I have some old letterboxed VHS movies that I want to transfer to DVD.

My method of capture is by passing through my Sony DV Camcorder.

I have two general questions:

1. The resulting framerate is 29.97 (as is everything from the DV camcorder), but the original is a film that I know was 23.976. What is the best way to encode this? Should I just leave it as 29.97, or run inverse telecine, or something else?

2. How should I re-size this using FitCD? The .avi file is now 720x480, but i know there is a top and bottom black border of "X" that I would like to remove. Let's say X=72. So my avisynth script starts off looking like this:

crop (0,72,-0,-72)

Now, where do I go from there? To FitCD of course, but there are a few settings in FitCD that I never quite understood:

a) Should I call the source "DVD" or "1:1 monitor" or something else?
b) For the source, should I check anamorphic or not (remember, i have already cropped the top and bottom).
c) Should I check ITU-R or not?
d) Should I set film pixel to 720 x 336? (480-72-72=336)
e) Should I have "zero" or some number in top and left borders?
f) What crop setting should I use? (accurate, no cropping, etc...)
g) For the final size, I set to XVCD (704x480), anamorphic, with 1 overscan block - is that correct?

To re-iterate, my goal is to have a video file that is anamorphic with correct aspect ratio. (probably stating the obvious here )

Many thanks!
Icarus

IVTC for sure! Open your captured file in Vdub, and add a null transform filter.
Mask out all black borders, and read the pixel area left. Take that value and feed it to FitCD, and it will tell you the correct cropping. 4:3 Non anamorhic Leave default As given by the null transform above Same as above Accurate Yep.

-kwag

Thanks Kwag!

It all makes sense to me except this:

I don't see an option of "4:3". The only options available to me are:

DVD
XVCD
3/4 DVD
SVCD
1/2 DVD
VCD
1:1 Monitor


Changing to different options does seem to have an effect on the resize parameters, so I want to make sure I am doing it right.

Thanks again,
Icarus

Hi Icarus,

Sorry, I was thinking on something else
Use "DVD" as target.

-kwag

Thanks I will try that!

Out of curiosity, and while we are on the subject under what circumstances would I use anything other than "DVD" as the "Source Aspect"?

I guess your answer is in that lines you quoted
(1:1 is to use when you have an avi that has been correctly reformated by the guy that did it, else you have to use the A/R of the original source).

Note: not all of these choices give a different result but its easier for user to understand simple choice like this.
(DVD is equivalent to 1/2 DVD and 3/4 DVD - VCD is equivalent to XVCD...)