could use some suggestions on a few conversions

[msimon7]

Hello,
i'm doing a few projects, the goal is to make 16:9 NTSC DVDs (have a widescreen TV).
i'm very new to changing aspect ratios and such, although i have some video conversion (nothing complicated though). I've done a lot of reading and researching, but still some of the concepts are not clicking.
the 2 projects i'm doing are
(1) Xvid 512x384 4:3 aspect ratio with letterbox boarders on top&bottom
(2) PAL SVCD 480x576 4:3 aspect ratio with letterbox boarders on top&bottom

looking to trim the letterbox boarders from the top and bottom and produce a 720x480 16:9 aspect ratio mpeg2 files for dvd authoring.

i have been using (playing around with) MainConcepts encoder v1.4.2, so far from reading/experimenting i've been using the crop to "cut off" the boarders and set my aspect ration to 16:9. also unchecked keep proportions in the scale section (just because i read that so many times)

one of the things that confuses me is there are lots of discussions about changing the height and doing some calculation to get the new height. i've put my files in FitCD, the Xvid 512x384 comes back as 688x400. which i don't understand at all. i thought DVDs had to be 720x480. so where/how/why would you lower the height?

am i on the right track? any suggestions would be extremely appreciated!
is there a difference in feeding MainConcept a file via avisynth or handling the cropping in its own crop tool?
i'm wondering if i'm going to drastically lower the quality of the produced mpeg by trying these types of changes to make it fill-up my widescreen tv

thanks for any help!

[flaninacupboard]

not used main concept myself, so i'm not sure of the settings you need.

Fit cd is telling you to create the video file at 720X480, with thin black bars all round to have an image in the centre that's 688X400. i'd ignore that. making your material anamorphic will have an afect on the quality, the image looks a little softer, but to my eyes this is preferable to using the zoom mode on my TV, which makes the picture horrible!
It's well worth learning how to run Avisynth, it's incredibly versatile.

[msimon7]

thanks for the suggestion. how would one make the video anamorphic? this softness to the image sounds like it may be beneficial for these projects i'm trying given the source.
thanks again!

[flaninacupboard]

can't help you with mainconcept settings i'm afraid!

if you're not hot on anamorphic video, do a quick google, there's loads of info available. basically you crop the black bars and let your encoder resize it to 16:9, this will give you a picture that looks "wrong" on your PC, but your DVD player will resize it to look right.

[msimon7]

thanks again for the reply.
i ran a test of what i think is what you are saying, but not actually sure.
i realize you're not a mainconcept user, but maybe these concepts are general to all video apps.
i ran the PAL SVCD thru MC with the output predefined as 16:9 DVD (basically forces it to 720x480 with the right audio type) and in their interface i cropped off the top and bottom 70 lines which removed the black bars.
the result seemed to look correct and fills the widescreen display (looking at it with PowerDVD). would this then be considered anamorphic or just simply a 16:9 widescreen image? i guess my question is what is the difference between anamorphic and 16:9? is anamporphic just a "wider" display?
sorry to sound dumb, i've done a lot of reading and i think i'm getting some topics confused. thanks again.

[flaninacupboard]

OK, you start with a file that looks like this:



so you crop it to look like this




then after you run it through mainconcept it should be resized a bit like this




That last one is an anamorphic picture, you need to look at it on a widescreen display for it to look correct. that's what we're trying to do to your video!

(if the images don't work first time click these three links

http://www.geocities.com/flaninacupboard/fullframe-0000000.jpg

http://www.geocities.com/flaninacupboard/cropframe1.jpg

http://www.geocities.com/flaninacupboard/ana-0000000.jpg

)

[msimon7]

thanks again. pictures didn't come thru in the post and the links all are "unavailable". i'll check again later to see if they become available
thanks again. hopefully i'm on the right path....