I'm stuck between two programs that have exclusive features that happen to coincide with a video I've got and I can't figure out a way around not using either one at the same time. I like: TMPGenc Plus because it lets me make non-standard anamorphic aspect ratios to work with my Panasonic flat-screen projection TV which isn't quite 16x9, more like 14x9. I hate letterboxing you end up losing resolutoin when you zoom in to get the simulated 16x9 image in the middle. So like to stay full-screen 4:3 to use all of the pixels. I'll take an AVI video, like 640x480 or 512x384 or 352/320x240 and crop off the top and bottom 10% and encode it to MPEG2 at 352x240 or 720x480. Plus just scales my picture, whatever its current aspect is to that size. Then I use the stretch function on the TV to expand the image and everything looks fine. But Plus doesn't work with some of the formats like Quicktime MOVs... which... Xpress does. TMPGenc XPress 3.0 recognizes more video formats than Plus. Lets me re-encode WMV, AVI, SAF, MPG, MKV, OGM, even Quicktime-MOVies into MPEG2. Great... however... It refuses to let me change the aspect ratio of the image, rather, it'd letterbox EVERYTHING to fit into the output format you choose. So if I've got a 512x384 original and pick 4:3 output, it scales perfectly. However, if I pick 16:9, it automatically letterboxes the sides instead of stretching out hte image sideways. Or if I have a 512x288 original and pick 4:3 output will automatically letterbox the tops & bottoms rather than stretch the image vertically. I'd love to use XPress because it recogizes more file-formats than Plus, but I'm having to go through a 2-step encoding process that wastes time and quality. I use Xpress first to convert to MPEG2, then run that again through Plus to get my anamorphic squeeze/stretch. I'd prefer to do it in once program. Anyone know: 1. how to make Xpress turn off letterboxing? or. 2. know of another MPEG2 encoder package that recognizes as many file-formats as Xpress (.MOV, .MKV, .OGM compatibility important), AND it allows me to stretch the image's aspect-ratio any which way I want without automatic letterboxing? Thanks - danno
Plus recognizes the same formats as Xpress. Download the .mov, .wmv, and whatever else in the tools section at www.videohelp.com
