Burning movie with strange resolution

[sliver]

Hi there,

I have an avi file (Serpent and the Rainbow) which I converted to mpg and burned to dvd using TMPGEnc Source Creator and TMPG DVD Author. It is the first DVD I ever made.

When I watched it on my TV, I noticed everything seemed to be "squashed" as if everybody were on a diet. LOL.

I went back to the original avi file and found the resolution was 720 x 360, which is 2:1. I obtained this resolution using gspot and also the windows explorer "properties" window. That doesn't correspond to any aspect ratio I know of. My ultimate goal is to burn and watch this video on my TV and have it look as good as possible. This "too narrow" thing is annoying.

What should I do to encode this video to mpg and have it look normal?

Thanks!

[killingspree]

hi,
you'll have to add black boarders to the avi to keep the original aspect ratio... i usually use avisynth for the task...

kr
steVe

[Nick]

I don't have TMPGEnc Source Creator so I can't really say much about this particular tool. However, this may help

http://www.videohelp.com/~jsoto/tools/aviresz.zip

Run this and set to DVD output.
Set AR to 16:9 and select NTSC or PAL as appropriate for the AVI.

Type in the resolution of 720x360 in the relevant boxes and it will tell you the parameters for resizing this file correctly.

You could try using Avisynth and VFAPI to create a pseudo-AVI to feed to Source creator.
Install Avisynth from avisynth.org. Do a google for VFAPI Converter and download it.

Open Notepad and make a script:

Directshowsource("C:\myfile.avi")
LanczosResize(x,y)
AddBorders(a,b,c,d)

Substitute the filename and path in line 1 for the correct one and sub x,y,a,b,c,d for the variables AviRes gives you. Then save the file as whatever.avs - the avs extension is for Avisynth script files.

Now run VFAPI Converter and use Add Job to import your avs file. Hit Convert and a new AVI file will appear in the directory where you saved the avs script. Run this through your encoder program.