screen for Filter Settings (it has Source Range, Clip Frame, and Noise Reduction on it), check Clip Frame, click on Settings for frame clipping, then another screen will come up. Click the Top Mask and Bottom Mask buttons. Set the settings for Top and Bottom to around 30 or 35 and you'll let black masks along the top and bottom of your frame.