Resizing DivX in VirtualDub

[Templar79]

I'm pretty new to all this, but I recently downloaded The Big Lebowski off KaZaA, and the resolution of the file is messed up. The picture has a squished look to it so everyone/everything appears short and wide.

The file is already encoded as an avi (divx 3). I opened up the video in Virtualdub and did a preview of the file after resizing it from 640 x 360 to 640 x 480 using precise bicubic. The video looks normal after resizing it, but I'm not sure what other settings I need for the file to come out right. Will resizing it make the file larger in size (it's currently around 730 MB)? What can I do to make the resized file around 700MB to fit on a CDR? Do I have to mess with the compression settings at all?

Is there a better way than Virtualdub to fix this problem of mine? All I want to do is change a 640x360 file to 640x480 and reduce the file size by 30MB.

Or will the quality of the file be so bad after all the filtering that I should just rent the darn DVD and do it myself? If anyone can help me, that would be great! Thanks!

[manono]

Hi-there are several options, as you mentioned. And the best as near as I can tell would be to do it yourself (especially since you're telling us that the guy got the full screen version of the movie, when both full screen and wide screen are on the DVD). Since the idiot that encoded the one you have didn't have enough sense to get the aspect ratio correct, then there are probably other things wrong with it as well. Reencoding the thing resized will degrade video quality. If you want to keep the one you have, I'd suggest cutting out the end credits (you can usually save 30 MB or more doing that), and then let your player do the resizing on the fly so that it looks OK. The Zoom Player, among others, can resize it to correct AR.

[Templar79]

I guess I will do it myself then.

What's insane is the fact that this copy with the screwed up aspect ratio is the copy that everyone has on KaZaA. I mean, WHAT THE HELL!, right? Why would anyone share something like that and why would it be popular? I'm confused. And another thing that bugs the hell out of me is that a lot of movie files out there are JUST over the CDR capacity. Like you said, you can just cut out the credits in order to get it onto one disc, but you have to wonder what was going through the genius's head that originally created the thing. Ahhh, just had to vent a little.

Anyway, thanks for the heads up on that Zoom Player. I'll have to check it out.

[tuco]

Originally posted by Templar79
I guess I will do it myself then.

What's insane is the fact that this copy with the screwed up aspect ratio is the copy that everyone has on KaZaA. I mean, WHAT THE HELL!, right? Why would anyone share something like that and why would it be popular? I'm confused. And another thing that bugs the hell out of me is that a lot of movie files out there are JUST over the CDR capacity. Like you said, you can just cut out the credits in order to get it onto one disc, but you have to wonder what was going through the genius's head that originally created the thing. Ahhh, just had to vent a little.

Anyway, thanks for the heads up on that Zoom Player. I'll have to check it out.

Hence why I stopped getting my stuff that way :)

[theReal]

And another thing that bugs the hell out of me is that a lot of movie files out there are JUST over the CDR capacity.Are you sure you're not reading the KB size from the explorer window and divide it by 1000 to get the MB size? If yes, divide it by 1024 instead and all the files suddenly fit on standard CDR's :D

about the big Lebowsky - there are two versions of the movie on the DVD: 16:9 and 4:3 (at least on the PAL DVD, region 2). I also ripped the wrong version at first, but of course I noticed as soon as I opened the preview in DVD2AVI. I also can't understand how someone can rip a movie and not notice such major errors before sharing it on the web. I also wouldn't recommend re-encoding as the DVD already contains some compression artefacts (good divx rips of other movies look better than the original Lebowsky DVD, imo!).

[avih]

regarding the file size:
right click the file -> properties. iirc, 700M cd can contain up to 737,xxx,xxx in size. if the file is still too big, i suggest RE-ENCODING the credits in a lower bitrate, cut, join, etc. u can reduce the size by about 10-20 MB doing this.

regarding the resolution:
sometimes the information is enough for a good visual quality eventhough the clip is 'squished'. i also do my clips as 480x288 and burn them (capturing right to this resolution to xvid) , they are 4:3 originally, so the clip doesn't have the correct ar. but since most of the players support ar change, it's no problem playing them in the correct ar. i even use ffdshow and use it to resize to 640x480 bicubic, to get an even better resize quality.

so it's not really that insane.

cheers
avi

[avih]

wrong thread. moved to here: http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?s=&postid=154634#post154634

[freezer]

@ Templar79

1. Most of the 700 MB CDRs can be overburned a little bit if your CD-Writer supports this. You have to try this seperately for each brand of CDR. Sometimes it is possible to get 82 min onto the CDR.

2. I often use 90 min CDRs from Traxdata. Maybe you can get those one, I know that they are not available everywhere in the world. I can get almost 795 MB on one CD (no need for the XCD hack). I use those CDRs for 1 CD rips with two audiotracks.

3. How to overburn with NERO

a. Go to Preferences/Expert Features and check 'Enable Overburn'

b. Set 'Maximum CD Length' to 93 min

c. Start a new compilation with 'No Multisession'

d. Drop your files into the compilation window

e. Start writing a CD with 'Finalize CD' checked and 'Disk-At-Once' choosen

f. Ignore the error message about CD-R size - Nero recognizes 90 min. CD-Rs only as 80 min. CD-Rs

g. Start burning

[theReal]

freezer,

there are a lot of other 90 min CDRs available, I've had different unlabeled and some Platinum 90.

The only thing I don't like about 90 min CDRs is that you can't get very reliable ones. You might say Traxdata is a brand name, but they also make some unreliable series of CDRs (the thing is: they don't produce themselves, they buy from different producers and sometimes they buy from Ritek or some other bad manufacturer).

I have not found reliable 90min CDRs yet (like Kodak, Mitsui, Tayo Yuden). It has also taken a long time until reliable 80min CDRs came on the market. Maybe there is a chance one day Mitsui will start to make SG Ultra 90, but before, I don't like to save my precious movies on 90min CDRs.