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aspect ratio

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How can you convert a regular 4:3 program to its 16:9 format like many shows and commercials are doing these days?
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As far as I know, most shows that are on DVD in 16:9 are broadcast on SDTV (i.e. regular TV) in 4:3 with the sides chopped off or perhaps pan/scanned.
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I cannot get a 4:3 image to appear in that letterboxed format. Is there any particular method for converting the video to allow this?
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Im not exactly sure what your trying to do, but it sounds like you are trying to take a show that was broadcast in 4:3 and convert it to 16:9, only way to do this is to squish the image (not good) or crop the top and bottom (also not good)

its not about having something in widescreen, its about having it in its OAR (original aspect ratio). when you see shows (like tv shows) on cable that are shown on an HD channel in widescreen (16:9) and on a regular channel in 4:3 these are filmed in 16:9 (or for 16:9 in case of open matte, not sure if they use open matte for tv shows) and then cropped, pan & scanned, or such to show the 4:3 version.

in short, if you captured it as a 4:3 you should leave it as a 4:3 because its either already been cut up so cropping it more would loose even more picture or 4:3 is its OAR

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Not without cutting something from the top and bottom/squeezing vertically/black bars on the side.
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OK, I was attempting to do this with the holiday special. I had noticed on the AOTC dvd that the clip appeared in this "widescreen" format. Also, it seems the holiday special cartoon in the regular special is sort of squeezed together. I have been able to view the special in this format, but not save it this way.
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Most likely the clip in question was simply cropped to fit the 16:9 ratio of the actual feature. There were no wide screen TV sets in 1978 so the special would have been composed for the standard 4:3 ratio and hence that’s the way it should be presented. I can think of no logical reason why there would be an anamorphic squeeze on the cartoon segment.
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Yeah, widescreen does not always equal good, such as in cases like this.

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When HDTV is the norm, we may start seeing old tv shows cropped top to bottom as opposed to "windowboxing" them. I've heard elsewhere this has already been done in the UK to the classic Gerry Anderson series "Thunderbirds".
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They're bastardising 4:3 source material on UK tv nowadays, cropping it to some weird 'widescreen' format that isn't quite 4:3 and isn't quite 16:9, so on a 4:3 tv you get thin black bars on the top/bottom but on a widescreen tv in 4:3 non-zoom mode you get the same thin black bars but also big black bars on the sides too! and if you put the 16:9 tv in zoom mode it fills the screen but crops some of the top/bottom of the picture.

So if you're watching the 4:3 material they cropped to their strange 'widescreen' format on a widescreen tv in zoom mode then you're missing out on the top/bottom and sides of the original picture!
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Well, in my situation, I'm not trying to crop the image. I'm just trying to display what I suspect is a partial widescreen image, like the guy above was describing. I'm just curious to see if the holiday special was actually filmed this way, or, more likely, was not.
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Yes and no. I want black bars on the top and bottom, that is, when you watch the film on a regular TV. I don't know, there is just something about the look of that that I like. I don't want them on the sides, though.
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What I've never understood is why do commercials in 4:3 have the black bars on top and bottom? Before I got my 16x9 HDTV I always thought they were produced for the widescreen format. But even with my 16x9 TV you still got the black bars when watching in HD. It looks like a picture frame of black bars. It seems pretty pointless to me. Is it just to make it look movieistic?
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Yeah, probably. I thought the same thing at first. I guess it is the black bars that make regular shows feel similar to movies at times.
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Originally posted by: Adamwankenobi
Yes and no. I want black bars on the top and bottom, that is, when you watch the film on a regular TV. I don't know, there is just something about the look of that that I like. I don't want them on the sides, though.


Wait, so your cropping the original release? That's just as bad as pan and scanning...

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Originally posted by: bad_karma24
Originally posted by: Adamwankenobi
Yes and no. I want black bars on the top and bottom, that is, when you watch the film on a regular TV. I don't know, there is just something about the look of that that I like. I don't want them on the sides, though.


Wait, so your cropping the original release? That's just as bad as pan and scanning...


Well, not exactly. The image when I do this seems more expanded. Nothing is cut, I HATE pan and scan. It's more or less spread out, I believe. Either that, or shot in that ratio, I'm not sure.

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Why would they shoot the Holiday Special with an anamorphic squeeze? As far as I know it was shot on Video and back then I’m pretty sure anamorphic lenses were not manufactured for video cameras. And I can’t understand why they would even consider shooting for widescreen considering 1 – Widescreen TV sets did not appear until the 90’s 2 – A theatrical release was out of the question having been shot on video.

What you’re doing is stretching the actual image, which aesthetically is horrible.
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Originally posted by: Adamwankenobi
Originally posted by: bad_karma24
Originally posted by: Adamwankenobi
Yes and no. I want black bars on the top and bottom, that is, when you watch the film on a regular TV. I don't know, there is just something about the look of that that I like. I don't want them on the sides, though.


Wait, so your cropping the original release? That's just as bad as pan and scanning...


Well, not exactly. The image when I do this seems more expanded. Nothing is cut, I HATE pan and scan. It's more or less spread out, I believe. Either that, or shot in that ratio, I'm not sure.


I really don't understand what you're doing... do you have any screenshots? As Quinnsey mentioned above, it sounds like you're stretching it, which you shouldn't do. The fact is that the Holiday Special was shot in 4:3, there is absolutely no reason to convert it to any other format.

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OK, um, how do you post screenshots to this site? Yeah, I know, a very newbuie question, but hey, everyone's gotta start somewhere. After another look at it, the video is likely being stretched.
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You don't want to stretch the Holiday Special.

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I don't know. I like the way it looks in the 16:9 look. It's not the complete 16:9, yet it's not 4:3. It has these samller black bars at the top and bottoms of the picture.
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By the way, check out the deleted scene posted by ocpmovie, it appears in such a format. Whether he reformatted it that way or not, I'm not sure:

http://www.ffrevolution.com/1ocpvideos/HS-CUT_1400kbps.wmv
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Originally posted by: Adamwankenobi
OK, um, how do you post screenshots to this site? Yeah, I know, a very newbuie question, but hey, everyone's gotta start somewhere. After another look at it, the video is likely being stretched.


If you already have an image, host it at a place such as Photobucket (free) and then you can use [img] tags to post it. Google it for a more complete answer.

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Here is an image. The image wouldn't save in the 16x9 format as well as save as a video with that size, I don't think. Then the site compressed the image.
http://i8.photobucket.com/albums/a12/Adamwankenobi/03dbc04a.jpg