Can you change a resolution without hurting quality of movie?

[spankey]

I just ripped Big Fat Liar for my son. It chose in dvd2svcd 4:3 with no borders... Now I like the letterbox look over full screen. Just due to it seems that the picture seems better cut down to stretched to full screen, correct me if I am wrong??? Any rate...

Can I choose 16:9 encoded as 4:3 to get the letterbox look? Will it loose picture at all in far as sides of the movie? I would think not but again correct me if I am wrong....

Thanks for your time and your help....

Spankey

[UltimateDBZ]

A search would have revealed this.

You're not changing the resolution (directly), you're changing the ratio. And if you do such a thing, you will either get a scrunched picture and/or parts of the picture will be cut off on both sides. It depends on the film and what ratio the source is, to what you want it to be.

It's really not a good idea to change the ratio just because you think it looks better, because most likely it won't end up that way. Just leave it the way the source is, you'll like the results better believe me.

[markrb]

Changing the ratio is tricky. Best not do that it's messy.

If the original DVD was 4:3 then encode as 4:3. If the original DVD is 16:9 then you want to encode as 16:9 add borders.

If the DVD has both 4:3 and 16:9 then you need to choose the correct IFO that is connected to that aspect ratio. Right now you are probably choosing the largest IFO, but when you have two aspects on one DVD there will be two large IFO's. I find that usually the largest of the two is the 16:9 version, but not always. So it's best to check the IFO before you rip it. DDogg had a way, but I honestly forget it. The other way is to rip only and watch the files in WinDVD and see if you got the right ones. If you did continue on in DVD2SVCD and if you didn't erase and rip the next largest one instead.
This assumes that both aspect ratios are on the DVD, but if the DVD is 4:3 your stuck.

Mark

[waldok]

From my experience, I would say it depends on your TV Set.
I happen to have a 4/3 Toshiba that has a widescreen mode (I think I could call it an "anamorphic switch"...)
I get the best results by always chosing "Encode as 4/3 with no borders" in DVD2SVCD. If the original movie is 4/3, no surprise it works. And if the original movie is 16/9, then sure the picture is stretched vertically, but I just have to press the "anamorphic switch" on the remote and I get a perfect 16/9 picture with black bars (these black bars are not part of my encoding and of course I don't lose any parts of the picture on the sides).

So if you have this kind of widescreen mode on your 4/3 set, just use "Encode 4/3 with no borders" in DVD2SVCD and you will like the picture a lot. Otherwise, if you don't have the widescreen mode, you must (as others already explained) use the original movie mode.

Good luck

Waldok:)