Convert non-anamorphic DVD to anamorphic to watch on 16:9 TV

[Guido331]

I recently got a Sony KDF42WE655 16:9 television and started watching some movies from my DVD collection on it. I noticed some of my movies have black bars added into the top and bottom of the frame. This really frustrated me as I always make sure my DVDs say "widescreen" on the back of the case before I buy them. Sure I can zoom in on the movie with my TV but on 2.35:1 movies some of the sides get cut off. I did some research into this and realized even though some movies say "widescreen" on the back, they are not "really" widescreen, but in fact 4:3 full frame with a movie letterboxed inside. Why do movie companies do that!!??!! That is so annoying!

Now onto my question. I decided rather than to try finding anamorphic versions of the DVDs I have that have this problem and since most do not have anamorphic versions, I would just re-author the DVDs myself. (Someone please say something if this is some kind of copyright violation that I am not aware of.) Let me preface this by stating I purchased all of these movies myself and own them all. I am not exhibiting them for profit. I am only trying to watch my movies that I paid for in a way that best fits my video equipment in the privacy of my own home. So, with the legal stuff out of the way, onto the actual issue.

I figured I could use DVD Decrypter to extract the VOB files from the DVDs and then use Sony Vegas 6.0 (version C) to crop the black bars out of the 4:3 frames and re-render them in 16:9 format with smaller black bars for the 2.35:1 movies. After much experimentation I have the rendering part down to a science except for the audio and video are horribly unsychronized. The second problem is then how do I transform the MPG files (or M2V and WMA if I render separate streams) back into VOB files?

Here's what I'm doing in Vegas:

Open Vegas and start a new project. Browse to the folder containing extracted VOB files and drag them to the timeline. I have a custom crop already set up for 2.35:1 so I apply that and do a file --> Properties. I select NTSC DV Widescreen (720x480, 29.970 fps) for the template and click OK. Then I do a file --> render as and choose Mainconcept MPEG-2. I use a modified DVD Architect NTSC Widescreen video stream template (video rendering quality set to "best," Include audio stream selected). I click save to start the rendering process. My mpeg movies always come out with the audio and video unsynchronized. What am I doing wrong?

The other question is then how do I turn the MPEG files (with the still unsynch'ed audio) back into VOBs and import them back into the original DVD structure? I thought I could be clever and use TMPGEnc DVD Author to turn the one big 4GB MPG file into 4 0.99GB VOB files plus some other IFOs and BUPs. I then tried copying those new VOBs into the folder I originally extracted the DVD into with DVD Decrypter. When I try to use DVDShrink to then convert that folder into an ISO to burn onto a DVD, it gives me an error that the GOP structures don't match or something like that. I'm guessing you can't just copy modified VOBs over other VOBs because there is some kind of CRC check or timecode check or something like that. Am I correct? If so, then is what I'm trying to do even possible? I know it would be simpler just to take my modified MPEG and use TMPGEnc DVD Author to create a DVD and just burn and watch that, but then the original menu, backgrounds, extra features, and chapter select would no longer be there. I guess its not that big of a deal and I could probably live without the original DVD extras if I could just get the audio synch problem fixed.

Any thoughts?

[manono]

Hi-

Since you don't know what you're doing, why don't you let DVD Rebuilder do it for you? It's free and has a check box for conversion of 4:3 widescreen DVDs to 16:9 DVDs. If you don't have one of the commercial MPEG2 encoders that it supprts, it also supports a few free MPEG2 encoders. In that case, I might recommend the HC encoder.

But however you do it, it's not going to make the DVDs look any better. 4:3 widescreen just sucks to begin with. The resolution isn't there to have an enjoyable viewing experience over a widescreen TV set. You may as well save yourself the trouble and use the zoom on your DVD player or TV set to fill the screen.

[TooLFooL]

also you must realize that just because they are anamorphic that doesn't mean there will never be black bars. your tv's aspect ratio is 16x9, but there are other ratios used in film. ie, star wars is 2.35x1, it hase HUGE black bars! i believe anamorphic means it is increasing the horizontal resolution to take advantage of the widescreen.

[MovieDud]

@Guido331, toolfool is correct on what anamorphic actually is and what it does, except in my case I converted the non-anamorphic movie Armaggedon into anamorphic using Rebuilder Pro/CCE Basic. I feel it looks better than zooming the image on my 16X9 55 inch HDTV. I have compared and actually had asked for a couple of opinions of professionals who work in this line of business to see for themselves and they agreed that the image looked sharper than it did when I just zoomed the image, NOW remember that the actual image of Armageddon was the Criterion Collection, which meant that the image was great to begin with. I noticed that on several other non-anamorphic dvds that I converted it went back to how great the source material was. Many look great, but a couple of them looked just o.k... Yes, you will have black bars even on 16X9 sets due to fact hat many movies are still coming out as 2.35:1 or 2.20:1...wider than the normal 1.75:1 (16X9). I'm a purist in that I do not zoom the image to avoid the bars because I like the extra image quality and information. I keep a strong balance of full screen and letterbox and sat images that have still icons so that there is no chance for burn in.
I love Rebuilder Pro and I would encourage you to use it, even the free encoders that come with the installer (such as HC by Hanks and QuEnc by Nic) are steps ahead than any transcoder in many of the one clicks. Rebuilder takes longer by in my opinion it is well worth it, especially in the batch mode, where you can set up several projects for Rebuilder to process throughout the night while you sleep...in the Pro version you can have it create ISO image and even burn that image for you. Great tool from the team of jdobbs and rockas.
Good luck.
MovieDud

[Guido331]

I realize movies in 2.35:1 will have black bars on the top and bottom. That's OK with me. I'm just annoyed with movie companies intentionally putting black bars into DVDs because they assume we all have 4:3 TVs. When I use the zoom on my TV (DVD player does not have a zoom feature) it cuts off some of the sides of the movie. That's hugely frustrating. I wish they would just make actual widescreen versions of all widescreen-available movies and be done with it.

I'll try DVD Rebuilder and see how it works out for me.

[manono]

When I use the zoom on my TV (DVD player does not have a zoom feature) it cuts off some of the sides of the movie.

So will the 16:9 version of it you're about to make. It's the TV overscan. Unless you just have a funky zoom that zooms too much, but probably not.