Removing 16:9 Enhancement?

[Gurm]

Ok, I've never seen this addressed, so here goes.

Is there a way (preferably quick-n-dirty, but hey even complex works) to remove the 16:9 widescreen TV enhancement from a disc?

I ask this for a reason - sometimes the main movie is just ... too big to comfortably shrink. Heck, I've seen some titles where the main movie ALONE is 7GB or more!

Virtually all movies are 16:9 enhanced, which means extra... vertical information, right? Like an extra 50% of scanlines? Like 720x720 instead of 720x480? Or is it like 960x480?

At any rate, clearly DVD players are capable of just "throwing out" this extra information, and in the interests of creating a shrunken DVD would it be possible for us to do this as well? Think about it - it'd drop the size of a 6GB main movie to 4.5GB!

[yoda313]

Hello,

As far as I know that has nothing to do with it. It's bitrate that determines file size. Using smaller bitrates shrinks it. As far as dvdshrink I believe it "transcodes". It takes out some excess picture information to make it smaller while retaining quality. (not sure on the technical side of it).

Just remove extras and you'll keep quality high.

I imagine the 16x9 feature is playback related, not hard coded. Again not sure but that's not what adds to the size. Just use dvdshrink or another transcoder and you'll get excellent results without messing around with the actual picture source.

Kevin

[Baldrick]

http://www.doom9.org/index.html?/aspectratios.htm

add black borders instead of anarmophic will make the image smaller = more bits/pixels....but you must reencode everything so it isn't worth it then(no transcoding like dvd shrink).

[MackemX]

wouldn't the resolution will always have to be 720x480 unless you change it to another valid size?

If you cut the edges you would have to resize the cropped frame to 720x480 also or one of the other smaller valid sizes. Basically it could either go down in size or even up depending on the new image data compared to the old as a frame is still a frame

that's my 2p

p.s. also useful info http://www.dvddemystified.com/dvdfaq.html#3.5

[Baldrick]

Yes it is 720x480 but I mean smaller image size and more black. Just one color that never changes is much easier to compress.

[MackemX]

I got that part, it was more directed at Gurm regarding cropping the borders by dropping the extra info

[Gurm]

Ok I remember now.

It's always 720x480, BUT... in a 16x9 enhanced the ENTIRE frame is filled with picture information and the DVD player adds the borders, whereas in a "regular" film the black borders are part of the frame...

Ok... hmm so it would involve a full re-encoding step. Not always worth it. But good to know. Thanks!