DVD Copy 16:9 to 4:3

[Debbie]

Hi All,

I have some DVDs to copy. Is there a way to convert wide screen movies (16:9) to conventional (4:3) without much "fuss"

Regards,

Debbie

[wkulecz]

If you find a way, let me know.

I've tried converting some SVHS tapes of "widescreen" TV movie broadcasts to 4:3 using an MSP 6 moving path to "zoom" a 4:3 crop to full 720x480.

Quality was acceptable, but it seems the resize filter works on 480 line frames instead of 240 line fields leading to interlace artifacts when there is significant motion in the scene making the result generally unusable.
:-(

If your DVDs are frame based this might work, but the quality loss of resizing and reconverting mpeg2 may be unacceptable.

I made sure my DVD player had a 2X zoom with no overlaid "indicators" so I can watch approx full 4:3 on the TV when we play them back. This works well form most all "feature" DVDs but the home made ones are at two low a bit rate for this to work very well unless you stick to an hour or less per disk.

--wally.

[Debbie]

Hi,

I did have some good results with the settings in TMPGEnc using "Clip Frame", Center(coustom size).

I have streached the picture beyond "X=720" and extended the Y to get a good circle.

I have ended up with "Letter Box" format 720 X 576 for PAL.

Any improvement on this method I will gladly try out.

Regards,

Debbie

[Brian Ellis]

I don't have any 16:9 files or equipment to try it on, but as MSP 7 accepts this format, it may handle conversions. I quote "In the Project Options box, you can set the size for the ... output screen to 4:3 ... or 16:9. To use the 16:9 display, select Perform non-square pixel rendering...". I'll let you interpret this as you will.

[Dr Mordrid]

MSPro 7 is perfect for this kind of thing and greatly enhanced over MSPro 6.5, 6.0 etc. and about every other editor I've used.

When placing 16:9 on a 4:3 timeline in MSPro7 you first;

1. set up "non-square pixel rendering" in the project settings

2. set the Media Source Options "Stretch" mode to "Keep Aspect Ratio".

During editing and when exported the 16:9 video will automatically be letterboxed. This also allows the mixing of 4:3 and 16:9 video in the same project.

This also works "backwards"; as in when 4:3 video is placed on a 16:9 projects timeline. The 4:3 video will be centered in the 16:9 frame with black pillars on either side, just as it would be on a 16:9 TV set. Once again you can mix aspect ratios at will.

The "Media Source Options" are what used to be called the Field Options, but on steroids.

Dr. Mordrid