Letterbox to normal conversion...???

[Rickkins]

I have a movie, released in widescreen format, which I so very hate.
Can I back it up somehow in "Normal" format....???


Thanks

[ObiKenobi]

I'm assuming by "normal format" you mean cropping the widescreen movie into a 4:3 aspect ratio? Why would want to do this since it will result in a loss of almost 30% of the picture, for 1.85:1 movies, and almost 45% for a 2.40:1 movie? It's simple to do, just involves cropping and resizing, but the end result will be pretty crappy.

[manono]

Obi-

It's more than that usually. If it's a typical 2.40:1 movie, and Rickkins wants to convert it to "fullscreen" 1.33:1, then he'll lose closer to 45% of the picture. And since it's impossible to create a true pan-and-scan result, but you can only, as you say, crop from the sides, then he's going to lose even more of the action than he would in a true pan-and-scan.

Rickkins-

It's easy to do, but I and, I believe, most of the people around here believe in keeping the Original Aspect Ratio. So I, for one, won't tell you how to do it.

http://www.widescreen.org/