HELP !!! I have thousands of 720X480 .mpg files that are anamorphic and I want to lay them onto DVD's that are 16 X 9 letterbox so that the images do not look squeezed. I have Nero 7, but there is not an option to do this. What software can achieve what I want?
You want to convert an anamorphic dvd to non anamorphic ? Why ? Isn't it better to set the dvd player to 4/3 and have it squeeze the picture vertically ?
We send out these DVD's to clients for their viewing, and I cannot guarantee what type of DVD player they are using OR the fact that they will NOT want to change their settings. When we downconvert from Digibeta to DVD (letterboxed) it looks terrific but that is done at a telecine house. These are files that we have encoded from the digibeta "in house"
It can be done. You need an application that allows you to specify the source and output aspect ratio. Tmpgenc 2.5 allows you to do it. I would have thought more recent encoders would have something similar. Essentially all you're doing is reducing the height by approx 1/4. For example, if the anamorphic picture takes up the whole 480 (no black bar top and bottom), then the output would be a letterboxed 720/480 with the picture having a height of approx 360, with black bars top and bottom of 60 pixels each. This will provide a picture of the correct ratio on a 4/3 TV. How it looks on a widescreen TV is down to the TV. Does this help?
Thanks Dave, I will check into that encoding. For us, when I client wants 110 clips layed down onto DVD I was hoping to NOT have to use more than NERO to go from our intranet web server to lay down onto DVD. They have already viewed the clips in a Quicktime hi res, but want a dvd for the producers to look over.
