Proper Aspect Ratio when converting an MPEG2 to xvid/avi

[Gatos]

If I have an MPEG2 that is 720x480, and im going to convert it, what is the proper aspect ration for the output (if the converting program lets you customize those settings). I just checked to see what it would be with AVS Video Converter and the resulting AR would be 704x480. That doesn't seem right to me but I don't know much about this conversion stuff.

 

[ThrowgnCpr]

first, is it widescreen or fullscreen? DVD stores pixels as anamorphic (they are not square), so even though the picture is 720x480, a widescreen picture is morphed to 853x480 and a fullscreen picture is morphed to 640x480. I don't do much converting to xvid, but IIRC, you want to convert to square pixels, and I think 640 is a common width for resolution. 640x480 for fullscreen and 640x360 for widescreen. Hopefully someone else has a better idea of what is most common, though anything should work (but I would stick with a square pixel ratio)

 

[Gatos]

first, is it widescreen or fullscreen? DVD stores pixels as anamorphic (they are not square), so even though the picture is 720x480, a widescreen picture is morphed to 853x480 and a fullscreen picture is morphed to 640x480. I don't do much converting to xvid, but IIRC, you want to convert to square pixels, and I think 640 is a common width for resolution. 640x480 for fullscreen and 640x360 for fullscreen. Hopefully someone else has a better idea of what is most common, though anything should work (but I would stick with a square pixel ratio)

Its widescreen

 

[ThrowgnCpr]

oops, I had a typo. Fixed now. The 640x360 is a widescreen AR

 

[Gatos]

So one more question, is it possible, or worth it, or acceptable, to convert a 720x480 MPEG2 to avi and keeping the same AR and keeping it 720x480, or do you need to go "down a size" when converting to avi (e.g. 640X360)?

 

[Rogue-theX]

I'm pretty sure you wouldn't have to downsize it, but i will let the fancy lads with their calculators do the math for me

 

[Captain Khajiit]

So one more question, is it possible, or worth it, or acceptable, to convert a 720x480 MPEG2 to avi and keeping the same AR and keeping it 720x480, or do you need to go "down a size" when converting to avi (e.g. 640X360)?

You don't "need" to downsize. You can quite merrily make a 720x480 AVI with a 16:9 DAR; however, be aware that some players ignore DAR and display the image as it is, which is why I always stick to 1:1 when making an XviD AVI. Most people will crop the borders to avoid wasting bitrate encoding the black bars.

 

[Gatos]

So, sorry to bump up an old thread, but I am going to attempt to convert DVD to avi using AVS Video Converter, the input is 720x480 and its says the output will be 854x480. Is that normal?

It also gives resize filter options of: 1)"Nearest Neighbor" 2)Bilinear 3)Bicubic

Bilinear is the default setting. Should I leave that as is?

 

[Captain Khajiit]

Is that normal?

It's about right in terms of aspect ratio, but many XviD players do not like resolutions wider than 720, so it's better to keep the original width and change the height to maintain the aspect ratio than it is to keep the height and change the width. Bilinear is fine.