Converting 4:3 to 16:9

[dazuk1972]

I have some wide screen footage that in plays any DVD player and DVD recorder as the 16:9 and everything is normal. It wide screen plays in the 4:3 where the screen is pushed inwards from the sides and everything is thin and tall. When I rip to AVI the screen format is still wide screen under the 4:3. I got the wide screen format right through Windows Movie Maker but the screen was covered in squares. How do I get this wide screen footage as the 16:9 with perfect picture? What software do I need?

Many thanks.

[MilesAhead]

I would give AutoGK a try. It does a pretty good job of analyzing the video before converting. If the source is 16x9 you should be ok. Also if it finds "letterboxed" 4x3 it will autocrop and produce an .avi that is displayed postage stamp style. You shouldn't get any stretched or squished video.

If the input is standard DVD then just select the first vob in the title set. I find 92% quality one pass works fine for me. If you're a stickler for quality you can do 2 pass mode instead.