Creating "anamorphic" 16:9 in TMPGEnc

Original date: May 20, 2005 3:49 AM by sonnik

Rather than guessing at TMPGEnc's settings for clipping 4:3 aspect video to 16:9, an article at Mediachance.com told me the proper settings for this operation.

Here is how to set the encoding in TMPGenc Plus software encoder: Start with an NTSC DVD template which creates 720x480 MPEG-2 video. On the Video setting screen, select Aspect ratio 16:9 Display. This will set the flag to be 16:9 so thath the DVD player knows that it has to stretch the image. In the Advanced tab in settings, set the Video arrange method to Full Screen (no matter what it will stretch the image to full screen) and then in the filters below select Clip frame. Double-click on it and in the Clip frame tab set Top 60 and Bottom 60. The "Size after clipping" value should now should read 720x360 pixels.

As I am using DV Film Maker, the solution above should work. My Optura 50 will shoot with an enhanced 16:9 (no resolution loss on widescreen mode). DV Film Maker will then letterbox the 16:9 into a 4:3 fram within the DV File. This means that the video will be not displayed correctly on 16:9 televisions.

By inducing the anamorphic ability as above, TMPGEnc will clip the black letterbox bars out of the encoded MPEG2 video. This then moves the burden of letterboxing to the DVD player, where it should be. Obviously the DVD player will have been properly set for whatever type of television it is -- 4:3 or 16:9. This means that the video will automatically be displayed at the proper aspect ratio, instead of vertically squished on 16:9 televisions.

Update: 5:01 PM 5/27/2005
I recently learned that DVFilm Maker does output 16:9 information, although the video file is flagged as 4:3. You simply select "No Letterbox". I misunderstood the DVFilm Maker settings, assuming it HAD to letterbox 16:9 to output to 4:3. Simply select the "No Letterbox" optionTo counter this, when importing video to TMPGEnc, you should just desginate the imported file as 16:9 instead of 4:3. The MPEG2 will then render as anamorphic.

The above method however, will work if you wish to crop a 4:3 frame to give it a widescreen appearance.