4:3 or 16:9 ?

[N_F]

I recently tried to encode a DVD only to find that the picture looked very strange. When I play the movie with PowerDVD it says the AR is to be 16:9 (and it is). When I open the vobs (after ripping them to the harddrive) in DVD2AVI it says it's 16:9. Only thing is, it looks very squized. When I stretch it to 4:3 in Goardian Knot it looks better in my eyes.

So the question is: 4:3 or 16:9 ? Can the DVD have been made in wrong AR? I've attached a zip containing two pictues (have no webspace to put them on) of the same frame (well almost) in different ARs.

What AR do you think looks best?

[diji1]

without having viewed your pics ( no attachment yet ) i can't tell you what looks best - but it's *very* unlikely to be the wrong aspect ratio on the dvd i would think.

[Doom9]

n_f: just follow the guide and everything will be fine. dvd2avi does not interprete the dar flags in vobs so it will always look different than a regular player. However, gknot takes care of that and stretches the picture accordingly.

[N_F]

Doom9: I'm not sure if I understand you. If I do as I usually do I would choose 16:9 (since that's what PowerDVD and DVD2AVI uses) in goardian knot and the picture will in my opinion get very squized and look strange. If I instead choose 4:3 in Goardian Knot the picture will in my opinion not look as squized as it would in 16:9.

Did anyone look at the pictures I attached?

[rui]

Beware that, when you open a .dv2 project in Gnot, in the window that apears, the picture isn't in it's real size. You must go to View, then select Resize. After that you will see the picture in it's right proportions.
I don't know if this was your doubt, but hope it helps.

[N_F]

rui: Yeah, I know that. I have already encoded a clip of the movie, one in 4:3 and one in 16:9, that's where the pictures I attached come from (haven't anyone watched them yet?).

Basically I have two questions:

1. Is it possible that the DVD was made in wrong AR?

2. Which of the two pictures I attached do you think looks best?

[rui]

Well, to me it seems that the 4/3 is the correct one.

[OUTPinged_]

a hint: find a place where circle is displayed (like car's wheel or something). now after sizing it to the AR you think is right just paste a pic into any editor and count pixels.

however that is a "brute force" approach. if people here can suggest how to find a right AR for a pirated dvds (i get these mostly and there are wierd AR's in there, like 2.10:1 or 2.50:1) automatically, i will be glad to see that posted here.

[librex]

Originally posted by N_F
rui: Yeah, I know that. I have already encoded a clip of the movie, one in 4:3 and one in 16:9, that's where the pictures I attached come from (haven't anyone watched them yet?).

Basically I have two questions:

1. Is it possible that the DVD was made in wrong AR?

2. Which of the two pictures I attached do you think looks best?

1. What's the DVD title? I cant figure out what it is from your pics. Beware of all the double-sided DVDs (a la Dogma) and the differences between some segments AR (like for example the title screen in 4:3 and the rest of the movie in 16:9)

2. Quite evidently, the 4:3 one. Unless the actors really are that fat and ugly..

-librex:sly:

[N_F]

The DVD title is "The Bogey Man", it's an old horror movie from the beginning of the 80's I think. So it's not that strange that you don't recognize it.

Thanks for everyones opinion, we all seem to agree 4:3 is the right resolution for this movie.

I remember when I watched the DVD about a year ago that I thought the guy to the right in the screenshot was really broadshouldred. :)