Best Way for 4:3 Letterbox Capture to 16:9 DVD?

[TenaciousJP]

Hello. I have a tape of a classic movie in my collection that I recently found. It's in 1.85:1 letterbox, and it's never been released on DVD. It's a favorite of mine that I watch frequently, so I want to transfer it to DVD.

I capture VHS tapes through my Sony GigaPocket setup. It captures the tape in a high-quality format that I can either export to NTSC DVD-compliant MPEG-2, DV AVI, or NTSC VCD-compliant MPEG-1.

I want to be able to watch this movie without having to monkey with the settings on my DVD player or 16:9 HDTV. What would be the best way to capture (and re-encode, if needed) the 4:3 letterbox movie to be in 16:9 anamorphic format for DVD? I know that the quality wouldn't improve or anything, but I'm still interested.

Or ultimately, is there no way to do it for me... meaning I should just leave the format alone and burn it in 4:3 Letterbox?

Thank you.

[thecoalman]

I know that the quality wouldn't improve or anything, but I'm still interested.

Most likely it will become worse though.

Or ultimately, is there no way to do it for me... meaning I should just leave the format alone and burn it in 4:3 Letterbox?

See above....

What software are you using to edit?

[TenaciousJP]

If the quality would become worse to the point where I'd definitely notice, I'll just leave it at 4:3, then. Anyway, wouldn't the capture be interlaced? Then, there wouldn't be a point to keeping progressive scan on. I have to take off progressive scan to be able to change the aspect ratio (zoom, stretch, etc.) on my TV.

I wasn't planning on editing anything. I was just going to capture the movie and then author it to DVD. The only change I would make is converting the MPEG2 sound to AC3.

If I did have to edit, I have Adobe Premiere.

[junkmalle]

Capture at 720x480. Crop 60 lines off the top and bottom. Resize what's left to 720x480 -- if your source is interlaced make sure the resizer handles it as such. Encode as MPEG2, 16:9. Burn to DVD.

If it's a movie and you are in an NTSC country you might be able to inverse telecine to restore the original 23.976 fps film frames. Do that before cropping and resizing. That would give the best results.

[TenaciousJP]

Thank you both for your help! I really appreciate it.

I popped in the tape to check it, and it looks like the video isn't too sharp to begin with. The tape is an early 80s retail VHS, and it's definitely been played a lot.

I think it would be best if I just kept it 4:3 letterbox after all.

That way, if I want to watch it on one of the 4:3 analog TVs in the house it will look its best there. Otherwise, I'll just zoom the TV to 16:9 and cut off the bars.

But now I'm glad I know how to do this kind of thing in the future when I have a video of better quality.

[skeg64]

even if you leave it as 4:3 it still might be worth cropping off the black bars and adding new ones. It makes it look better because any errors on the tape in these areas will be removed. Just use virtualdub's null transform and resize filters.

[TenaciousJP]

Thanks for the suggestion, skeg64. I might just do that.

[FulciLives]

even if you leave it as 4:3 it still might be worth cropping off the black bars and adding new ones. It makes it look better because any errors on the tape in these areas will be removed. Just use virtualdub's null transform and resize filters.

Just be sure to add equal amount of black as you remove.

For instance if you have to cut 70 from the top and 70 from the bottom be sure to add 70 back to the top and bottom and your field order (interlaced video) will be the same.

Sometimes you find you have to crop more from the top than the bottom or vice versa. If you keep things "even" then you can "shift" the image and still not mess up the field order.

For instance if you have to cut 66 from the top but only 62 from the bottom then yoiu can add 64 on the top and 64 on the bottom and keep the field order the same.

- John "FulciLives" Coleman