Post
by Qyot27 » Sat Dec 22, 2007 1:42 am
Borders can be applied either before or after editing; it depends on how you want the video presented. Generally, if you're using effects, unless you want the letterboxing incorporated into the effects, then edit normally and add the borders afterward.
With 720x576 it can be 16:9 if there's anamorphic signaling. The dimensions themselves aren't 16:9 but the video is resized to it on playback by the DVD or software player. In which case properly handling it would be to resize to 1024x576 (or 848x480 if you're going for NTSC) - this is a must if you're going to be using effects later on, so that the effects themselves don't get distorted when the video is resized to a square pixel ratio.
How much to letterbox is based on what the actual aspect ratio is. For generic 16:9 video, resizing to 640x352 is fine (or resizing to 640x360 and then cropping 4 pixels from the top and bottom of the video, if you want to be anally retentive about it), which would need AddBorders(0,64,0,64). For wider ratios, this number will be different (the height will be smaller). Flags for wider ratios aren't supported by DVD, though, even if they are supported by MPEG-2. On DVD, wider ratios are handled by letterboxing the video to a 16:9 frame and then using the normal anamorphic routine.
