16:9 to 4:3 resolution

[VaShy23]

alright i know its an easy question but i have yet to find an answer in the terms im looking for(yes ive looked all around google). I have a widescreen video and need to convert it to a 4:3 aspect ratio to play on my tv. The video file is .avi. What i would normaly do is use nero recode and convert the resolution to 720x480(h.264/aac) with letterboxing , but with widescreen movies i get some subtitles cut off. Could someone tell me what Resolution i need to set to my video so my subtitles dont get cut off on my 4:3 tv ^_^?
Also if its not too much trouble would you mind telling me the optimal settings for nero avc to do anime? as in like when you converting anime what do i put for Rate control, general settins encoding tools and visual enhancements ?

thanks everyone <3!

[Awatef]

What you say is not logic.
Converting a widescreen movie to 4:3 with letterboxing shouldn't affect the subtitles at all.
It's "Pan & Scan" that may cut subtitles as it cuts the image itself.

Anyway, may I understand why you re-encode your movies if it's just about letterboxing?! because players letterbox them for you by default, so no need for you to do anything...

[VaShy23]

yeah players as in the new ones :( All i got is my ps2! so basically i have to do it myself......but the subs with or without are getting cut off. i think i just read somewhere i should be converting to 640x480 instead of 720x480? is that true cause its the horizantal axis that needs to be fixed D:? also sorry i wasent specific enough but its the horizontal part that gets cut off. Like on long sentences 4 or 5 words sometimes can get cut off. The vertical is fine obviously since its widescreen no problem there, but it just bugs me knowing something is cut off :(.

[Awatef]

I use my PS2 for DivX movies too, no problem at all with widescreen movies, they get properly letterboxed (I use the latest SMS Media Player, version 1.8)

Anyway, I think the problem here is with the TV cutting too much on the sides. So you may want to produce black bars on the sides so that the TV cuts those bars at the end, instead of cutting the real image.
Like if you source is 640x360, add 16 pixels thick black bars on both sides (you get then 672x360 final resolution => no resize ;)). No need to add black bars in the upper and bottom parts, the player will letterbox automatically.
You should see an improvement immediately. If there are words that are still cut, increase the black bars thickness, to 20 or 24.

PS: generally, don't use non-square resolutions like 720x480. Always use square resolutions like 640x480 for 4:3, 640x360 for 16:9, etc

[VaShy23]

Alright lol dont laugh BUT i dident realize that letterboxing only adds borders to the top and bottom xD i was under the impression it gives borders to the whole movie which is why i thought i had to have it enabled. Anyway it looks alot nicer without double letterboxing like i was doing. Now you kinda confused me with the border part.First of all i dunno how to add borders :(.When you say add borders is that something thats automatically done when your converting resolution? Or Are there programs that add them?If you dont mind could you give me the one you use?Most guides only tell you to add borders on the top and bottom not from side to side. Lets say i have a 704x396 video. Your saying to first convert that to 640x480 then to add borders correct? Or would i just simply leave it as 704x396 and add borders from that making it 744x396 ( i added 20 to each side right?) Anyway still a bit confused xD.

thanks for your help so far!!!! im learning alot xD

[Awatef]

Hmm... you can't resize 704x396 to 640x480 man, the first is 16:9 (704x9/16=396), the second is 4:3! (640x3/4=480)
Since the PS2 is not so powerful, I would suggest here resizing to a 512x resolution. So 704x396 gets resized to 512x288, after that, you add borders on the sides. For example, with 16 pixels on each side, you get 544x288.
You can use VirtualDub to do these manipulations.
There, when you enter the Resize filter, tick "Expand frame and letterbox image", leave frame height on 288, but change frame width to 544.
Doom9 has VirtualDub guides by the way...

[VaShy23]

Thanks alot man!!! i never even knew you could resize with virtual dub ^_^. I got it to fit perfectly!!! i dunno if i should have done it this way or not but when you told me to resize it to 512*288 the quality was horrible =/. So i decided to leave it as it was(704x394) and instead add the borders on the 704 making the boarders 734x396.

anyway now that its all done i got 1 more question if you will xD. wouuld it be better to convert that boarderd avi to mpeg4 with h264video and aac audio or will it just end up being the same as it is in the avi with xvid/mp3?

[Awatef]

Hmm, you probably resized the wrong way. You have to change the resizing mode from "Nearest..." to Bicubic or Lanczos.

And I'm afraid, the PS2 can't handle H.264/AAC, so you have to stick to DivX or XviD (don't re-encode the audio, keep it on Direct Stream Copy). The Home Theatre profile should work fine on the PlayStation with 500 class resolutions.