aspect ratio

[Wilbert]

Hi all,

I've a question about aspect ratio's.
From Nicky's guides I quote:

"DVD's only support 4:3 and 16:9 aspect ratios.
In other words they can be either 1.33:1 or 1.85:1. <...>"

But according to me 16/9 = 1.78:1. Is this last
ratio "1.85:1" just a typo ?

Thanks,

Wilbert

[UncasMS]

wrong

what about anamorph 2.35 for example?

thjere is more than just 1.33 and 1.85

[Wilbert]

Yes, ok. But that's not an answer to my question.
Suppose I've ripped a DVD and what to convert it
to Divx. The original format is 720x576 (16x9) and
I want to resize it to something smaller. Which format should I resize to?

For example 512x288 (that's exactly 16x9 and a multiple of 32). However in "http://www.digital-digest.com/nickyguides/resize.htm"
they give the following formats (for 16x9):

"<...> This is basically because even anamorphic DVD's are still recorded with black bars at the top and bottom of the image. DVD's only support 4:3 and 16:9 aspect ratios. In other words they can be either 1.33:1 or 1.85:1. If another size is needed such as 2.35:1 then they will squish the picture on the DVD itself so that when it is resized to either 1.33:1 or 1.85:1 it will look the correct shape. This means the following sizes are the most common to use. The closer to a ratio of 1.85:1 the better.
PAL/NTSC
720 x 576 / 720 x 480
Size Ratio
720 x 384 1.87:1
640 x 336 1.87:1
576 x 304 1.89:1
512 x 272 1.88:1
480 x 256 1.87:1
448 x 240 1.86:1"

This implies that I can resize to 512x272 (instead of 512x288)? So which one should I take 512x288 or 512x272 ??? How did they come up with the ratio 1.85:1 ?

Wilbert