Converting files...What aspect ratio to use!!!

[rijir2001]

I collect movie trailers. I have been downloading many off of the internet from many different sites. A majority are in quicktime format. I use Quicktime Pro to convert the files to avi then I use TMEG to convert them to Mpeg-2 to be saved on DVDs later. The problem I have is that they seem to be all in differnt aspect ratios and I am trying to convert them to 720-480 (with black bars if necessary). Sometimes they apear to be a bit too tall or short and I just can't seem to configure them right. I know it is probably very simple and I am looking to deep into it. But Tmpeg doesn't automaticlly format it on its own. Any simple rules of thumb I should follow? Seems like a dumb question but it is frustrating to me.

Russ

[dafreak]

try this plug-in to convert from mov to mpg2 using tmpgenc. should save you a step.

as far as aspect ratio goes, you want to determine what your source aspect ratio is first. open the mov files using gspot and it will show you what aspect ratio it is in.
from the information gathered in gspot, set your input video AR accordingly, set video arrange method to full screen, or full screen (keep aspect ratio) if it's already 16:9. If you want, you can set the video arrange method to custom and select the sizw yourself.

set your output aspect ratio to 16:9.

[rijir2001]

Thanks. I'll give it a shot.

Russ