Possibly very dumb newbie question

[VanZan]

Hi,

I downloaded a movie in avi format however I can't play it full screen...if I try to use the full screen option in PowerDVD the picture is noticeably stretched.

Obviously this will cramp my viewing pleasure on my tv at home to have the picture only as a narrow band across the middle of the screen.

Is there any kind of adjustments/editing I could do so that it looks normal in full screen? Or am I just going to have to download a copy that works in full screen?

Hope this is not toooo dumb a question...thanks

[KingJohn]

Did you ever see that movie Dumb and Dummer, well I recon...... Just kidding 8)

The AVI's you download, must be in full screen size, or you wont be able to view it in full screen size. If you were to convert it in TMPGEnc, you would normally select "Full screen > keep aspect ratio" but in keeping the aspect ration, it wont fill the screen, instead you get black borders at the top and bottom.

If you select "Full screen" instead, it will remove the borders, but in doing so will chop off part of the movie and can stretch it. Most people now have widescreen TV's so the black borders can be zoomed out. Not much help if your just going to view them on a PC

[VanZan]

Thanks for the reply mate!

Ahh and are most out the movies out there for download like this or is there a fair chance I might find a full screen/size one?

I seem to remember seeing reference made to a resize option in VirtualDub...might this be a possible solution?

Thanks again! I'm feeling very sensitive about my newbieism so all replies much appreciated!

[Craig Tucker]

Most dvd releases these days are in some sort of widescreen format, and as most divx files are rips of DVD's then it is likely that most of them will be in widescreen.

Craig

[banjazzer]

You have 2 basic choices. You either use Full screen(keep aspect ratio) and see the whole film, with strips top and bottom if it is widescreen. Or you choose Centre(keep aspect ratio) if you want to fill your screen but lose the left and right edges. There are other choices, but these are the basic ones. 8)

[KingJohn]

Thanks for the reply mate!

Ahh and are most out the movies out there for download like this or is there a fair chance I might find a full screen/size one?

I seem to remember seeing reference made to a resize option in VirtualDub...might this be a possible solution?

Thanks again! I'm feeling very sensitive about my newbieism so all replies much appreciated!

You may get close with the SVCD .mpg other than that, most are ones captured at a cinema but the good ones are DVD rip's and most of them are in Widescreen.

Vdub and TMPGEnc will re-size them to full screen, but think about it, if that is not done proportionally then you will get the stretch effect, mostly the width is larger than the height, so to remove the black borders at the top and bottom, your going to stretch the movie higher, so everyone looks very tall

If you proportionally stretch them, then it will look just fine, but in doing so your going to chop a lot of the left and right of the frame.

Also stretching can reduce the quality, so like I said before, its best to leave them at full screen > keep aspect ratio

If it almost fills the screen, you an use full sreen, and crop