Hi there, I know there are millions of guides and tutorials out there but I still don't get it. I have an old TV and therefore it is 4:3. When I watch a widescreen dvd (16:9) it get letterboxed. OK so far. I have no problems with letterboxed pictures. When I backup my dvd the right aspect ratio is maintained (4;3 or 16:9). Perfect. But now I have some avi files that have not the right aspect ratio. I use WinAVI to convert them to DVDs. But the aspect ratio is sometimes wrong and the image gets vertically stretched, and it is unbearable. Aspect resolutions of my avi movies are: 704 x 296 (2.38 : 1) 656 x 272 (2.41 : 1) 608 x 272 (2.24 : 1) All to wide for the maximum dvd ratio of 16:9. 16:9 = 1.77 : 1 I think so far I am technically correct. When I use WinAVI and then DVD Shrink then the movie on my TV looks streched. I don't even know where the mistake happenes. I believe it is WinAVI that squeezes my 2.38:1 into 1.77:1 and then when I watch the movie on my tv set it gets a letterbox, but It is still streched vertically. Is that assumption right? Can I set WinAVI like this that it won't squeeze my movie into 1.77:1 but rather add letterboxes? How? Do I need some other application to do that? Which one do you recommend?
WinAVI just can't do it. You'll need a better encoder for anamorphic aspect videos. If you set WinAVI to 4:3, your 2.38:1 video will be squished. If you set it to 16:9, it will be stretched. The other way around it, is to re-encode the avi, with a letterbox, to 4:3 aspect, thus keeping the picture in the correct ratio, and then encoding that avi. With a better encoder, you could either encode directly, or frameserve the adjusted avi, with no need to resave another avi inbetween.
So, what applications can do that re-encoding with a letterbox? I remember that there where some apps but then the audio was out of sync. Any apps that you can recommend?
One should not expect VIDEO encoders to encode AUDIO in sync...however. Tmpgenc, mainconcept, CCE, Canopus, and many others, will letterbox it properly.
