Aspect ratio problem with FAVC

[Slimbo69]

I converted an .mkv file with an original aspect ratio of 2.20 (unusual I know), FAVC has stretched it to fill 16:9. I haven't tried to encode it non-anamorphic (4:3) as I would prefer it to be anamorphic w/s. Are there any settings that I can tweak to get it to encode correctly? Or is there a bit of kit that can *fix* the vobs I've created?

Thanks for any help.

[guns1inger]

2.20 isn't that unusual, especially for downloaded material which is often cropped badly any way. I haven't seen FAVC do this before, although I know it gets lost if you feed it 1.778 anamorphic source via avisynth as it sees it as 4:3.

Unfortunately, if FAVC has filled the screen with 2.20 source it has either cropped or resized incorrectly, and there is nothing you can do to fix it other than re-encode form the source. Perhaps DVD Flick will do a better job in this case ?

[Slimbo69]

I've never used DVD Flick, will it give me as good a quality encode as FAVC with HC does - cause I'm blown away with how good that free encoder is!

[guns1inger]

I don't think it's quality is quite as good, but it is a lot faster. I have three programs that I use for MKV conversion the few times a year I need to do one. They are FAVC, ConvertXtoDVD and DVD Flick. I usually try them in that order. MKV is a troublesome format to convert.

[Slimbo69]

Thanks for the advice, I'll give DVD Flick a whirl tonight and see what it looks like. ConvertXtoDVD is great for .avi's but with .mkv's the audio always seems to fade in and out of sync. Weird.

Thanks again

[guns1inger]

Another 'feature' of mkvs, - variable framerates.

Another alternative is to feed FAVC an avisynth script that resizes correctly, then use IFOEdit and DVD Patcher on the resulting DVD files to set the AR flag correctly.

[Soopafresh]

There's that extra tab in FAVC where you can add resize (and other) commands to the Avisynth script.

[Slimbo69]

Avisynth scares me - I like programs where I can set it and forget it I wouldn't know where to start introducing my own scripts - how to write them, where to find the ones I want etc.

[guns1inger]

Avisynth scares everybody the first time. For a long time I only used virtualdub because it was visual, then frameserved out to my encoder.

Eventually I bit the bullet and started with FitCD to create basic scripts, and began to expand them by hand. Now I couldn't live without it. Virtualdub still has a place in the process, but there are so many things that Avisynth can do that nothing else comes even close to. And at the right price as well. I recently did some restoration work on the digital broadcasts taken from very old, scratched films. What I was able to automate with a 20 line avisynth script would have taken hours of manual working using other, more expensive approaches.

[note-2-tom]

Another possible solution is TheFilmMachine by TheMask. I use it for converting the "easy" MKV files to DVD. It also has an option for editing the AviSynth script which I edit to Sharpen the video using MSharpen (a VirtualDub plugin) since MPEG encoders tend to soften and lose some detail.

If you like HCEnc (or Quenc), both are included during the installation. If you have Cinema Craft Encoder or Canopus Procoder, they are also supported.

[guns1inger]

@note-2-tom : you do know there is a native avisynth version of Msharpen ?

http://neuron2.net/msharpen/msharpen.html

You are no longer forced to shift to RGB to use it.