Changing a WS DVD to a FS or FS to WS?

[jupiter172]

Hi,

I am just wondering if it is possible to convert a ws dvd to a fs or the other way around? I was looking through some guides, but never really found anything to do with this..I am just wondering if it is possible, and if it is, how would one go about doing this?

Thanks.

[copiador]

You can convert WS to a FS by cropping each frame. You cannot convert FS into WS because image outside the FS is lost.

[iantri]

To elaborate:

Cropping a WS DVD is not desirable (Of course, I don't see why full screen is desirable anyway, but let's not open that can of worms!) since a fullscreen DVD can be prepared in several different ways:

1. Simply cropped -- the left and right sides of the video are dropped. If the movie was shot with 4:3 in mind this is a possibility. More likely on movies with a 1.85 aspect ratio.

2. Pan and scan -- the most important area in each scene is selected and shown; not neccessarily the centre. More likely on a movie with a 2.35 aspect ratio.

3. Open matte -- the movie was shot with the full 35mm film exposed -- there IS picture information on the top and bottom of the original image, but the director intended it to not be seen and instead covered up with mattes that make the picture the appropriate aspect -- 1.85 or 2.35. Many times full screen versions of movies shot this way are a mix of the entire image and pan and scan versions of certain scenes, as microphones and equipment may be visible or special effects were not rendered for the extra area, since it was not intended to be seen.

In many cases, simply cropping the sides of a widescreen movie will result in a dramatic loss of picture and may not centre the camera on the action (characters may become invisible, etc.)

If a Full Screen DVD is entirely a movie shot with an open matte, then, yes, you could convert it to widescreen by covering up the appropriate amount on the top and bottom. The China Syndrome DVD is one such DVD that you could do this on. Not a lot of DVDs are this way. You would not, however, benefit from the enhanced resolution an anamorphic transfer can provide.

[guns1inger]

Why would you bother going through this when

a. If it was shot in widescreen, then it should be watched in widescreen. If you care so little about what the director wanted you to see, don't bother watching it.

b. Most players will do the conversion for you if you dig around in the menus (or, gasp ! Shock ! RTFM)

[iantri]

a. If it was shot in widescreen, then it should be watched in widescreen. If you care so little about what the director wanted you to see, don't bother watching it.

Though that is a harsh way of putting it, but I agree that TV and movies should be watched in widescreen when they are composed for widescreen, and fullscreen when composed for fullscreen (don't get me started on the Babylon 5 DVDs..).

b. Most players will do the conversion for you if you dig around in the menus (or, gasp ! Shock ! RTFM)

Most players have a zoom button.. but the option you are referring to is the selection between "letterbox" and "pan and scan" for viewing of widescreen DVDs. A DVD that supports this feature will use selected areas of the widescreen picture (the positioning can be specified by the producer of the DVD, so it is not just a cropping of the sides) when set to "pan and scan". Since, appearantly, according to the very complete DVD FAQ, no movies have been released that use this use this feature (with the exception of menus -- many DVDs now use this feature to give proper menus for both 16:9 and 4:3), it will do nothing.

[ViRaL1]

I don't know about FS to WS, but I do know that some Apex players have what they call AFF or Active Fullscreen Format, which is supposed to allow you to resize (stretch) a widescreen DVD to use the entire screen. Never seen it in action so I'm not sure how well it works or how good it looks.

[iantri]

It merely displays anamorphic DVDs without squashing them to the correct shape. (According to reviews..)

Unless you want the actors to look anorexic, I wouldn't reccomend it .

[ViRaL1]

Could you imagine Lara Flynn Boyle stretched? She'd look like a bad reception where you have a thin line moving back and forth across the screen.

[gitreel]

I am just wondering if it is possible to convert a ws dvd to a fs.

Why on earth would you want to do this. I agree, if you don't like widescreen movies when filmed that way, then don't watch it.

By converting from widescreen to fullscreen, you lose about 1/3 of the picture, and the rest is stretched to fit the screen.

http://kdfalin.topcities.com/fullscreen_vs_widescreen.html