Correcting VCD aspect ratio?

[gastrof]

Someone sent me a VCD that apparently was meant for a widescreen display.

It plays fine on my DVD machines, except that everyone looks too tall and thin. (I only have 4x3 displays.)

Is there a way I can convert this so it'll show up on a 4x3 screen with the black bars, in letterbox format?

Please?


(PS- Someone suggested to me creating a DVD from it in the process...I can't. No DVD software or drive on my computer.)

[gastrof]

Oh....

And I've tried changing the settings on three DVD players...no results. Still comes out fullscreen and squished, no black bars.

[FulciLives]

Hello !!!

The first thing is to extract the VCD to a MPEG file.

Here is a guide that covers that step: CLICK HERE

Be sure to follow just the first part of that guide so that you have a single MPEG file from your VCD.

Open the MPEG file (filename.mpg) with VirtualDubMod. VirtualDubMod has a built-in function that will allow you to take a "snapshot" of any frame and save it to a graphics file. This can be done by using "Shift-1" or from the menu. You want to save the image as a PNG file.

Now come back here and post that PNG file. Make sure you select a "good frame" ... one that clearly shows the problem. Make sure a person is in the frame ... also if you can find a 2nd frame with something that should be perfectly round, like a clock face, that would also be helpful.

Once we can see what you see ... more help ... and accurate help at that ... can be given.

- John "FulciLives" Coleman

[mats.hogberg]

I used to do VCDs like that - Squeeze a 16:9 into a 4:3 (only valid VCD) DAR. Then switched my TV to 16:9 to make it display correctly.

/Mats

[GMaq]

Hello,
I had the same problem with several VCD's, The bad news is you can't fix them as is without re-encoding, The Good news you can convert them to DivX or XviD or even H.264 with little quality loss, for regular 16:9 you would use a resolution of 352x192, if the movie is 16:9 anamorphic you will need to crop the black bars and encode at 352x144. With adequate bitrate (800-1000kbps) they should turn out alright.