Bars, Bars and More Bars

rbinck

The ratio was developed with bandwidth for commercial television in mind and the pixels being a multiple of 8 each direction. Multiple of 8 because there are 8 bits in a byte, the basic measure of digital memory. They wanted something as close to the most popular movie ratio of 1.85:1 as possible. 16:9 is 1.78:1, very close.

Not sure what the 2nd question is.

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cinnamonhearts

Hello, I came to this forum to talk about this very item.
I did a trial download of a new product called "Video-to-HD". It was pretty cool and I am a newbie so it was pretty easy to use. But I wanted to find out from non-newbies if it is a good product worth buying. It converts 4:3 to 16:9 with NO BLACK BARS!!! It is only $15.00 but still want to know if it is worth it.
So I guess I need need advice. Please tell me what you think of it and if it is worth purchasing. It can be found here (can't post URL because I have not made 5 posts, it can be found on the Indocomp site towards bottom right)
Thanks in advance,
Jen

rbinck

This product works on video files that exists on your PC. That would require you to be able to record SD video somehow. The result of its operation is similar to what many HDTVs do under various names where they stretch the center of the picture less than the edges of the picture. Makes news channel crawls look spooky with the letters starting out fat then skinny then fat again as it scrolls over the screen.

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cinnamonhearts

Hi,
Thanks for the reply. This one doesn't seem to distort it. Did you look at it? I can't post URL but it is on a computer site search for Indocomp and look on their site. It gives a demo download that seemed pretty easy for me to use. I am not a super techy girl, but I converted a couple of videos without to much problem. You seem very versed in this matter maybe you can look at it for me.
With much appreciation,
Jen

rbinck

I did look at it. Can't really tell the degree of distortion from the stills, but it has to distort it some. If you have a lot of SD video files, it probably would be worth $15.

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james01

Hello Jen,

I have tried it and I liked it so much that I bought it ...
It converted all of My videos without any problem and they look great...

I have done 4 Seasons of different Tv Shows I have on My NAS...
So far and Have 12 more TV Series to DO ...

I converted a News Feed Clip from one of the Website and I do NOT have any problems reading the text at the Bottom ... If there is some distortion I really do not see it ..

James

PFC5

If you do not see any distortion with the scrolling ticker that would mean one of two things. Either they are zooming in the content (that the zoom feature on the TV could do without the extra work), or it is stretching the content equally along the whole horizontal plane. The reason for this being so is that the material cannot be made wider unless they do this. I suppose a 3rd possibility is that it just cuts enough off the top of the material alone to fill the screen that way, but that could lose some important data and likely cut some heads off.

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james01

Hello PFC5;915677,

Why is it You are Making Unfounded comments with out trying the program and testing it yourself ... if you tried it you would know it cuts nothing off and it is not a zoom ...

If does exactly what it says it does ...(NOT a ZOOM) If You are Going to Make comments about a program at least Try it before You make such useless comments ... As I Did ...

The Download was free it only adds a water mark to the Video and you can see you self nothing is cut off ... They call it a Perceptual Aspect Resize ... and I do NOT care what they call it it just looks good ...

Do NOT believe anything anyone say unless they have tried the Product them selfs ... I tried it and Liked it so I bought it ...

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder ...

James

Scottnot

Let's not be so hasty; what PFC5 said was:
The operative word, of course, being "If".
If there is no distortion, then there must be zooming. I think he took you at your word that you really did not see any distortion.

Now, what your wrote earlier was:
And the operative words here are "If" and "do not see it"

When I first looked at the image on the website, it certainly did not appear to be distorted. Although I "sensed" that it was not "quite right".
However, when I enlarged the "perpetual aspect" image it was painfully obvious that the image was greatly distorted -
the girl's face in the 4:3 was thin, while in the "p-r" it was pudgy if not fat.

The program does distort the image.
This will be very distracting to some people and, I guess, not even apparent to others.
Also, I am certain that the noticeability of the distortion will be, to some degree, content dependent.

Indeed, it is.

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Beringer, 1980, Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon Port
Morano, 1980 Vintage Port
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Stratford, 1983 Merlot
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The lonesome sipper

BrianO

It is impossible to convert a 4:3 image to 16:9 without either cropping it at top and/or bottom, or distorting it by stretching it horizontally, or doing a combination of both (i.e. cropping and distorting). This is a mathematical certainty. You simply are unobservant and misinformed if you think otherwise.

PFC5

Thanks guys!

That was exactly the point I was trying to make. It IS impossible to not stretch/distort if you are not zooming as you cannot change a nearly even sided square to a rectangle without distorting what is inside them. It is impossible. Some may not notice, but it is impossible for it to be done otherwise unless they zoom and cut off only the top & sides to still see the whole scrolling area.

__________________
Denon AVR-887
Klipsch RP-5 Pwred Towers (mains) (525 watts peak each 12"Subs)
All Klipsch RC-25(ctr),(2)SS1(surr),(2)SS1(rearSurr)
Toshiba (2)HD-A20,PS3,BD35
For SACD/DVD-A Samsung HD-841
Panny 50pz80u plasma SETTINGS
RCA HD50LPW162 50"DLP w/HD2+
SA 3250HD
47" LCD+Yamaha5790+HD-A1(bedroom)
Harmony 680 + (2) 670s (amazing remote/support)
Game room with Onkyo receiver & B&W Speakers
The_Cable_Game
Take the high ground and be happier

Tanzz

great info on this board