16:9 format override

Hi, I have a recorded a tv show that was aired in 16:9 but the station added some subtitles at the bottom (in the black area) and now when I try to encode the movie into xvid, it cuts off the black parts and subtitles too. I have tried to use the Hidden options (override input AR 4:3) and it did not work and still cuts the black parts. I would like to process the whole screen, what do I do?

thanx a lot guys, I'll get back to ya l8ter when finished :)))

thank you guys, it works perfectly :)

I have a similar problem - if I download a 16:9 file from a digital TV station that contains a 4:3 image within (an old B/W movie) and make a Divx there is no problem as AutoGK does a an automatic crop of the black curtains of either side of the file. Now if I try to make a DVD from the original mpg file the resulting image on the TV monitor will have the black curtains either side unless I set the pan and scan flag within infoedit. This works on just about every DVD player I have had access to except for my friends DVD player a Pioneer DK-535!! The black bars either side are still there and the image is squashed upwards. Sorry for the longwinded lead-up! The question is - is there an "AutoCrop" program that will accept a mpg file and output a mpg file - a sort of autocrop for making DVD's so that you would end up with a full screen 4:3 image... phew!!!

Could I ask a quick question along similar lines? I'm in Oz also and have an Austar Satellite decoder which I've set to display 16:9, and my Widescreen TV is set to this ratio also. So far so good ... source programs that are broadcast in either 4:3 or 16:9 display correctly. But, here's my problem ... I also have a Pioneer DVR-520H on which I've recorded a 4:3 program to its hard drive. The recording looks fine when played back on a widescreen Tele in 16:9 mode, but unfortunately when the program is transferred to DVD-R, it's the wrong aspect when played back on a 4:3 TV ... the picture is understandably squashed horizontally. I understand why etc, ... but my question is, is there anyway I can re-scale the program so it's in its right proportion again for a 4:3 display? I found a small PC app that can tell a DVD's info file(?) to change the displayed ratio, and although this fixes the proportion of the picture, the whole thing becomes much smaller and doesn't fill the screen. Can I somehow re-scale the recorded (horizontally-squashed) image so it's the right proportion again while at the same time filling a 4:3 screen ... kind of the exact opposite to what the Austar box does to a 4:3 program when it's set to output in 16:9? I hope all that made sense. Any advice greatly appreciated.

You need a program called IFOEdit, maybe that is what you used to correct the Aspect ratio? If it was open the file VTS_01_0.IFO and you need to untick all the buttons on the right except the top button called "Pan & Scan" Tick this button to force the DVD player to present a full screen 4:3 image. This is exactly the problem my friend had with his Pioneer DVD player - it seems Pioneer ignores the SDE flag so this should work around it. For the future (assuming this works) - If you are doing a full author of a mpeg file I would demux it through ProjectX and set the SDE flag off (untick) Then edit the file and remux it as your final mpeg for presentation to your DVD Authoring program. Hope it helps..

Hi Netmask Thanks for your reply. You need a program called IFOEdit, maybe that is what you used to correct the Aspect ratio?No, it was "IfoAR2WS." I'll get hold of IFOEdit. If it was open the file VTS_01_0.IFO and you need to untick all the buttons on the right except the top button called "Pan & Scan" Tick this button to force the DVD player to present a full screen 4:3 image. This is exactly the problem my friend had with his Pioneer DVD player - it seems Pioneer ignores the SDE flag so this should work around it. Thanks for these instructions. I'll give this a try and let you know how I get on. For the future (assuming this works) - If you are doing a full author of a mpeg file I would demux it through ProjectX and set the SDE flag off (untick) Then edit the file and remux it as your final mpeg for presentation to your DVD Authoring program.Thanks for this. Alternatively, if I can remember to find out in advance the aspect ratio of the program I'm going to record, I could set the decoder's ratio to the correct setting beforehand. ;) Thanks again for your help. Much appreciated! B.

Hi again Netmask No luck with IFOEdit unfortunately ... the picture looked exactly the same. And the more I think about it, I don't think this method is the answer, as the picture is already 4:3 and is currently horizontally-squashed at this ratio. I think I somehow have to re-size the image horizontally. Would you know if there's some way of stretching the picture outwards to get rid of the current black bars and re-fill the 4:3 screen when viewing in 4:3? The only way I can get it to display correctly when playing from either the Pioneer's internal hard drive or off a DVD copy, is to play it on a widescreen TV and set it to 16:9. Then it restores the picture to the correct 4:3 ratio again. Hope all this makes sense. Thanks again, B.