Ratio problems

[darose7]

I am having trouble withadjusting the ratio with converting my movies... I want 3:4 ... not 16:9
I only get the option of NORMAL and nothin tabs down.... PLEASE HELP

[Sketch]

If the original source is widescreen you will have to crop the sides of your picture, so it's a 4:3 ratio. Once you've cropped, you can then resize to 640x480 or 320x240. Check out a few of the threads that iPodguru has started for a more detailed discussion about this.

[darose7]

OK, thanks for the point in the right direction with the cropping, . What are the cropping numbers I should use to remove the bars of "widescreen" and make it a "true fit " for my ipod:???????

:confused: Please anyone have any suggestions..... Ive been doin the trial and error thing and its gettn old...
If anyone has a link, or a step by step process Id really appreciate it

[Midiman]

That depends entirely on what aspect ratio your souce file is in. The width you need to keep is 1.333 times the height. The total width of your source minus what you want to keep is the number of pixels you have to crop. I've done the math for people wanting to convert to a wide screen format in several popular aspect ratios (there are about a hundred) but I don't believe in what you want to do so you'll have to find a true believer to help further in this endeavor.

[darose7]

Im not sure I understand .. for example I have Underworld here... it says the anamorphic ws is 2.35:1... so how do I know what the height/ width is????

[Midiman]

You DO understand that in order to cut a 2.35:1 movie down to fit a 1.33:1 ratio... you will be missing (cropping) nearly 45% of the movie off???

[Sketch]

Im not sure I understand .. for example I have Underworld here... it says the anamorphic ws is 2.35:1... so how do I know what the height/ width is????
It depends on whether your DVD is NTSC (720x480) or PAL (720x576), from there you would have to do a few calculations to figure out what the input source size and from there, how much to crop to get a 4:3 screen.

And, like Midiman said, you'll be losing a lot of your picture.

[Midiman]

Sketch... your link DEFINITELY belongs in here.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pan_and_Scan

Take a good look at how much you will be chopping up to convert your video to 1.33.

[darose7]

I understand, Im a HUGE movie buff.. and prefer, and believe that widescreen is the only way to go, however on the ipod the screen is so small that leads me down this dark path........

[darose7]

ok, width 720, heigth 480, aspect ratio 1.778, frame rate 29.970...... thanks in advance,

also , whats my best options, for best viewing settings

[Midiman]

Rather than going to all this trouble... have you tried simply turning wide screen OFF in the iPods video settings?

[darose7]

yes, unless I made a mistake somewhere down the road... I get no channge... still widescreen

[Midiman]

It makes all my widescreen videos fill the screen and lops off the sides.

[darose7]

ok, I notice the bars get smallerwhen I do that , however are still there... do I need to make another adjustment to remove it all together?

[Midiman]

Not sure. I've only tried it with 1.85 sources. If you have something wider... I dunno. I'll try something in 2.35 later.

[darose7]

I appreciate all your help in this.... if you can come up with a "crop number"for the 1.85 sources Id appreciate it. I have a good many flicks with that ratio

[darose7]

Anyone have the specs for cropping and converting widescreen 2.35 to 4 3??

[Midiman]

ok, I notice the bars get smallerwhen I do that , however are still there... do I need to make another adjustment to remove it all together?

If the bars are actually part of your video, the widescreen setting will not make them go away. A properly trimmed video with all letterboxing cropped will fill the screen from top to bottom with the widescreen option turned off. A DVD with a 2.35 ratio is 720x480 WITH black bars. I generally find that cropping 56 pixels off the top and bottom and encoding to 320x 136 removes them and preserves the aspect ratio.