I inherited a few TB drives with thousands of video movies. It seems that all movies have been changed (Pardon me I'm new to this) from their original aspect ratios of 1.37:1 to 1:33:1. That isn't so bad But also there are others instead of 1.78 they are 1.33 etc. I use IMDB to see what the film aspect ratio was originally shot at, and I have a few I've found 2.35:1 / 2.55:1 that are now 1.78. So my question is how do I change the aspect of these movies back to what they should be? Also I've noticed these old movies which should be like 23.976/FS are now 29.970. My goal is to put them on DVD and I would like them to appear properly on a TV screen I've spent some time here but haven't come across an answer.
Can't help with thousands, but if these are DVD movie files (or mpeg2 files from a DVD) the only aspect ratio's supported by DVD is 16:9 or 4:3, i.e 1.333 or 1.777 - notwithstanding what IMDB lists as the AR when shown on a cinema screen. If they are North American (NTSC) files from a DVD, then the likes of MediaInfo will list them as 29.97 fps but they are in fact 23.976 with 'pulldown' applied to display them at the 29.97 rate to display on TV. As an example, opening a file in GSpot shows my NTSC letterboxed edition of Titanic as 23.976 with 3:2 pulldown to 29.97 Also, as shown, video resolution is 720x480 which is the resolution that is expected for NTSC DVD video. So, if the files are in fact already DVD compliant, they could be authored as DVD movies to disk without too much trouble.
Attar, Very much confused here but progress is well in hand Thank You, I do use Mediainfo and now Gspot which gives more and better information. I did know DVD formats are 1.33 or 1.77 only and still don't understand but getting there on how a 1.375 video is displayed on a 1.33 DVD. I'm going to assume this is the SAR/DAR and taking a guess here the result of a 1.37 source will end up with little black bars. Atleast thats what I've found by playing for hours and hours. I may be wrong but in my mind I attribute the TV screen as the canvas 4:3 or 16:9 and I simply place my source, whatever the size onto the canvas sometimes with black borders sometimes resized to fit? What I'm trying to accomplish here is to have all these 1000's of videos in the correct aspect ratio when viewed on a TV. Once I get this display issue down pat I'll work on correcting the noisy audio on many of them before committing these to disc which just may be mpg format, not VOB as I find my player treats MPG fine to play. So in any event thanks again for the reply and I'll continue reading here and trying all options that come my way. BTW I read a bit about your statement 3:2 Pull down, Hmmm more interesting tidbits.
The thing is that in the cinema, the movie can be any aspect ratio the producers make it. The movie is projected at that AR on a cinema screen that has drapes adjusted to fit with no annoying black (white?) borders - which isn't practicable on a TV, but would be whimsical to speculate if the industry had went that route; would we have remote controls with a 'curtain adjust' button. So the DVD standard said that the DVD has to be 4:3 or 16:9 meaning that the video is displayed with bars top and bottom or on the sides. Seriously, for informed solutions to video problems, suggest getting onto the VideoHelp site.
The solution is simple as you don't change anything in any of the movies. Instead you use the media player. I.E i use klite therefore if one of my numerous *air quote* "borrowed from internet movies" doesn't display like it should i use video frame which are pre-selects or pan & scan which are manual & i adjust the movie till it displays correctly as in characters may seem short & fat or too tall & thin or whatever. No need to waste time re-coding movies. There's a thing on aspect & why movies are made that way when put onto a dvd . As for black bars unless the movie was meant as 4:3 or to fit a certain type of screen aspect that your tv has then removing them will stretch the characters & it'll look stupid as it's tho it's zoomed, which then looses part of the picture, it's why the black bars are there you get more picture not less. After a while you get used to the black bars & become more immersed into the movie instead of being focused on black bars
