Stretching picture on playback and quality loss

[vigi_lante]

Since most standalone media players only works with 720x480/576, they always stretch the picture to fullscreen (if the resolution is above 720x480). PC is also similar if you want to watch the video in fullscreen.

Since I capture analog TV, I think the resolution is not even close to 720x480, but I wonder if it would be a good idea to not resize anymore and keep the 720x480 in order to not get a stretched picture on playback.

So, I would like to know how bad, in your opinion, stretching the picture on playback can be.

[Ebobtron]

720x480 is the highest resolution that a DVD will take for NTSC and 576 for PAL so stay there.
The only reason to reduce it would be for reducing the encoded file size or for some other format.

[vigi_lante]

But I'm not encoding in MPEG2. I encode in XviD, to watch using Xbox Media Center.

[Si]

Since most standalone media players only works with 720x480/576, they always stretch the picture to fullscreen (if the resolution is above 720x480).
Do you mean above 720x480 or below 720x480 - most people don't capture above that sort of resolution.

For the best quality, its usually better to resize to the final resolution required yourself rather than leaving it to the real time process of your display device (In Avisynth you have a choice of many types of resizers - in your player you probably only have one)

However, your filesize can be considerably bigger for little visual gain.

I personally usually encode my analog TV captures as 352x576(I'm in UK) whether as XVid for CD storage or MPEG-2 for DVD and let my PC/DVD player resize on playback.

That way I can get more video on a CD or DVD using the same bitrate but losing horizontal resolution (which was probably not really there in my captures in the 1st place)

regards

Simon

[Boulder]

I encode to 352x576 only when I have a not-so-good VHS source. With a better VHS tape or any TV capture, I use 704x576. Scaling from 352x576 upon playback produces a too blurry image for my taste, and you'll also lose some of the detail, even with a VHS source. With an analogue TV capture there is lots of detail beyond the 352 pixel horizontal resolution.

[Si]

Lets start a "what resolution is there in VHS war" - there hasn't been one for a while :D (Only joking :D)

So in summary

1."Best" way to resize sub 720/704 captures is in Avisynth as player resizers are often inferior.

2. Capturing and saving at 720/704 is better than resizing at all.

regards
Simon

[Boulder]

Originally posted by Si
Lets start a "what resolution is there in VHS war" - there hasn't been one for a while :D (Only joking :D)

But there was the "optimal resolution" thread in the capture forum already, or did you miss it? :p

So in summary

1."Best" way to resize sub 720/704 captures is in Avisynth as player resizers are often inferior.

2. Capturing and saving at 720/704 is better than resizing at all.

regards
Simon
I agree 100%.

The good thing about keeping the resolution high even though there wasn't any additional detail to keep is that you'll save one big scaling operation which always results in lower quality. With 720/704 pixels the scaling factor is so small that it's practically unnoticable.