how preserve OAR from PAL to NTSC

[lancer]

I have a script that can take care of PAL to NTSC, however the film is an anamorphic 2.35:1 title.

obviously as a PAL item the res is much higher on PAL than it is on NTSC, how do I get it to an anamorphic 720 x 480 title (with black bars) while preserving the Original aspect ratio of the film when it is displayed on a 16:9 screen?

[scharfis_brain]

just resize to 720x576 and encode as anamorphic 16:9-PAL MPEG2

[lancer]

that's not what I want.

I need to convert the PAL to play NTSC so I can send it abroad to someone without PAL playback capability.

I can convert to a good 29.97 mpeg file which has got smooth motion etc, that's not the problem, the problem is getting the 720 x 430 (minus black bars) res anamorphic PAL file to a 720 x 364 anamorphic NTSC file and keep the original aspect ratio of 2.35:1

I imagine I need to decimate the vertical res in some way but have no idea if that's possible.

obviously they do something in TV production because you often seen NTSC USA programs on UK tv and they look soft because the res has been scaled up.

the same thing happens when PAL gets converted for display on US tv. but how can it be done in script?

[Boulder]

FitCD can do the math for you.

[lancer]

???? fitcd is all about bitrate calculations and resolution scaling for svcd. not what I want at all.

I know what res I need, the question is something else entirely.

[scharfis_brain]

resizing between 480 <-> 576 does NOT alter the Displayed AR!

[Boulder]

Originally posted by lancer
???? fitcd is all about bitrate calculations and resolution scaling for svcd. not what I want at all.

I know what res I need, the question is something else entirely.
If you looked at the program, you'd see that there's more than just SVCDs concerned. All the DVD-compliant resolutions are available and those include 720x480.