Changing avi resolution

[Khraudo]

hello, i am new on these forum!

Ok ill get straight to the point. I currently own divx compatiable dvd player. What i want to do is be able to play my fansubbed anime perfectly after i have burned the avi's onto a dvd. I burnt one, thinking that the tv would project my anime as it is on the dvd.

But there was a problem, the file is being cut off, and i am unable to read the subtitles. I did some research, and to my surprise, i found out that my files need to be in 720x480 resolution (NTSC), but sadly, my avi's are in a measly 640x480 resolution, which causes overscan when playing on my divx dvd player.

I have tried virtual dub, but the quality of the resulting file was poor, and out of sync. I am new to virtual dub, so i have no idea how to use it properly. If there is a solution, can somebody please help me out! Thank you so much!

[junkmalle]

What you are seeing is overscan. It's a normal function of television. The problem is that your fansub anime is improperly subtitled for TV. Converting to 720x480 will not help, the subtitles will still be in the overscan area.

What you need to do is reduce the picture size and then pad around the edges so that the padding is in the overscan area, not the subs.

In VirtualDub use the Resize filter. Reduce the image size to about 576x432 (use the Lanczos3 filter) or maybe 608x456, then use the "Expand frame and letterbox image" option (on the resize dialog) to restore the full frame size to 640x480.

The easiest way to retain the video quaility is to Xvid's single pass quantization mode (I think Divx has something like this too). This is a constant quality mode. Pick the quality you want (try 3 to start) and encode. Lower values give higher quality, higher values give lower quality.

Regarding audio sync, you probably have variable bitrate audio which VirtualDub doesn't handle well. Export the audio as a WAV file, then use that WAV file as the source. Then select "Audio -> Full processing mode" and the audio compression you want to use (probably MP3).

[Khraudo]

thanx for your time and effort. By the way i recoded my original video to 720x480 resoultion, and played it on my tv. It looked considerably better, the subtitles are easy to read, but the sides are still cut off, about 40 pixels each. Also the quality is was reduced. Right now i am recoding it the same way as before, but increasing the bitrate, will that help? anyways, im recoding with VDUB as we speak, and i shall get back and tell you how it goes.

[junkmalle]

i recoded my original video to 720x480 resoultion, and played it on my tv. It looked considerably better, the subtitles are easy to read, but the sides are still cut off

Your player probably assumes all Divx/Xvid files are 1:1 pixel aspect ratio. So it shrinks the height of your 720x480 file to match the TV's 4:3 picture ratio. (My player seems to have a special case for 720x480 and 704x480 AVI files -- it assumes the video should have a 4:3 picture aspect ratio like a DVD, so it doesn't reduce the height.) That probably leaves you with a picture that's a little distorted. If you shrink-and-pad as I recommended earlier you won't get any distortion.

Right now i am recoding it the same way as before, but increasing the bitrate, will that help?

Yes, a higher bitrate will help. I still recommend you use quantization mode -- unless you need a file of a specific size (the use 2-pass VBR). Q mode makes it easier to get the picture quality you want, rather than guessing at the bit rate.

[celtic_druid]

Could be that the PAR is set to 1:1 anyway, in which case it wouldn't matter if it supported values other than 1:1 or not.

Also you might want to check that your player isn't capable of zooming out to avoid overscan issues.