How do I put 16:9 video in side a 4:3 frame?

[StinkyPete]

Don't have a widescreen TV yet. I am streaming movies from LAN to a TiVo. Have a library of movies. Each movie is one MPEG2 file encoded 720x480 16:9 using DVDShrink. I am able to see the entire 16:9 picture thanks to TiVo but of course the picture is distorted somewhat. I would like to convert a few we watch all the time to display in a 4:3 frame but maintain the 16:9 aspect so we see the entire picture. Is there a guide anyone can point me to or maybe a free tool?

[guns1inger]

So the Tivo doesn't respect the 16:9 flag and do this on the fly ?

If you want to do this you will have to resize, add borders and re-encode every clip. If you think Shrink encodes you are mistaken, and in for a shock when you see how long you will have to wait in comparison for your videos to really re-encode.

Use VOB2MPG to extract the mpeg audio and video streams out of your DVD structure.

Load them into Virtualdubmpeg2, add a Resize filter and resize to 720 x 352 in the top section, and add letterboxing of 720 x 480 in the bottom section.

Frameserve from virtualdub to your mpeg-2 encoder, encoding as 4:3

et viola, you should have your letterboxed, 4:3 movie.

But before you do this, I would check the Tivo manual to see if there is a setting you have missed.