VHS to digital upscaling problem

Bowzelly

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I am using a Pinnacle device to digitise old VHS tapes and am now turning to the problem of editing etc. The tapes are in 4:3 aspect ratio and I have been using Wondershare Video Converter ultimate to convert the digitised filed fro MPEG 2 to MP4 and at the same time change the aspect ratio from 4:3 to 16:9. Sadly in doing that the software produces an image with a resolution of 480 x 360 so that the image sits within a black background. I have checked my Samsung widescreen TV and that does not give a way of upscaling the image to fill the screen so I was wondering if there is a software solution to the problem please?
 
It is impossible to fill a 16:9 display with a 4:3 image unless you

1 Magnify the image so that the width fits the 16:9 display. This chops off pixels at the top losing content and reducing the picture quality.

or

2 Stretch the image width to fit. This produces extreme distortion. Circles are horizontal ovals and people look very fat :)

To do 2 you would need software that can change the 720 x 576 pixel images pixel aspect ratio to the one used for SD widescreen images.

Understanding Pixel Aspect Ratios

To see the image properly you need black bars either side on a 16:9 display or need to use 4:3 display.
 
Thank you for your reply. I should perhaps have made it clear that the vast majority of the tapes are of military band parades and the software I am using makes a convincing job of creating the wider aspect ratio. I appreciate what you say about black bars either side on a 16:9 display I was wondering if there was software available to "stretch" the image vertically and horizontally leaving smaller black bars at either the top and bottom or the sides?
 
Thank you for your reply. I should perhaps have made it clear that the vast majority of the tapes are of military band parades and the software I am using makes a convincing job of creating the wider aspect ratio. I appreciate what you say about black bars either side on a 16:9 display I was wondering if there was software available to "stretch" the image vertically and horizontally leaving smaller black bars at either the top and bottom or the sides?

You should be able to do this easily in most decent video editing software. You can even dynamically move the viewpoint (using keyframes) to emulate the so called Pan and Scan technique.

Key frame video editing



Bear in mind the more you magnify the original video, the lower the quality will be, because you are starting with less actual pixels.
 
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Thank you again. Last point first - yes I take your point about loss of quality but soem of these tapes are of Edinburgh Tattoo, Royal Tournament etc with bands and formations which no longer exist and so I feel its worth the sacrifice in quality to fill the screen with the spectacle :)
After a lot of hunting around and trial and error I find that Sony Movie Studio 13 will do a simple crop of a 4:5 frame to 16:9 but so far I haven't found a way of having any intermediate stages (if you see what I mean). If anyone is aware of reasonably priced software which would do that I would be delighted to know.
 
Video Pad does amazing things but I haven't tried it for what you want to do, which incidentally I think will be a vale of tears with the result. However, try Video Pad, it is fairly straight forward to use, the only warning, beware when downloading, there are lots of traps to try to get you to change settings on your hardware. The free version usually lasts for about a month.
Video Editing Software. Download Free Video Movie Editor
 
Thank you again. Last point first - yes I take your point about loss of quality but soem of these tapes are of Edinburgh Tattoo, Royal Tournament etc with bands and formations which no longer exist and so I feel its worth the sacrifice in quality to fill the screen with the spectacle :)
After a lot of hunting around and trial and error I find that Sony Movie Studio 13 will do a simple crop of a 4:5 frame to 16:9 but so far I haven't found a way of having any intermediate stages (if you see what I mean). If anyone is aware of reasonably priced software which would do that I would be delighted to know.


Keyframing is the answer. A keyframe records the current properties at a point in the timeline (in this case the size and location of the 16:9 crop into the 4:3 image (The smaller the 16:9 crop the greater the magnification). You then move along the timeline and drag the the 16:9 crop and resize as required. Once you have one keyframe the new properties are recorded automatically with a new keyframe.

If you create a project with PAL DVD settings 720 x 576 Widescreen, you will automatically get a 16:9 frame you can move around the 4:3 footage.

The software interpolates the movement between the two keyframes though you can also edit the motion path as well.





You can keyframe most anything, for instance you can animate the individual characters of an overlaid title, or animate a picture in picture effect.


If you get hooked I can recommend this book. Sony Movie Studio for about £30.00 is a tremendous bargain. You may find an older version for less. All recent versions will do what you want to do.

The Muvipix.com Guide to Sony Movie Studio Platinum 12: The tools, and how to use them, to make movies on your personal computer using Sony's amazing video editing program: Amazon.co.uk: Steve Grisetti: 9781481254601: Books

Free trial download

Sony Creative Software - Download: Movie Studio 13 Suite
 
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Thank you very much Graham. I bought and installed Movie Studio Platinum Suite and was VERY impressed until sadly I managed to break it! I followed a tutorial on Youtube aimed at optimising the software which advised going to Preferences > Video and changing the default GPU acceleration of video processing. When I clicked on that the drop down menu gave me 2 options apart from the default. I selected one and the programme now fails to respond in any way and I am unable to get back into Preferences to change the setting back to default.

I have set the PC back to a previous restore point, uninstalled and reinstalled the programme - all to no avail.
 
Hello again Graham. I can't thank you enough for all your patient support. Thanks to the link you posted to Sony support I have managed to get the programme working again and I am happily experimenting - I may yet buy the book you mentioned. So far I have managed to create my own setting from the crop and pan menu which removes a little of the top and bottom of the frame leaving fairly minimal black bars at either side which look pretty good when viewed on a widescreen TV. The bottom line for me is that these are very old recordings and the results I am getting which while I am sure would not satisfy the purist - dare I say pixel peeper :) - are perfectly adequate for me in the circumstances.

I will carry on on a trial and error basis - its great fun and very satisfying.
 
Hello again Graham. I can't thank you enough for all your patient support. Thanks to the link you posted to Sony support I have managed to get the programme working again and I am happily experimenting - I may yet buy the book you mentioned. So far I have managed to create my own setting from the crop and pan menu which removes a little of the top and bottom of the frame leaving fairly minimal black bars at either side which look pretty good when viewed on a widescreen TV. The bottom line for me is that these are very old recordings and the results I am getting which while I am sure would not satisfy the purist - dare I say pixel peeper :) - are perfectly adequate for me in the circumstances.

I will carry on on a trial and error basis - its great fun and very satisfying.

Pleased you have sorted it out :).
 

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