Encoding Anamorphic 4:3 ?

[cheeks]

Hey ho.

I've got a DVD that's 4:3 but anamorphic and its giving me hassles. When I try to convert it to SVCD with DVD2SVCD, the final product is window boxed (ie. black bars on all four sides of the image). Obviously, encoding it as 4:3 doesn't help, its still 'squeezed'. Anyone got any bright ideas how to make a fullscreen SVCD out of this one?

Thanks!

[manono]

Hi-

There's some misguided information in your post, since anamorphic is by definition 16:9. What are you trying to do? Convert a widescreen movie to fullscreen? Posting the log might be helpful. And maybe the movie name and region. Or maybe it's some kind of HK bootleg where they screwed up the DAR?

[cheeks]

No, its actually a 4:3 image that has been encoded anamorphically so that, I'm assuming, people with anamorphic or widescreen TVs don't have to push a button to change back to 4:3 mode. You sometimes get this with fullscreen trailers on DVDs but this is a ~25 minute long television special ('Good Taste Made Bad Taste' from the Anchor Bay 'Bad Taste' DVD). Kinda stupid considering the quality will be worse and they have to add black bars to the sides in order to squeeze the image.

[manono]

Hi-

Open the .vob in DVD2AVI and then go Option-Preview. What's it say in the statistics window, 4:3 or 16:9? The movie itself is 16:9, 1.66:1. If the 'Good Taste Made Bad Taste' documentary is the same thing (or even if it's 1.33:1), that explains the black bars on left and right. Since you didn't enclose the log, I don't know how you encoded it, but if it's 16:9, then you encode it as "16:9 (borders added, encoded as 4:3)".

Cool movie. Peter Jackson's come a long way since then, hasn't he?

[Nick]

I think I understand what you're tying to do and it will require editing the Avisynth script.

Open a vob in DVD2AVI (in you DVD2SVCD folder\DVD2AVI\DVD2AVI.exe).
I'm guessing you will get a 16:9 image with black bars left and right but probably not top and bottom.

From the video menu choose Crop & Resize and check the box in the top right corner of the window that opens. Then use the Left Right Top anb Bottom sliders to crop the black bars out. Make note of the values of how much you had to crop off each. Let's call thes l,r,t,b respectively.

Now close DVD2AVI. Then do a DVD2SVCD encode in 4:3 but check the edit when dvd2avi is done option in the Frameserver tab.

When prompted to edit the avisynth file, before the SimpleResize (or Bicubic/Bilinear resize whatever) line, insert the line

Crop(l,t,-r,-b)

Note the right and bottom figures have to be entered as negative figures. I do however suspect that t = 0, b = 0 : If any top or bottom cropping is needed I suggest you use bilinear resize at least)

This should (I think) do what you want it to.

If poss just convert a single chapter using CBR as a quick test run to start with.

Hope this helps.

[cheeks]

Okay, I'll give that method a shot. Thanks.

I've included a capture of what the preview window displays for clarification (unfortunately the monitor I'm currently using only displays in 800x600 and crops the bottom information off - I only get the picture).

[cheeks]

Nick you mad genius, that worked 100%. Cheers for the tip!

And Manono, Bad Taste certainly a good movie. PJ has come along way but I think Bad Taste will always remain my personal favourite of his, no matter how well he manages to top it.