Shadow box after converting to Mpeg2/MP4/FLV

[LouieLand]

I am a newby with a frustrating issue getting exact conversions involving the shadow box surrounding the video. Let me try to explain as best I can.

I have a DIVX video and a .VOB that I used the program AnyVideoConverter to convert to MPEG2 file. When the conversion is completed the video looks good and sounds good, however, pre conversion the video only had what I call shadow box or letterbox on the top and bottom of the video, and stretched to the side of the screen on both my VLC player and MP.

After conversion, there are letterbox/shadow box all around the video and when I full screen it, I get the full letterbox effect. In other words the picture does not fill out the entire screen as it did prior convertion. Good sound and quality, but effectively the actual video size is smaller and more screen is taken up by the letterbox.

The video frame size is 720x300 30fps

Can someone please help me figure out what I am doing wrong?

When I load the video up to YT it does not fill out the player and has about 30% shadow/lettbox around it.

What in the conversion process am I going wrong?

thanks

[Baldrick]

For vobs/dvd use instead a converter that can automatically crop the video for you, like handbrake, autogk, staxrip. Convert to avi or mp4 for youtube.

[LouieLand]

For vobs/dvd use instead a converter that can automatically crop the video for you, like handbrake, autogk, staxrip. Convert to avi or mp4 for youtube.

well, I am so uninformed on this subject that I need an interpretation. When you say cropping automatically does it place it in a size that will eliminate the bars? sorry, but this stuff is very confusing.


.....and if you dont mind answering another question. Which piece of free software will actually allow you to play with different frame rates and frame size and being able to change format as well as change from 4:3 to 16:9?

thanks

[guns1inger]

A widescreen (16:9) DVD and a 4:3 DVD use the same resolution - NTSC 720 x 480, or PAL 720 x 576. The aspect ratio of a 16:9 film is 1.77 : 1 (16:9), however many films are wider than this - 1.85 and 2.35 are the most common formats, but there are many others. Because these are wider than the screen, black bars are added top and bottom to keep the total aspect ratio to 16:9. They are also stored using non-square pixels, which distorts the shape of the image and allows it to fit in the same space a 4:3 movie. This is fine for DVD playback, because these videos also have a flag that tells the player and/or TV that the video should be presented as a 16:9 video, and the player and/or TV adjust the image to look correct.

Most Divx/Xvid players, and some software players, work best when the video only uses square pixels (1:1 pixel aspect ratio). Any area of the screen not covered by video will be covered by black bars, even though they might not be in the video itself. But what if they are ?

What if, when you encode your video, you keep the black bars ? Or what if your source was a letterboxed 4:3 movie (i.e. wide-screen movie in a 4:3 frame) ?

Then the player can get lost. It will look at the total dimensions of the video, including bars, and adjust for this, not the actual image. This can make a 16:9 video look like a 4:3 video. The player will then add pillarboxes (black bars up the side) on a wide-screen display, leaving the video looking like a postage stamp in a sea of black.

Simplest solution : use a smart encoder that will crop off all the excess black bars, and resize the image correctly. As has been pointed out, many encoders will do this, Along with those listed above, I also like Xvid4PSP.

It might also be worth posting a few seconds of footage as an attachment so we can see what your source is like.

[LouieLand]

thank you for writing such a detailed explanation, thats helps. I have downloaded Handbrake and will start playing with that.

My problem now is that I have a large Divx file, 1.7gb and I want to cut this into smaller divx files so that I can work with snippets of video so it doesnt take so long to encode.

Can you recommend a program(free and simple)that will split large Divx files into smaller ones?

thanks again, once I get a smaller clip I can post a link,.

thanks

[Baldrick]

Use virtualdub or avidemux to cut. Click on them editing guides.

[LouieLand]

Use virtualdub or avidemux to cut. Click on them editing guides.

thanks, I did download Virtual Dub and followed the guide and was able to chop up the video.

but this leads to another question. VD changed the file from a Divx to an AVI. Should I go and reverse the process when I get the movie chopped up like I want to or should I just take the AVI files that I created from VD and put them in Handbrake to convert to MP4? If so, all this converting reduces the video's crispness correct? No other way to do this(get them up to YT in best quality)without all these steps?

And when I put them in Handbrake this is where I can experiment with different frame rates and such in order to make the best looking video for YT?

ONe more thing, I do get this error when I first open a Divx video in VD.



Is this error something to worry about, fix?

thanks again, making progress slowly but surely.


Update:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JyB1t8iK2mI

That is the end result. Not to bad as the video retains the exact formatting I saw on the original Divx and there is not a huge loss of video or audio quality. Success!!

thanks for your help, and of course another question if I may.

What, if anything can I do to this video to get those toggles on the bottom of the video to work so it would show in 720?

Original size is 720x400. Is there any manipulation I can do in VD or HandBreak that would allow me to upscale this to see how it looks? or once a video is in its size, such as 720x400 you cannot raise it any more in any way?

thanks again, let me know how the video looks to you if you would please.