Widescreen Help

[Sakuya]

Hello. I have a movie sized 640x360. It's in widescreen because it looks wide and the top and bottom black bars have been clipped out from the video. So what settings for Video Arrange Method in TMPGEnc should I select to maintain the widescreen? And what size should I convert to to attain the highest possible quality? I want to make an XVCD. I am making this non-standard VCD for my DVD player and it works well. Here are my settings I've used in the past, just wondering what I should change for this widescreen movie:

Output Size: 480x480
Video Arrange Method: Center (420x420)

The reason why I have the VAM at center is because the side won't go off the TV screen. But it won't work for this widescreen! When I tried using Center (420x240), the video area was too narrow. I have tried setting the center size at 416x368 but some of the people in the movie seemed slightly elongated. Please help!

[teegee420]

Instead of Center, try Full Screen(Keep Aspect Ratio).

[Sakuya]

The video is widescreen and the black bars are clipped out so it's just the video we're working with here...also I am trying to maintain a side border that's 30 pixels in order to keep the subtitles from drifting off the side of the screen. So normally, I set it at center 420x420 for non-widescreen movies.

[teegee420]

I understand. Try it anyway.

[teegee420]

Question, does your source video already have bars on the side? Maybe I misunderstood.

[Sakuya]

Nope, the source video only has the video with no black bars visible anywhere. And the size is 640x360.

[teegee420]

Next question: Does the source video already have the subtitles or are you adding them yourself? If the subs are already there and visible with no black bars I can't imagine why you wouldn't see them on your mpg with Full Screen Keep AR.

[Sakuya]

The source video already has the subtitles.

[teegee420]

Well I must say my curiosity is peaked. Hate to sound like a broken record here but did you already try Full Screen Keep AR? If so would it be too much trouble to post a screen cap of your test video? I'm just wondering what it looked like. Sorry I couldn't be of more help to you.

[Sakuya]

At 416x368, it looks a bit stretched out. But then again, maybe it was originally stretched out? I'll have to find some time so I can take it. Maybe I should stick with 416x368 after all?

[teegee420]

You probably thought about this already but maybe you should just leave the black bars instead of clipping them. At least you have the option as a last result.

[Sakuya]

I didn't do anything to black bars, they were originally not there.

[teegee420]

Check out this thread.

[Sakuya]

I have another question only with a different video. This video is 712x400. Would it come out correctly if I set it at center (420x400)? It doesn't sound right to me so can anyone have a suggestion? :P If you didn't read my first post, I'm making an XVCD where it is MPEG-1 but uses a size of 480x480. I normally use center (420x420) for non-widescreen movies so the subtitles can stay on screen. But now, this file is widescreen and the black bars are clipped out from the video. Can anyone help?