Widescreen video with Black Borders in 720x480?

[Kevmaster]

So there I have to save my Elfenlied MEP Track in 720x480 and since Elfen Lied is an anamorphic widescreen anime, I have to add black Borders to my Track to not fuck up the AR.

(My original Footage is 720x576 btw), so I save the file, Script it to make it look neat and change the Frame size to 848x480 (widescreen). And then I put it in Vegas to save it again with Borders in 720x480.

So now I have my Properties set on 720x480 and then save the file in 720x480 and it comes out like this:




If I have the properties on 640x480, it comes out like this:





so now..bascially my Question is..Which one of those would be the right one?

And...Another Question would be..Why using 720x480 at all? Actually I'd like to know evertyhing about 720x480..like..is it actually 16:9..or is it 4:3? and is there another or easier Way to Add The Borders?

Please tell me what you know about this.

[Scintilla]

And...Another Question would be..Why using 720x480 at all?

Presumably because it requires no resizing from the DVD footage, but I don't know why you would want to use it as the required resolution for submissions to a MEP. You'd have to ask the MEP coordinator about that one. What is s/he going to do with the footage when encoding for distribution? Resize to 640x480? Resize to 848x480? Keep it 720x480 but set a 4:3 or 16:9 aspect ratio flag? Etc.
What you should do with the black borders may depend on his/her answer.

Actually I'd like to know evertyhing about 720x480..like..is it actually 16:9..or is it 4:3?

If you reduce 720:480 to simplest terms, what do you get? 3:2.

So if you're encoding 720x480 video in a container that doesn't support aspect ratio flags (or if it does support flags <s>you have hate, you have anger,</s> but you don't use them), you're going to get a 3:2 picture, which is never correct for our purposes.

The 720x480 video streams that you rip off DVDs DO have aspect ratio flags: they'll be either 4:3 (standard) or 16:9 (widescreen). This is why they are displayed correctly, and not at 3:2, when played back.

If you're encoding to MPEG-2, you can use these same flags. I'm given to understand that x264 in Matroska, MKV, or MP4 also supports aspect ratio flags, but XviD/DivX in AVI does not.

[Scintilla]

<b>Append:</b>

Why are you taking it back into Sony Vegas anyway? You can do all the resizing and letterboxing you need with AVISynth alone.

[Kevmaster]

<b>Append:</b>

Why are you taking it back into Sony Vegas anyway? You can do all the resizing and letterboxing you need with AVISynth alone.

really? I thought it would be something like that. So how do I letterbox in AVIsynth?

[Scintilla]

<b>Append:</b>

Why are you taking it back into Sony Vegas anyway? You can do all the resizing and letterboxing you need with AVISynth alone.

really? I thought it would be something like that. So how do I letterbox in AVIsynth?

With the <b>AddBorders</b> command; for instance, if you had some video at 848x480 and you wanted to get it to 720x480 so that it'd look right when played back with the 4:3 aspect ratio flag (e.g., for a convention that wants a 720x480 MPEG-2 file but can't handle the 16:9 flag), you'd do the following:

<b>Spline16Resize(720,352)
AddBorders(0,64,0,64)</b>

Replacing "Spline16Resize" with your resizing algorithm of choice, of course.

[Kevmaster]

<b>Spline16Resize(720,352)
AddBorders(0,64,0,64)</b>

Replacing "Spline16Resize" with your resizing algorithm of choice, of course.

When I added this to the script, Vdubbmod crashed. next time I tried adding the script in vdubbmod it told me there is no function called "Spline16Resize". Will it have the same effect with Lanczosresize?

[Kevmaster]

<b>Spline16Resize(720,352)
AddBorders(0,64,0,64)</b>

Replacing "Spline16Resize" with your resizing algorithm of choice, of course.

When I added this to the script, Vdubbmod crashed. next time I tried adding the script in vdubbmod it told me there is no function called "Spline16Resize". Will it have the same effect with Lanczosresize?

AH! I tried it and it works, thanks.



So now of course I gotta ask what I have to do if the Organizer wants to..

..Resize to 640x480?

...Keep it 720x480 but set a 4:3 aspect ratio flag?

...Keep it 720x480 but set a 16:9 aspect ratio flag?


I guess I don't have to care if it's gonna be 848x480, then I could just save the file as 720x480 without borders, since he's gonna resize my vid to 16:9 in the end anyways, right?

[Scintilla]

So now of course I gotta ask what I have to do if the Organizer wants to..

..Resize to 640x480?

...Keep it 720x480 but set a 4:3 aspect ratio flag?

Answer for both of these is the same: resize to 720x352 and then letterbox up to 720x480, as in my example above.

...Keep it 720x480 but set a 16:9 aspect ratio flag?

Same as if it's going to be resized to 848x480: resize it to 720x480 with no borders. The 16:9 aspect ratio flag will make it display as approximately 848x480.