Encoding 4:3 Letterboxed films

[Stamper]

Right... hope someone can help me or give me some info as this has been puzzling me for a few days now. The film in particular i'm talking about is Casino (PAL R2)

For some reason, the authors have decided to put this film on DVD in 4:3 mode but letterboxed (is that the right term? it has big black bars above and below the picture)

When I watch it on my tv I select the letterboxed option which sort of zooms it in to 16:9 or near enough.

Is there a way I can encode this DVD using CCE to do this? Or do you reckon its better left as 4:3.

[syzygytec]

Wierd, I tried to do a b/u of Last of the Mohicans NTSC today DVD2SVCD detected it as 4:3 encoded as 4:3 but it still looks widescreen all I can say is it was taking so damn long I cancelled it CCE was running at .51 where as I usually get 1.17 RT on this box, sorry if this isn't much in the way of help but I'm a newbie and maybe someone will address my 4:3 wierdness as well.

[bobwillis]

Hi Stamper,

This week, I converted 'The Abyss' from 4:3 letterbox to 16:9 anamorphic (NTSC). I used DVD2SVCD (in DVD to DVD mode). I found this post extremely useful. The resultant picture quality was far superior to using the television's zoom mode.

http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?s=&threadid=48381&highlight=anamorphic+resize

For a PAL source, use the bicubic resizer with the following parameters:

(720,576,1/3,1/3,0,72,720,432)

Goodluck.

Regards,
Bob

[windtrader]

Bob,

I've wondered about doing this but never actually tried it. I know the picture will improve since playback of the movie on my CRT FP can be in "squish" mode where the player is set to fully display the anamorphic source (4x3) then the vertical size on the CRT is reduced to attain the proper 16x9 display ratio. Eliminates scan lines.

A few questions for you.

Did you use D2SRoBa when you applied the 4x3 LBX to Anamorphic conversion? If so, how did you "slip in" the different values to the bicubic resize script? I'm using CCE67 with EcICCE.

Did you use bicubic resize? According to this reference, it says this is best for enlarging.

http://www.avisynth.org/index.php?page=Resize

Important: AviSynth has completely seperate vertical and horizontal resizers. If input is the same as output on one axis, that resizer will be skipped. Which one is called first, is determined by which one has the smallest downscale ratio. This is done to preserve maximum quality, so the 2nd resizer has the best possible picture to work with. Data storing will have an impact on what modulos that should be used for sizes when Resizeing and Cropping, see the Crop page. Have you tried this other vertical resizer?

Did you use OPV with sizing pass?

You observed improved quality. Was this reflected in a lower Q?

Thanks,Don

[bobwillis]

Hi windtrader,

Quote: Eliminates scan lines. You're spot on - it looked loads better.

I didn't use D2SRoBa for 'The Abyss'. But I have done another 4:3 to anamorphic conversion with D2SRoBa since.
Yes, I selected bicubic resizer & clicked the edit avisynth script button within DVD2SVCD.

I then entered this:

0=BicubicResize(^TargetWidth,^TargetHeight,^b_value,^c_value,^d_value,^e_value,^f_value,^g_value)
1=AddBorders(0,^BorderTop,0,^BorderBottom)
^b_value=1/3
^c_value=1/3
^d_value=0
^e_value=72
^f_value=720
^g_value=432

and clicked ok. You also have to select 16:9 anamorphic in the conversion window.

Note: The values are different if doing NTSC; see the original post.

I did use OPV + the sizing pass. Unfortunately, I didn't compare the Q's with and without conversion.

I haven't used the second resizer (I was unaware of it). Note, the above only resizes in the vertical direction (the horizontal size of the source is already 720). The horizontal resize is done by the TV when it detects the anamorphic signal (if you use SCART).

Best Regards,
Bob