irregular MPEG-2 encode

Myouh · Post by **Myouh** » Thu Sep 13, 2007 9:56 am

first, and I was just waiting for the occasion to do it, I'd like to sincerly thank Scintilla, who has tried to give answers to all my questions here before, and who I've noticed is very active in this forum. thanks to all the others that help here as well.

now I've got a simple (maybe stupid) question:
for a 608X320 video, while encoding in MPEG-2, what's the best resolution to keep its quality as high as possbile:
MPEG-2 640X480
or
MPEG-2 720X480

I think it's the second but I'm not sure.

Keeper of Hellfire · Post by **Keeper of Hellfire** » Thu Sep 13, 2007 10:13 am

For what purpose?

For DVD? Then 720x480. Set the 16:9 flag, and letterbox it before, so that it fits 16:9.

Any other purpose - leave it as is.

Zarxrax · Post by **Zarxrax** » Thu Sep 13, 2007 10:30 am

Keeper of Hellfire wrote:Set the 16:9 flag, and letterbox it before, so that it fits 16:9.

Letterboxing AND setting the 16:9 flag would really screw things up...

Qyot27 · Post by **Qyot27** » Thu Sep 13, 2007 9:44 pm

Zarxrax wrote:
Keeper of Hellfire wrote:Set the 16:9 flag, and letterbox it before, so that it fits 16:9.
Letterboxing AND setting the 16:9 flag would really screw things up...

Not since it proportionally scales to 848x448 rather than 848x480.

To the OP: In essence, resize to 720x448, letterbox to 480 height, and set a 16:9 flag in the new encode (manually this can be done to the .m2v in ReStream; there are ways of doing it inside the encoding program, but I never bother with that, so someone else will have to handle that one). Those first two can be handled by AviSynth thusly:

Code: Select all

MPEG2Source("video.d2v").LanczosResize(720,448).AddBorders(0,16,0,16)

Just make sure you've indexed the file with DGIndex first. If the video is 23.976 or 29.97fps and the audio is already in 48kHz, then the audio stream shouldn't need reencoding if it's in MP2 or AC3, and can just be muxed into the new encode as-is. All provided that this is intended for DVD.

Zarxrax · Post by **Zarxrax** » Fri Sep 14, 2007 7:08 am

Ah, so he has one of those *extra-widescreen* videos. carry on then

Myouh · Post by **Myouh** » Mon Sep 17, 2007 3:22 pm

Qyot27, I suppose your explanations are accurate and would lead to "perfect" result if meticulously followed, but sorry, I didn't get ANYTHING from what you said.

I have never use AVIsynth, I don't know what ReStream is, I don't know how to letterbox using TMPG-Enc, oh and by the way... what's that DGIndex stuff???!

listen, I use only adobe premiere, Vdub and TMPG-Enc.
I exported the uncompressed 608X320 video from adobe premiere, but as you know the most accepted resolution is 720X480, so I want to have a MPEG-2 video with that resolution for PC use mainly. I know how to do that but the problem is that it changes the shapes of everything on the video without necessarly making the video look bad. but still I want to avoid that effect, the solution as you said is to letter box the video so that it stays as it was.
now the question is: how to letterbox the video with TMPG-Enc software, as I see no letterboxing option in the settings.

Scintilla · Post by **Scintilla** » Mon Sep 17, 2007 4:38 pm

If it's going to be "for PC use", then why do you need to resize it to 720x480 at all? That should only be an issue if you're going to put it on a DVD or send it to a convention.

Myouh · Post by **Myouh** » Sun Sep 23, 2007 4:11 pm

aww... what a problem!
I still can't do it!
though it looks simple...
I want to convert a 608X320 video to 720X480 without changing the shape of the video or stretching anything, which means I must add letterboxes.
can someone simply explain to me how to do this, and if it's necessary to talk about AVIsynth then please go double slowly 'cause I've nevr used it, i'm not even sure I have it...

post-it · Post by **post-it** » Sun Sep 23, 2007 7:27 pm

Myouh wrote:.. I want to convert a 608X320 video to 720X480 without changing ..

.. In Virtual Dub ( Mod ) simply resize it while adding the outer border.

.. In Corel/Ulead Video Studio 11 Plus simply resize it while adding the outer border.
.. In Magix Video/Movie Pro 12 simply resize it while adding the outer border.
.. In Pinnacle Studio 11 Plus simply resize it while adding the outer border.
.. In Vegas .. no idea!
.. In Primere Pro 2 .. no idea!