Question Regarding H.264 And Output Resolution

[kalorx]

Question for ya'll: with XviD it's possible to encode a "soft" display resolution into a video; meaning, say, a 4:3-encoded video could be displayed as 16:9 during playback.

Is such a thing possible in x264? Is that what SAR is? I've tried to search for information regarding "SAR" on the 'net but have found very little.

The reason I want to know if this is possible is because x264 won't encode 640x360 video (both width and height need to be divisible by 16). Everytime I want to encode a 16:9 video I have to resize to 640x360 and then add four pixels of black padding at the top and bottom of the image, effectively changing the resolution to 640x368.

If I can somehow keep the image at the original DVD's 4:3 display and simply playback the video at 16:9 as any DVD player would, I'd like to know.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

Robert Aronson
http://www.progressivedementia.net

[stephanV]

624x352 would mimic 16:9 close enough IMO. But yes, that is what SAR is for although it is not commonly used for resizing 640x352 to 640x360 i think...

[kalorx]

I'm looking for perfect aspect ratio with no loss of pixels. And the video is 640x368, not 640x352 (aiming for no loss of data).

I'll look into SAR, though. Thanks.