ChickenMan has helped me out on 2 occasions now, one assisting me in the use of dvd2svcd, with an excellent tutorial, the 2nd successfully joining to avi files together with VirtualDub.

My 3rd question is no doubt one of which he was waiting for, so here it is. Most Divx, Xvid and AVI files are not in their true format which for a dvd would be 720 x 576 and unless you use full screen mode with PowerDVD you get a small box in the middle of the screen. On playback there no loss in quality but the stretched images look a bit strange to say the least. I would like to ask how can I change the format back to 720 x 576 with no loss in quality so I can convert them back too vobs and burn too DVD, and what software do I need?.

This is something that has foxed me for sometime and most software wants to convert to an MPeg2 file and then I would have to turn it back to an AVI using FlaskMeg. This is not a path I want to go down as it would take 4/5 hours and I figure there would be a great loss of quality in transistion. Besides I tried TMpeg but it only wants to convert to an mpeg 2 file.

Surely there must be an easier solution.

A simple program to convert the resolution is all I need, then I will be very happy with unstreched movies

You have my deepest respect and I hope you can assist me once more


Greetz Intercept.....

It's not very often I ask for help, as most times I can figure it out myself with no problems, but now and again we have to ask for help from those that have the knowledge.

Yes you are corect, almost no DivX are in 720x576 (thats for PAL) as almost no movies are in full screen 4:3 format (kids cartoons, TV movies and old movies) But a typical 16:9 widescreen DivX would have 720x416 (again I'm only talking PAL here) If you added a black bar top and bottom it would playback on a PC monitor as a full screen 720x576 but the picture occupieng the 720x416 area only.

If you follow my Tutorial ( http://club.cdfreaks.com/showthread....threadid=61142 and soon to be updated) and always select in DVD2SVCD for Aspect Ratio the Anamorphic (no borders, encoded as 16:9) option then it will always keep the aspect ratio of the final encode correct. This is all assuming the original AVI plays back on the PC with correct aspect ratio in the first place.

In simple terms, if the avi on PC playback needs tyo add in ANY size black bars to and bottom to get full screen playbck, then ALWAY select the Anamorphic (no borders, encoded as 16:9) option and NEVER the defaulted 4:3 (no borders, encoded as 4:3) option. I cannot ever see why the 3rd option of 16:9(borders added, encoded as 4:3) would ever be selected.

Hope that helps.