Change aspect ratio or frame size of video without adding black bars ?

[Rhlsg]

Is it possible to change the aspect ratio and frame size of a video while converting it ?
I want to convert some videos to be able to watch it in my iPod Touch 4G.
Its screen resolution is 960x640 (aspect ratio 1.5:1), but it is supposed to support only 640x480 videos.
Say I have a movie in 2.35:1 aspect ration and I convert it to 480x320 size (1.5:1), my video converter (Any Video Converter free) will add black bars on top and bottom of the video.

Is it possible to change the aspect ratio of the video while conversion to MP4, without adding black bars ?
thanks

[Baldrick]

You can crop left and right of the video. You will lose a lot from a 2.35:1 video....

Or disable keep aspect ratio in anyvideo. But everything will be stretched....

[Rhlsg]

You can crop left and right of the video. You will lose a lot from a 2.35:1 video....
Or disable keep aspect ratio in anyvideo. But everything will be stretched....

Thanks.
It seems I can preserve the aspect ratio and use Handbrake which seems to give good results.
Or use Format Factory to change the aspect ratio to the exact one I want - which will stretch the video and thus degrade the quality a bit.
Will try both versions and see which one looks better.
I did not know Any Video had an option to not preserve aspect ration. will try that too.

[theewizard]

like baldrick said
two choices

cropping top bottom or sides to change AR

or streching to fill screen

personally i prefer the black bars, than distoring the video

[sanlyn]

Handbrake can strip the letterbox and encode the 2.35:1 video without borders. Played on your 16x9 TV, you'll see the letterbox again (your playback equipment will put it there). The only way to make a 2.35:1 video fill a 16x9 screen is to distort the video vertically. Everything would stretch upward and get blurry and noisy. Or you can just crop off parts of the original and encode -- but you have a button on your TV that will let you mutillate the video in the same way. It's like putting a big photo in a smaller frame. Try it and see.

[Cornucopia]

No matter the format or generation, these kinds of questions always come down to: Square Peg vs. Round Hole. IOW, to make something fit, something's gotta give. For video framing questions like this, it's a choice between:
1. Shrink/Stretch while maintaining Aspect Ratio and Pad with Letter/Pillar-boxing.
2. Shrink/Strecth to match screen while NOT maintaining Aspect Ratio, and have shapes be distorted from their original form.
3. Crop off portions of sides or top/bottom to match frame Aspect, then resize (if necessary). Also known as Pan & Scan.
There are a few variations on this that do combinations of 2 of the above, but that's IT.

Name your poison...

Scott

[Rhlsg]

thanks everyone for the inputs.
it seems i can't have it both ways - either black bars or distorted picture.
and I am talking about playing on an iPod touch with a 3:2 aspect ratio. TV hasnt crossed my mind yet.
i am thinking for slightly larger aspect ratios, i can stretch the video, while for too large ones its better to either stretch them a little or leave them as they are.
stretching does seem to add noise - but on a small iTouch screen, i can live with that.