"Widescreen" VHS Capture - Suggestions for Dealing With

[Alwyn]

I've captured a VHS tape for archival purposes. On the box, it is called "Widescreen", but the capture makes it look like only about 1.42:1.

Not having any idea what the real aspect ratio is, I've cropped away all the black sides, leaving me with a 702x494 video which looks about right, aspect-wise (heads about right).

Was there a "standard" VHS "widescreen" that wasn't 16:9?

How would you guys deal with this?

The output is not for DVD, only TVs, phones, tablets.

[sum_guy]

VHS is a standard-definition video format, so it has a lower resolution compared to modern high-definition formats. The resolution of VHS is typically around 240p or 360p, which translates to roughly 320x240 pixels or 480x360 pixels.

Widescreen VHS tapes were created by letterboxing the image, which means that black bars are added to the top and bottom of the image to make it fit the widescreen aspect ratio. Because of this, the resolution of widescreen VHS tapes is the same as standard VHS tapes, with the added black bars reducing the overall screen size.

[jagabo]

Very little was shot at 16:9 before modern HD TV broadcasts. The nearest aspect ratio that was commonly used for film is 1.85:1. Your sample appears to be a normal rec.601 cap where the full 720x576 frame represents about 1.36:1. That makes the active picture about 1.55:1. Given the low resolution of VHS, widescreen releases were often a compromise between the native aspect ratio of the film and the 4:3 aspect ratio of TV. A 1.85:1 film may have been zoomed and cropped to 1.55:1 and released as a 4:3 VHS tape.

[Sharc]

Not having any idea what the real aspect ratio is, ....

When you have the title of the movie you could check in a movie database like imdb what the movie's aspect ratio is.

[jagabo]

Judging from the filename maybe this: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0118308/ (I don't think it's the Gwyneth Paltrow version from the same year). Unfortunately, imdb doesn't show the aspect ratio. But given the date it could fall in that short period of time where the UK had some analog widescreen productions. But the OP's cap is obviously 4:3 DAR.

I'd crop away the black borders and encode with 12:11 SAR.

[Alwyn]

Thanks all, yes, Jagabo, that is the movie and as you say, no aspect ratio in the details on IMDB.

I did stretch it out to 1.55:1 and it looked still OK.

I'll do as you suggest with 12:11 SAR and see how it looks.

[smrpix]

The capture itself is run-of-the-mill 4:3 PAL, pixel aspect ratio 1.094, and should be treated as such. That makes the picture within the frame 14:9 -- a "compromise" aspect ratio that UK broadcasters used for several years in the transition to HD. BBC still allows standard def material to be handled as 14:9 under some circumstances.

[Sharc]

The trailer in the imdb has an exact aspect ratio of 16:9, no borders. As an exercise one could compare it with the same scenes of the capture and possibly conclude how the VHS/PAL release has been processed (cropped and zoomed/resized). Just a thought.

Edit:
Re. 14:9 see here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/14:9_aspect_ratio

[jagabo]

The trailer in the imdb has an exact aspect ratio of 16:9, no borders. As an exercise one could compare it with the same scenes of the capture and possibly conclude how the VHS/PAL release has been processed (cropped and zoomed/resized). Just a thought.

Yes, it would be interesting to compare the two. I downloaded the trailer and it was 854x480, VFR, about 24 fps.

[Bwaak]

"I've captured a VHS tape for archival purposes." I would understand if you did it for fun. But for "archival purposes"? You can buy a DVD or BD, or torrent it for crying out loud. This is not a unique movie that existed only on VHS, and not a family recording.

[Skiller]

It is 14:9, but 14:9 never was a shooting format – that means it is always derived off another (usually wider) format. This was common practice by UK broadcasters when wider than 4:3 content had to be formatted for analog broadcast or VHS. In central Europe, full letterboxing or Pan & Scan was used.

In any case, since the framing has been tampered with (likely a good chunk is missing), and if you care, you might want to look for a better source than this 14:9 formatted VHS tape.

[jagabo]

One 16:9 version I saw has a little more of the frame horizontally, a little less vertically.


[Attachment 68624 - Click to enlarge]

That's the OP's video on the left, a 1080p version (scaled down to 540p) on the right. Both are square pixel here so the OP's video is narrower (720x576) than it should be displayed when accounting for the SAR (~786x576).

[Alwyn]

Thanks very much all, I've finally found the trailer on IMDB (couldn't see it for the life of me yesterday) and overlaid the two videos to match them: as best I can tell, the VHS frame comes out at 1.53:1, so 14:9/1.55:1 it is.

@Bwaak, calm yer farm, we all have our reasons.