Virtualdub Capture For 16x9 Output

[waldodiodio]

I have an ATI Radeon 9800 capture card. I use Virtualdub to capture AVI from my Dish Network Satellite and a VCR. My TV is a 16x9 set. I compress the captured AVI with TMPGEnc. I've searched this and other forums, but I'm still not clear on exactly what the best settings are in Virtualdub to capture the initial video. Can anyone help? When I specify a custom capture format in Virtualdub that has 16x9 parameters (e.g. 720x405) it tells me that's invalid. Also, does my source have to be 16x9 iteself before I can even consider authoring to 16x9? That is, can I hope to take a 4:3 source and end up with a 16x9 DVD? Any help with the Virtualdub initial settings for final 16x9 authoring would be appreciated.

[mikiem]

Please see post in other forum section for more info.

Your signal is set before your card sees it. AFAIK the only way these signals are broadcast is either HD, DVB, or std., & std is basically 601 spec 720 x 480/576. If you grab the stream from your sat (not capture analog), now or in the future you might get 16:9, but otherwise if you're captureing analog over s-vid or co-ax you're getting the decoder box output at roughly 601 spec. intended for a 4:3 TV.

Setting your card to capture something else, you're either tossing data (480 - 352 - 640 etc), or asking the capture software to resize it for you, assuming you're even successful. So best bet is to get the most data you can (full frame) then crop & resize during processsing.