Making Widescreen from Fullscreen

[revlis]

I have a video clip that is NTSC 4:3 (720x480), but the actual video is only in the middle portion of the frame - the rest (top and bottom) is black. when i convert the file to DVD, and play on my widescreen tv, it looks about the same - black on top and bottom. My question is: I used Mainconcept Encoder to convert to MPEG2, used the crop function to crop off the top and bottom portion (leaving only what I want), specified it as 16:9, and then authored with TMPGENC Author. Now the video fills my widescreen tv (nice), but it looks like it's been stretched vertically - something is wrong. What have I done wrong? Is there a proper (easy) way to do this? thanks.

[Baldrick]

It could be a 2.35:1 video and then should you leave some black borders.

And why not use the widescreen tv zoom? you are zooming when you are encoding and cropping and upresizing to dvd with mainconcept.

[Abond]

Try FitCD. It will give you proper croping resizing values. As output select anamorphic.

[revlis]

It could be a 2.35:1 video and then should you leave some black borders.

And why not use the widescreen tv zoom? you are zooming when you are encoding and cropping and upresizing to dvd with mainconcept.

my tv won't zoom from the component inputs - only on cable.

[revlis]

Try FitCD. It will give you proper croping resizing values. As output select anamorphic.

I'm not sure how I can select anamorphic?

[Abond]

You select as destination in FitCD anamorphic (that means for 16:9 playback) to get the values for resizing. Simply check the box.

[revlis]

You select as destination in FitCD anamorphic (that means for 16:9 playback) to get the values for resizing. Simply check the box.

dumb question, but what will FitCD do? do I have to use AVISynth? can I get an MPEG2 file? I want to go to DVD, not SVCD.

[Abond]

No, your question is not dumb. It seems I gave you dumb advice .
If you want to make 4:3 NTSC to 16:9 NTSC simply crop 60 pixels from the top and 60 pixels from the bottom. Then encode as 16:9. I think it should work.
If the black top and bottom is more than 60 you leave the remain intact otherwise you can get distorted aspect ratio.

[revlis]

No, your question is not dumb. It seems I gave you dumb advice .
If you want to make 4:3 NTSC to 16:9 NTSC simply crop 60 pixels from the top and 60 pixels from the bottom. Then encode as 16:9. I think it should work.
If the black top and bottom is more than 60 you leave the remain intact otherwise you can get distorted aspect ratio.

cool. now i just have to check if Mainconcept will allow me to crop a specific number of pixels from the top and bottom. think it does. thanks.

[lbecque]

If you want to make 4:3 NTSC to 16:9 NTSC simply crop 60 pixels from the top and 60 pixels from the bottom. Then encode as 16:9.

After cropping 60 pixels vertically wouldn't he have to stretch it vertically by 4/3 to get back to a 720X480 frame and maintain the correct aspect ratio? I'm working on a similar problem myself.

[edDV]

It could be a 2.35:1 video and then should you leave some black borders.

And why not use the widescreen tv zoom? you are zooming when you are encoding and cropping and upresizing to dvd with mainconcept.

my tv won't zoom from the component inputs - only on cable.

Your DVD player will probably do the zoom at the expense of the left and right sides..

[manono]

Hi-

Your DVD player will probably do the zoom at the expense of the left and right sides..

If I'm understanding him correctly, it's a 4:3 widescreen DVD, so it displays with pillar bars on the right and left sides, as well as very large black bars on top and bottom, when played on his widescreen TV. However, I find it bizarre that neither his TV set nor his DVD player has any kind of a zoom feature to fill the screen left to right, keeping the AR.

After cropping 60 pixels vertically wouldn't he have to stretch it vertically by 4/3 to get back to a 720X480 frame and maintain the correct aspect ratio? I'm working on a similar problem myself.

The unsaid but obvious next step would be to resize to 720x480 before encoding as 16:9.