[MEncoder-users] Please help: Scale, expand and aspect

[larrystotler at netscape.net]

-----Original Message-----
From: Magnus Karlsson <magnus.m.karlsson at spray.se>

> I've been struggling with mencoder for a while now, but I do not 
still get the scale and aspects.
> I simply want to rip my DVD:s to DivX movies with correct aspect. 
However I get egg-headed people all the time on a 4:3 fullscreen movie.
> Now, 99% of my source formats are 16:9 or 4:3 PAL movies, the output 
should be 16:9 or 4:3 PAL movies. Should I not keep the original size?
> In the documentation 
(http://www.mplayerhq.hu/DOCS/HTML/en/menc-feat-vcd-dvd.html#menc-feat-vc
d-dvd-output-aspect) I've found the following >that actually works:
> "-vf scale="720:432,expand=720:576 -lavcopts aspect=16/9" with the 
explanation:
> "To calculate the correct scaling size, use the expanded PAL width of 
1024/2.35 = 432",
> but why? Where does these values come from?

I have a system that I use to rip stuff at the moment that will not 
show the movie properly(probably something to do the video out on the 
computer, I run mplayer from the command line), but when I copy it to 
my server, it works fine.  Also, chekc for the aspect ratio that is 
actually used.  on this system, it shows that the movie is a 1.78:1, 
but displays it as a 1.33:1.  Since it doesn't affect the re-encoding, 
I haven't bother to figure out why( I tested various movies on it and 
the server, and got the same size and results).

Don't if it it'll help,but good luck.