DVD / Divx aspect ratio & image quality

[lostatlantis]

I noticed that widescreen DVDs actually include the black bars in the 720x480 resolution. So, the end result is that WS movies have lower image quality (lower resolution) than a full screen DVD, correct? The FS movie would utilize the full DVD resolution. I've always purchased WS DVDs because you don't loose stuff from Pan and Scan, but this image quality issue has me thinking...

also, is there anyway to "fix" a broken DiVX/XVID movie's aspect ratio without recompressing? I finally got my feet wet with divx/xvid and made my first divx backup of star wars ep2, but somehow I messed up the aspect ratio. It now looks like the movie is stretched vertically. Is there a program that'll allow me to reset the aspect ratio?

 

[ghackmann]

Originally posted by: lostatlantis
I noticed that widescreen DVDs actually include the black bars in the 720x480 resolution. So, the end result is that WS movies have lower image quality (lower resolution) than a full screen DVD, correct? The FS movie would utilize the full DVD resolution. I've always purchased WS DVDs because you don't loose stuff from Pan and Scan, but this image quality issue has me thinking...

If the movie is 1.85:1 and the DVD is anamorphic (virtually all widescreen DVDs are nowadays), then you'll get the same vertical resolution as a full-screen DVD. If it's 2:35:1, then the vertical resolution will be a little bit lower than if were cropped to eliminate the black bars. You could get a little more vertical resolution by going full-screen, but I hope you're not willing to lose about half the frame for the sake of ~100 lines of vertical resolution.

also, is there anyway to "fix" a broken DiVX/XVID movie's aspect ratio without recompressing? I finally got my feet wet with divx/xvid and made my first divx backup of star wars ep2, but somehow I messed up the aspect ratio. It now looks like the movie is stretched vertically. Is there a program that'll allow me to reset the aspect ratio?

I don't think DivX supports anamorphic flags, so probably not.