Frame Size Issue

[Dave2020]

Hi, new to this, I've got lots of MP4 videos that I'd like to put onto DVD to watch on a traditional television. Trouble is, they're different frame sizes, heights either 360 or 720. When I play these on my PC, some (presumably the 360 ones) display themselves as a tiny box in the middle of the screen meaning I have to enlarge them, and the 720 ones play at a decent size.

I haven't looked into software for the converting to DVD task as yet. I really need the videos to be a decent size to make them watchable on TV.

Should I not get my hopes up? Am I headed for disappointment? Can anyone recommend any software or give any tips? I'm not bothered about perfect quality, as long as it would be have been acceptable in the eighties.

Thanks in anticipation.

[DB83]

Try avstodvd for a start


But be prepared for disappointment. The program will do a good job creating the dvd (also need imgburn to actually burn the files to disk) but the lower definition ones may not look good on a tv especially a large-screen one.


But also look at frame rate - use mediainfo on the clips to determine that. Many of your clips may be 30fps whereas Pal is 25 fps. You will be better off creating an NTSC disk from those - will still play back fine on a UK player.


The final issue will be run time. You really will not want to exceed 2 hours on a single-layer disk or 4 on a dual-layer one.

[Dave2020]

Thank you so much. Very informative. What do you mean by they might not look good? Would they be acceptable to a viewer from the 1970s or 1980s who doesn't know today's technology, or do you mean completely unbearable, or something in between?

[DB83]

Well you already noticed that the 360p video just appears in a tiny window on your monitor. Now play that same video full screen. Then imagine it on an even larger tv screen. I have tons of VCD quality 288p video which is 'passable' full-screen on my 22 in monitor. But a computer has a dedicated video card which can compensate. I do not think that these, even with VCD bitrate, will look so good on a larger tv.


I can only generalise and there are also factors such as bitrate to be taken in to account. The more that is available the less the 'damage'. So you can help that by even having less run time which then increases the bitrate available.


Bottom line is that you will have to try this yourself. What may be acceptable to you will not be so for another.