Joining movies with different aspect ratios into one file. Can it be done?

[rohangc]

Hi. I recently bought a DVD. However, it has certain PGCs in 4:3 format and the remaining in 16:9 format. I would like to create one XviD avi file so that the sequence of the PGCs is preserved. If I do that, will the DVD player (software like PowerDVD) have any problems when shifting from 16:9 to 4:3 and then back to 16:9?
Assuming this is okay to do, if I encode three avi files-one for the first 16:9 sequence, the second for the 4:3 sequence and the final 16:9 sequence as three different files, which software do I use to join all of them together without any problems such as sound synch,etc? Thanks.

[killingspree]

hi
unfortunately it is not possible to have different aspect ratios in one file, no matter if it is mpeg2 or mpeg4 - the only way to get 16:9 content into a 4:3 file is to letterbox it (add black bars) and as i understand it, that is not what you want :)

so to make it short, for different aspect rations you'll want different files.

kr
steVe

[manono]

I did this just a couple of days ago. I had a short 4:3 motion menu I wanted to use as an intro to the 16:9 film (making a DVD). As killingspree said, it's not possible to keep the PAR for both and join then as-is.

For example, the resized 4:3 XviD might become 640x480, and the resized 16:9 XviD might become 640x272. The only way to join the second to the first is to add black bars using the AddBorders command to make it also 640x480.

However, rather than adding black bars to the top and bottom of the 16:9 movie to make it 4:3, I added black bars to the sides of the short introduction to make it 16:9. It worked nicely. Something like that will also work for making an XviD.

Although, again, this was for DVD, here's the script that FitCD gave me:

LanczosResize(544,480,0,2,720,476)
AddBorders(88,0,88,0)

So, if you really want to join them, then I'd figure out which there's more of, the 16:9 or the 4:3, or decide which you want to look the best possible, and then apply the AddBorders to the other one. To add the 4:3 to the 16:9, AddBorders to the sides. To join the 16:9 to the 4:3, AddBorders to the top and bottom. Did that make any sense?