iPod widescreen movies & new 5g iPod

[boiee]

i was wondering how the widescreen formatted dvds look on the new ipod? right now, i am ripping all my "movies" that are in widescreen format with mac the ripper, and then i am encoding it with handbrake with the size being formatted to 320x(whatever the automatic adjusted aspect it gives me). Will this still give me the little black bars on my ipod? I kind of don't want the black bars; I want it to be fullscreen on the ipod. If this is possible, do I lose a lot of the picture? Thanks so much for your help.

- Matt, newbie to these forums haha

 

[davefan6435]

Mine look fine, theres a widescreen option in the video menu on your iPod btw

 

[boiee]

Mine look fine, theres a widescreen option in the video menu on your iPod btw

cool! sounds good. so widescreen formatted movies play FULLSCREEN on the ipods?

 

[freeny]

cool! sounds good. so widescreen formatted movies play FULLSCREEN on the ipods?

either/or. you can watch them widescreen/letterboxed or by selecting the widescreen option off in the video settings on the ipod it will crop off the sides and fill the pods screen.

 

[boiee]

either/or. you can watch them widescreen/letterboxed or by selecting the widescreen option off in the video settings on the ipod it will crop off the sides and fill the pods screen.

when you crop off the sides, do you lose a lot of the picture?

 

[dejo]

when you crop off the sides, do you lose a lot of the picture?

Up to as much as 40%. Sometimes it has a very dramatic effect. For example, take this scene from The Matrix Reloaded. The red box represents what you would see on the iPod if you allowed it to crop the picture. I.E. You can no longer see the two characters in this scene.

 

[boiee]

Up to as much as 40%. Sometimes it has a very dramatic effect. For example, take this scene from The Matrix Reloaded. The red box represents what you would see on the iPod if you allowed it to crop the picture. I.E. You can no longer see the two characters in this scene.

very interesting...thanks! so, how does it look like if the option for the widescreen was put on? would you get the whole picture, but it will be significantly smaller?

 

[dejo]

very interesting...thanks! so, how does it look like if the option for the widescreen was put on? would you get the whole picture, but it will be significantly smaller?

With the widescreen option on you get the whole picture, yes, but with what is known as letterboxing (black bars on the top and bottom). This is what the same scene would look like on the iPod in its native resolution (320x240):

 

[bepster]

very interesting...thanks! so, how does it look like if the option for the widescreen was put on? would you get the whole picture, but it will be significantly smaller?

yeah, if you don't want black bars, you will lose the sides...
I choose to watch my movies in the widescreen-mode cause of course, the "hole" pic is smaller but I don't lose some intresting stuff, dejo made a great example!

 

[sideshow23bob]

very interesting, I'll have to play aroung with that prog

 

[Betateam]

yeah, if you don't want black bars, you will lose the sides...
I choose to watch my movies in the widescreen-mode cause of course, the "hole" pic is smaller but I don't lose some intresting stuff, dejo made a great example!

This one case where I think Pan and Scan would be better.
The screen is so small that letterboxing is just silly.
Believe me I'm a big advocate of Letterboxing. I had to have a Laser Disk player just to get proper film enjoyment. Been preaching it for years

But with the screen so small, Pan and Scan is the way to go. IMHO

 

[steve_hill4]

This is why if I were looking to get a video enabled iPod, I would be looking to the 6G models which may have proper widescreen, higher res, larger screens. Since I only use it for music at the moment, the current 5G, (as well as my 4G photo), are more than enough.

 

[Scarpad]

The 5 G works for me because I mainly watch TV Shows on it not 2hr movies. For Widescreen TV shows I uncheck in Handbrake the option to maintain aspect ratio. I leave the 320 setting but usually tweak the other setting up a few clicks. Makes it a bit wider but does'nt skew the picture too badly.

 

[freeny]

With the widescreen option on you get the whole picture, yes, but with what is known as letterboxing (black bars on the top and bottom). This is what the same scene would look like on the iPod in its native resolution (320x240):

Dejo, Wow! Nice examples! I have a powerpoint presentation coming up in two weeks, do you freelance?

