Aspect Ratio Conversion

[dvddimwit]

I, as many of you, are into backing up my DVD collection.
I use the "great" DVD Shrink with Nero6. Many of the movies that I purchase come in the 16:9 aspect ration format. Personally, I can't affort to buy a wide-screen TV and furthermore the price that they tack on them is so rediculous, that I could use that kind of $ to purchase my oldest daughter a used vehicle in pretty good shape. That's beside the point...

I am intersted in converting the 16:9 to 4:3 format. Someone had told me that I would have to convert the MPEG2's to AVI first, then use their software, (videoperspective) to convert the ratio, the reconvert all the way back to the MPEG2's to remake my movie. You know...that sounds like a lot work! I don't mind it if that's the only way to do it. Is there anyone that could advise me of a better way to convert the aspect ratio of my back ups? If so...I sure would like to hear from you.


Thanks, folks!

[setarip]

"I am intersted in converting the 16:9 to 4:3 format"

Check the hardware settings available on your standalone DVD player - should have "4:3 Pan&Scan", "4:3 Letterbox" and "16:9/4:3".

Try each one and you may get a pleasant surprise...

[dvddimwit]

I never play the movies on my computer...so I don't have player software installed. And what does the player have to do with me backing up a movie and burning it in another format?

__________________________________________________ __

A7N8X-X motherboard, BIOS upgraded, current.
Athlon xp 2400+ cpu, not overclocked.
1gig SD DDR ram, single channel.
Windows xp home, sp1.
Plextor 708a DVD burner.
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As far as I know of, I don't have any options to this type of hardware settings.

Thank you for your response.

[sfheath]

Setarip is refering to your DVD Player; the device plugged into your TV.
Doesn't your TV remote have an aspect ratio button?
If the answers are no and no, then I fear "Someone" is right

[Crash Override]

If you "convert" 16:9 to 4:3 you have to crop out a bunch of the picture. Are you sure the black bars bother you that much?

And personally, I've spent way more on my HT setup than many people spend on their cars -- but I spend way more time using it than most people spend using their cars, so no biggie.....

[dvddimwit]

All I'm asking is, "How can I accomplish the ratio change?" I understand that I may have to crop out some of my picture! We just like the 4:3 letterbox format better. I'm trying to find a away to get this done. The answer to the question about does my TV have this option...the answer is no and no for for my player...
sorry for misunderstanding you, setarip.

Thanks for your responses, folks...

[Crash Override]

I don't think we're talking about the same things. If you have your player set to the proper TV type, the picture will be the correct aspect ratio -- it just may have black bars to accomplish that. That's letterbox.

It's not that you "may" have to crop out some of your picture to get rid of these bars. It's the whole 'rectangular peg in a square hole' problem. By definition that's what you are doing.

DVDs in general store their widescreen video as anamorphic, which means that the actual frame is always 4:3, but in your player's setup you tell it what shape your TV is. If you say 16:9, the player merely sends the whole frame out to the TV and lets it deal with it. If you say 4:3, then the player throws out every 3rd line of resolution to correct the aspect ratio and give you the black bars.

So there's no easy way to modify the anamorphic image to be 4:3. I'm not sure what you mean by that you "like the 4:3 letterbox format" better. That means you DO want the black bars? I'm confused. However, you can tell the player you have a 16:9 set, and it'll remove your black bars -- everybody will just be really skinny on your 4:3 set.

[dvddimwit]

Crash...sorry for the confusion...

When I play a 16:9 move on my television with the player and the aspect ratio of my player is set at 4:3, then the picture is only about 2/3rds of the screen with very wide black bars at the top and bottom. When I set the ratio at 16:9, as same as the movie, then the bars are minimized to where I'm looking at about 3/4's of the screen, meaning that the wide black bars has thinned out, just a little.

What I'm looking to do "Crash", is to totally change the output ratio format of the DVD itself, so I can view it in "full screen" mode.

All I'm asking is, "What process do I have to do in order to achieve this? I know I have to do it during the DVD back-up process, but my knowledge of DVD authoring is minimal. I'm just trying to learn how do accomplish this. I don't mean to confuse you folks with my questions. Maybe I'm not asking them the right way and for this I appoligize for.

Thanks again for you response "Crash"
_______________________________________________

A7N8X-X motherboard
Athon xp 2400+ not overclocked
1 Gig SD DDR ram, single channel
BIOS upgraded current
Maxtor 80g, "Ultra DMA 6, Ultra 133"
Plextor 708a, firmware upgraded, "current"; Ultra DMA2, Ultra33
NVIDIA GeForce4 Ti 4400, graphics
Creative Audigy2, 128MB sound

[Crash Override]

First of all, there are two different aspect ratios for 'widescreen' movies. 1.85:1, which is really close to 16:9, and 2.35:1 which is wider than 16:9. With these types of movies, even people with 16:9 TVs see black bars, albeit smaller ones than you do. Most Hollywood 'blockbuster' movies are of this super wide format.

It sounds from your description that you're watching one of these 2.35:1 movies, because if you were watching a 1.85:1 movie you basically wouldn't see ANY black bars if you set your player to 16:9 mode.

That's all beside the point, though. What you're really asking to do is crop the movie down to 4:3. To do that you'd have to rip / extract the movie to an AVI, pull it into a package like Premiere, render the whole thing back out and re-encode the movie, then completely author a new disc.

You'll need lots of hard drive space to do this, and with a P4 3.0GHz machine you'd probably be looking at 3-5 hours of rendering and encoding time, then another 20-40 minutes to burn a disc.

Not to mention Premiere itself, which I believe runs $600-800.

Widescreen TVs really aren't that expensive these days.... and with one of them you'd be set for HD, which is 4-6 times the picture quality of DVD..... Not to mention you could be watching movies with all that time you saved.



D

[dvddimwit]

I understand your personal aspect of about widescreens...
Instead of putting out about 6 grand for one, I'll go ahead a put out the 5-6 hundred for Adobe Premiere. Not only it will give what I want in my movies, but a hobby also. I downloaded a trail version of it. I'm going to installed it, start playing around and see what I can do. If I can learn how to use it fluently, the out of my 1,200 movies about 800-850 of them are in wide screen format...I've got my work cut out for me...

Thanks alot, buddy...for your time and your responses.

[Crash Override]

You can get widescreen rear projection sets for $1500 and less.... Just FYI.

[dvddimwit]

My family plays alot of video games and a rear projection tv would be not a good idea...

Thanks...

[sfheath]

28" wide screen Sanyo IDTV here at £400 ($722)

Converting ~800 movies? I wish I had the time that that kind of a hobby

[dvddimwit]

It took years to accumulate my friend, something like this doesn't happen overnight. Besides...where's "here"? I like talking to folks around the globe. Opens my mind and takes me back...

[Crash Override]

I started collecting DVDs in 1997... I probably have 350 or so movies... but the great thing about DVD is the advanced resolution, surround sound, and the ability to watch in an anamorphic widescreen format. I guess I don't really understand your obvious sizeable investment in movies, but your unwillingness to invest in something to actually view them properly on. Conservatively you've probably got $10,000 plus in discs.

The new digital widescreens (LCD / DLP) do not have any burn-in issues from video games, and neither do front digital projectors. Only CRTs suffer from burn-in. My brother-in-law just paid $3000 for one of the new Samsung DLP rear projection units. It looks fantastic, and can double as a computer monitor.