Aspect ratios and such like

[CtrlAltDel]

I was watching my DivX rip of Amelie last night, and I was getting a bit annoyed that the subtitles were relatively illegible on my 32" widescreen TV; so I dug out the DVD that it was originally ripped from, and I was surprised just how much bigger the picture was (I would say that vertically, the rip filled only half the screen, while the DVD filled about 80%, at the expense of some of the width). Of course, it also made the subtitles much more readable, although I've seen the film often enough for my French to muddle through. Checking the back of the box, the film is 16:9 anamorphic (original 2.35:1).

So how do people here do their widescreen rips? Do you just point AutoGK at the file and live with a wide but short picture, or do you (can you?) sacrifice some horizontal width for more height? Does this make sense? I guess it's a variation the old 4:3 pan-and-scan solution to widescreen, well now widescreen is prevalent and the source material is extra widescreen!

And final question - if using AutoGK, what size files do you aim for? I can't make up by mind between 1/3 and 1/4 of a DVD.

[CraigMBecket]

Don't use AutoGK, insted use separate programs to perform each of the tasks, Dvddecrypter, DgIndex, Delaycut (if needed), VFAPIconverter and finally VirtualDubMod. With the settings I use on VirtualDubMod a film comes out at anything from 1.2 GB to 2.5 depending on length. Big I know but the quality is great.

I crop all the bars of the dvd rip and only encode the actual picture but use the original screen ratio. for wide screen I stuff always use 720 horizontally and calculate the vertical. ie 2.35:1 = 720 H, 306 V (720/2.35) while for 4:3 stuff use 640 H 480 V

Craig.

[CtrlAltDel]

Originally Posted by CraigMBecket

Don't use AutoGK, insted use separate programs to perform each of the tasks, Dvddecrypter, DgIndex, Delaycut (if needed), VFAPIconverter and finally VirtualDubMod. With the settings I use on VirtualDubMod a film comes out at anything from 1.2 GB to 2.5 depending on length. Big I know but the quality is great.

I crop all the bars of the dvd rip and only encode the actual picture but use the original screen ratio. for wide screen I stuff always use 720 horizontally and calculate the vertical. ie 2.35:1 = 720 H, 306 V (720/2.35) while for 4:3 stuff use 640 H 480 V

Craig.

I wish I'd asked this question before I ripped my 100 DVD titles...

Actually, thinking about it further, surely this won't solve this specific problem? I'll still have a video which is very much wider than it is tall, with subtitles still illegible - the DVD player is doing a bit of selective pan-and-scan to increase the vertical height displayed by the TV. Is there any real solution to this? Of course, it might be a bit of a moot question when I move from 32" TV to 100" projector

[arkay]

The AR of the original is always going to be the AR of the final unless you change it.

The two options you have to change are:

1. Stretch it vertically by a percentage (resulting in an un-natural looking picture) or
2. Crop the sides and lose some of the picture.

Either can be done with manual tools as mentioned above but it makes for a long winded approach to converting a collection.

Probably the best solution is to encode at the same as source AR and use playback tools (or the TV controls), to view it in the desired mode. Most widescreen TV's can display the image at full height by cropping the edges. Some can intelligently stretch so you see everything but it doesn't look odd (outer edges stretch more than center of screen etc).

MCE has a number of aspect ratio selections as well.

Cheers,

Arkay.

[CraigMBecket]

If your problem is you only with the subtitles that you are including with your AutoGK rip, you could always try not encoding the subtitle with your rip and instead using something like subrip to create a subtitle file. I am watching my ripped AVI's with subtitles that way on a small screen (while away from home) and have no problems with viewing the subtitles.

Craig.

[vlad]

I am using http://tmpgenc.pegasys-inc.com/en/pr...p_feature.html for several years now, it costs money, worth every cent.
I agree with Arcay, I use the same ratio as original, results are very good.