Anamorphic widescreen encoding with AviSynth + CCE SP2

Hello mates,

I'm trying to make a NTSC DVD-Video that:

a) When played on a standard 4:3 TV, black bars are inserted to the top and bottom of the image (allowing the movie to be viewed in letterbox format)
b) When played on a widescreen 16:9 TV, the image stretches back to its original rectangle shape.

My source specs are:

Resolution: 592 x 320
FPS: 25 (PAL)
AR: 1.85:1 (16:9)

About the AviSynth script, should I use:

BicubicResize(720,346,0,0.5)
AddBorders(0, 67, 0, 67)

or

BicubicResize(720,460,0,0.5)
AddBorders(0, 10, 0, 10)

or none?

...also, in CCE SP2, which frame rate should I use? the original (25) or a NTSC one?

Thanks in advance

 

You just have to select 16/9 in the dvd creation program.

As far as a) is concerned, it's achieved by the dvd player, when it
detects a 16/9 DVD and you have the output set for a 4:3 TV.

I always leave the frame rate the same - but that's because my dvd
player converts PAL > NTSC for me (and does it quite well)

Not sure about the addborders. Download AVStoDVD and look at the
avisynth script it generates.

 

First, thanks for the answer

So, I just use 16:9 as my aspect ratio in CCE SP2 then?
The one thing that I don't want to happen is that when the movie is played on a standard TV the image would then look squeezed and thin... what's the cause of this and how do I prevent it?

I'll check AVStoDVD out and then post a reply here.

---
EDIT: The Auto AviSynth Script shows BicubicResize(720,576,0,0.5) and AddBorders(0,6,0,6) ...that makes sense, since it's a PAL video, but I want to encode to NTSC. Should I leave 720x576 as the frame size or should I change it to 720x480 anyway?

 

AVStoDVD is quite clever at handling this. Look at the "settings" tab
and select your output type. I *think* for a 25fps avi > NTSC DVD
conversion, the program produces a hybrid 25 fps @ 720*480.

Then it runs DGPulldown to up the frame rate to 29.97 (NTSC)
before authoring the DVD.


Yes, use 16*9 if you want to create an anamorphic DVD.
As I said, when the player detects it it will process the image
based on the player setting.

If you tell the player your TV is 16*9, it plays the material
as-is (at full height).
If you tell the player your TV is 4*3, it squashes the picture,
top to bottom, so that the image on the TV has the proper aspect ratio.
Otherwise, everything would look tall and thin.

 

I had PAL as the video standard in the audio/video preferences (I've never used AVStoDVD before), changed it to NTSC and now I got:

Video = Video.ConvertToYV12
#Using DGPulldown to upsize FPS
Video = Video.AddBorders(0,6,0,6)
Video = Video.BicubicResize(720,480,0,0.5)

You were right, DGPulldown is the way to go... but what are the borders for? aren't they going to produce a 492 vertical resolution? does this has something to do with overscanning? (sorry if this is a dumb question)

Now, my real question is: should I encode with CCE using 25 fps and then use DGPulldown to change it to 29.97 fps? or what's the procedure like?
The problem is that if I encode using 25 fps with CCE, it automatically forces the frame size to 720x576.

Thanks again for your time mate.

---
EDIT: Nevermind that, as FulciLives from the VideoHelp.com forums said:

 

The add borders is done before the resize to 720*480.
This gives a slight letterbox top and bottom.

The reason for this is that your source wasn't exactly 16*9,
but slightly wider.

Yes, I believe CCE should be fine. I've got CCE basic installed,
and I've done this myself - I created a template
with these settings.

AVStoDVD uses HCEnc, and when used with 2-pass encoding, gives
high quality results. Good luck!

 

Now I'm a little confused...
Should I add borders to reach an exact 16:9 AR first and then resize to 720x480?
..or should I resize first (720x462) and then add borders (9 top and 9 bottom) to reach a 480 vertical resolution?

Also, while doing my manual calculations for the resizing parameters I got the following:

BicubicResize(720,462,0,0.5)
AddBorders(0,9,0,9)

but FitCD and AVStoDVD both produce slightly different scripts:

FitCD
BicubicResize(720,472,0,0.6,0,0,592,320)
AddBorders(0,4,0,4)

AVStoDVD
AddBorders(0,6,0,6)
BicubicResize(720,480,0,0.5)

Which one is the best/correct one?
or what's the correct formula?

Doom9.org uses this one and ChickenMan uses this other one.

Thanks again

 

They're almost the same. Often, to achieve a result divisible
by 4, one of the dimensions is rounded up/down.

 

So, values must be divisible by 4 then...

What about this?

Last question... promise

 

If the resolution of the AVI file, either horizontal or vertical is only divisible by 2, then it might not decode properly.
In your avi, 592*320, it's OK.

Doing the addborders first and resizing to 720*480,
is virtually the same as the way fitcd did it. 4 pixels difference
vertically, not really visible when the movie is watched. The main
this is they both came out to 720*480 in the end.

 

OK

davexnet, thanks a lot for all your help; I was going mad with all the little details.

Cheers!

 

Actually, I did the calculations to find the actual details.
See what you think of my conclusions:

original avi size 592/320=1.85
16*9=1.777
853=480 x 1.777. OK.

AVStoDVD adds 12 to the height resulting in 592*332.
(592/332= very close to the ideal 1.777)

When it's encoded you get a thin letterbox, top and bottom
of 18 or 19 pixels total (sum of top and bottom)
853/1.85 = 461. This means the AVStoDVD size is spot on.
It's more accurate than the FitCD sizes.

 

OK, that got me thinking:

592/334 = 1.772 , closer to 16:9 than 592/332
..is AVStoDVD not using 334 as the vertical resolution (adding 14 to the height) for the reason that it is a number not divisible by 4? Numbers divisible by 4 are prefered instead of numbers that just divide by half?

Your method is WAY easier and faster than mine: for a true 16:9 you just divided 853 by the video's aspect ratio and got 461.something... what about 4:3? you just need to do 640/AR?

Are these formulas useless?

4:3

Code:

((720 / width) * height) / 1.1

16:9

Code:

((720 / width) * height) / 1.1 + 108

Lastly, talking specifically about my source, should I do:

a) BicubicResize(720,462,0,0.5)
AddBorders(0,9,0,9)

or

b) AddBorders(0,6,0,6)
BicubicResize(720,480,0,0.5)

or

c) BicubicResize(720,461,0,0.5)
AddBorders(0,9,0,10)

or

d) AddBorders(0,7,0,7)
BicubicResize(720,480,0,0.5)

or

e) BicubicResize(720,460,0,0.5)
AddBorders(0,10,0,10)

??????

 

I would say that they are all OK and more or less functionally
equivalent. On the finished result, can you really notice
that it's 460 Vs. 462 ?

The only question I have is - Does the resize work properly when you
specify an odd number? (c).

Not sure what to make of your formulas. How do you use them ?

 

About the formulas: