aspect ratios with TVout

[boboyo]

this is a bit of an all rounder really so i wasnt sure where to post it

im trying to find out what is the best aspect ratio to use when playing back a divx size 640 x 272 (using zoom player & tvtool)

this is being played onto a widescreen tv

i am trying to acheive full screen on the 16:9 tv but obviously this ends up stretched vertically if i choose 'fit to window' because the divx isnt 16:9 - but if i use widescreen or anamorphic i still get big letterboxing on the tv

i am asuming that my divx was ripped from a 16:9 source so does this mean that a chunk was taken from top & bottom of the film when ripped? & if so it would be better for me to rip to 640x360 for all my movies?

please help me - im really confused about this

[manono]

Hi-

my divx was ripped from a 16:9 source so does this mean that a chunk was taken from top & bottom of the film when ripped?

No, it doesn't. It just means the divx'd movie is still narrower than your TV set. 640x272 is a 2.35:1 movie, while your widescreen TV is 1.85:1 (I think). So when played on your widescreen TV, it still has some black bars, but much smaller bars than if it were played on a standard 4:3 TV set. Even the original DVD will play with black bars on your set (unless you choose to cut off some of the sides of the movie).

would be better for me to rip to 640x360 for all my movies?

Not unless you want to see them stretched again. You'd have to go to 640x512 and then use the anamorphic setting of the TV to stretch it out horizontally to fill the screen with correct AR. There are 2 main types of widescreen movies (but others as well), 2.35:1 and 1.85:1. The 1.85:1 movies will fill up your screen. There's another alternative, though, and that's to encode in anamorphic resolution. The following thread has some information on encoding anamorphically:

http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?s=&threadid=37732