how do I keep the aspect ratio?
 

my movie is 544x320

what settings and template do I need to keep it [Full screen keep aspect ratio] ?
I tried DVD SMALL in movie stacker [528x480]
I tried 1/2 DVD in movie stacker [352x480]

can anyone tell me what settings and what template go together, and what Video Arrange Method to use in tmpgenc?
I tried KVCD-CQ-352x480-_NTSCFilm_-PLUS.mcf with the 1/2dvd setting from movie stacker and with [FS keep aspect ratio] in tmpgenc. and still get vertical borders on the left and right sides of my picture. I did the same with the DVD SMALL setting and similar template. If I take off [FS keep aspect ratio] the picture gets squished.

please help

Make sure you encode at 4:3 if you encode VCD...

yes it's set at 4:3 thanks.
I tried with KVCDx3-MPEG-1-NTSCFilm.mcf
abd 1/2 DVD SMALL [528x480] setting in moviestacker and it came out fine. the thing is I want to try at a lower res like 352x480 or 352x240 to set a higher CQ. but when I try the exact same steps at those other two resolutions, I get black vertical borders on the left and right side of the picture. is there some kind of setting that needs to be made for a lower resolution or something?

thank you for you help so far. much appreciated.

Hi pixeldotz,

If you are using MovieStacker, try setting
:arrow: Aspect ratio = 4:3 Display
:arrow: Source aspect ratio = 4:3 Display
:arrow: Video arrange Method = Full Screen.

I tried all that and the video still has vertical black borders on the left and right side. I used clip fram to cut the side down by 8 pixels each since thats how big the borders the where. thanks for your help. I wonder why the lower resolution wasn't working but the higher one was working fine.

Just to clear things... you are not talking about overscan's borders, are you?
The borders you are talking about are BIG black borders that cover about half the screen and totally distort the aspect ratio, right?

nah, not those borders. these borders are 8 pixels on each side.

Well, in that case we have two options:
First check if the borders are present in the source, and second check if you are using any TV-overscan.
But any of these possibilities will not mess with the aspect ratio.
And why you don't want these borders on your encode? Will you watch it only in the PC? If you will burn it to watch in your TV, these borders will not be visible, and will give you some extra bitrate.

mua, thanks for all your help. I didn't know that these blacks borders won't appear on tv. I didn't want them there since I watch movies I encode on both my tv and pc. I think I fixed the problem by just clipping the black out and everythings seems to be there still when compared to the original source. I actually went and changed the aspect to 480x480 with the kvcd3 template. same quality. no more borders. I guess I just needed to test out some more. all this seemed confusing at first but it's starting to make alot more sense now. Been reading all up and down these forums for 2 days straight. :)
once again thanks for all your help.

Any time! :D