Aspect ratio correction? Widescreen 4x3 to 16x9?
 

When I have home movies (usually from Hi8 tapes) transferred to DVD, they are usually letterboxed, because the native aspect ratio of a Hi8 is 4:3. My question is, is there any way to correct an aspect ratio to suit newer mediums? Or, as time goes by, will the "box" of a transferred originally 4:3 home movie get smaller and smaller and smaller?

Not really, no.

Interlacing prevents simple crop/resize, and deinterlace throws away 50% of the detail. Furthermore, enlarging 4x3 to fill a 16x9 area, without stretching, makes it look even softer than it already does. Modern HDTV is 1980x1080 or 1280x720, and VHS is more along the lines of about 250x480 (more like 250x335 when deinterlaced with a good deinterlacer).

Are you seeing the problems yet?

Just watch it with black bars on the left/right, let the HDTV deinterlace it for best quality, and enjoy the nostalgia from the 1900s. :wink2:

Stretching 4x3 video to 16x9 to "fill the screen" should be a firing squad offense.

Amen, Brother!
 

...Classic! Simply Classic!

Now if someone would just enlighten all those "re-run" television channels!!