 

[quackattack]

In handbrake if you go under picture settings you can adjust the image size and the cropping.

I find it helps to crop a little off the sides and the stretch it a little to reduce the black bars.

By doing this you can control how much you lose and end up with a much larger image on the screen while still staying somewhat letterboxed. This especially helps with movies that are very wide.

Give it a try.

 

[Scarpad]

In handbrake if you go under picture settings you can adjust the image size and the cropping.

I find it helps to crop a little off the sides and the stretch it a little to reduce the black bars.

By doing this you can control how much you lose and end up with a much larger image on the screen while still staying somewhat letterboxed. This especially helps with movies that are very wide.

Give it a try.

About how much are you cropping for a 2:35 movie ? What are your settings?

 

[Roy Hobbs]

i was wondering how the widescreen formatted dvds look on the new ipod? right now, i am ripping all my "movies" that are in widescreen format with mac the ripper, and then i am encoding it with handbrake with the size being formatted to 320x(whatever the automatic adjusted aspect it gives me). Will this still give me the little black bars on my ipod? I kind of don't want the black bars; I want it to be fullscreen on the ipod. If this is possible, do I lose a lot of the picture? Thanks so much for your help.

- Matt, newbie to these forums haha

Why are you ripping and then using handbrake????? handbrake will work right form the disc???

 

[Scarpad]

Why are you ripping and then using handbrake????? handbrake will work right form the disc???

I will ofter use Mac the Ripper first because it save on the drive wear and tear

 

[boiee]

Why are you ripping and then using handbrake????? handbrake will work right form the disc???

I know, but I use it for the same reason as scarpad

 

[Scarpad]

I know, but I use it for the same reason as scarpad

If I'm in a hurry I'll just throw a disk in and do it, but if I have time I rip first, the drive in the Mini always sounds like its getting ready to crap the bed, no need to hurry it along...

 

[boiee]

hi guys...sorry for reviving this thread haha...but could anyone be kind enough and take a picture of their ipod playing an originally formatted widescreen dvd encoded as a widescreen file (320x128 or 144 or whatever it turns out to be just as long as it maintains the widescreen aspect ratio)? two pics actually, one with the ipod widescreen option on and then off...it would be greatly appreciated...i just want to know this because i've been encoding a lot of my dvds, which of course, are widescreen formatted, and i wanted to know if they are good enough size to watch it on a relatively small ipod screen...thanks so much for your help you guys...i hope to hear from you soon...and see pics! haha

 

[freeny]

It really is like dejo posted. the left is with widescreen off, and the right with widescreen on.

 

[qxe900]

im interested in the widescreen option on the 5G video ipod - ive not played with one so hence the need to ask questions - the max res it can playback on the screen is 320 x 240 - so if you encode a widescreen movie at say 320 x 180 or whatever you can zoom in and fill the screen with the centre of the video - if it is zooming in then the movie surely looks a little blured/soft etc as its being stretched up?? I had thought that you could encode a widescreen movie to 320x240 and make it anamorphic so everyting is filling the screen, and that the widescreen option would switch and squish the top and bottom into add bars and make it correct aspect ratio - like you can on some 4:3 tv sets that are 16:9 switchable. That would be the best option as you could then output the anamorphic video from the ipod AV cable and have 16:9 anamorphic content correct on widescreen plasmas etc. Im tempeted to got one but know that they are bound to release a widescreen version (it seems completely MAD to relase anything in 4:3 format these days what with evertything now goign high def, and computer screens all being widescreen - apple themselves having widescreen powerbooks, and the imacs....why did they make it 4:3???) I can only suspect that the release of a widescreen version enables apple to then release an updated version, and thus sell more units, if they went straight for a widescreen version how would they update it?, all they need to do is make it a portrait screen - theres plenty of space on the unit...???

 

[maddav]

Personally, any movies I encode I stretch into 320x240 with no black borders, I can stand disfigurement on a screen that size, but I can't stand black borders eating my valuable pixels.

 

[virus1]

just make a compromise.. you can have it all