I have recently purchased a JVC Everio camcorder, which unfortunately records in a hideious .MOD format. My main goal in purchasing this camcorder was to record sports films, import them into my PC, edit/trim the beginning and end, and resave the video.
My first experience with .MOD was that copying the file directly to my HDD resulted in a 4:3aspect ratio video, though I am using 16:9 when recording. I found a program named SDCopy which would transfer the specified video to my HDD with the aspect ratio (16:9) intact, renaming the file to .AVI. I am using VirtualDubMod 1.8.8 with AC3 and MPEG2 plugins, then compressing the video to standard Xvidcodec and direct stream copy for the audio. I am using no particular filters, just trimming the video. The end result is a video with a strange looking aspect ratio on my HDTV and widescreen monitors. It appears to be letterboxed on the sides, but not your typical 4:3 aspect.
I went back to VirtualDub and used the resize filter (no crop) for 16:9 but it converts the resolution to 720x405 rather than the 720x480 from the original .MOD/.AVI.
Burning a DVD by using the Camcorder and CyberLink Power Cinema (which shipped with the unit) produces a DVD which correctly pans the screen, however this is dictated by the IFO file and not the VOB, which is still 4:3!
Since I'm new to the camcorder and video conversion scene, could someone explain to me if the DVD playing on my HDTV is in fact letterboxed into 720x405, so I'm not going crazy and the Xvid resize is correct? (I'm not losing any data in the resolution change?)
Quote:I went back to VirtualDub and used the resize filter (no crop) for 16:9 but it converts the resolution to 720x405 rather than the 720x480 from the original .MOD/.AVI.
Quote:Burning a DVD by using the Camcorder and CyberLink Power Cinema (which shipped with the unit) produces a DVD which correctly pans the screen, however this is dictated by the IFO file and not the VOB, which is still 4:3
Again that makes sense, many DVDs are authored this way. By 'correctly pans the screen' do you mean it fills the screen with no bars.
There is also the chance that although widescreen the MOV may actually be at 4:3 with the picture letterboxed with hard mattes (bars) above and below the video that are part of the image. I have an older copy of the WIld Bunch, although the picture is 2.35:1 it's a Full Screen (an old term) DVD that is in fact authored at 4:3, the bars are not added by the TV they are burned into the 4:3 image. At normal settings it looks vertically squished on a 16:9 set.
There's a few things you can try. If the DVD's quality looks fine use this little app to convert to Xvid. Under open file use the VIDEO_TS.IFO. See if things work out.
Another thing you could try would be to run the DVD in PgcEdit and navigate to the main movie, Ctrl-A and check the video attributes. Change it to whatever you think is right (for example 16:9 letterboxed, or 16:9 pan and scan) and test in a software player and burn.
If you have a WS source (assume it to be 720x405) the resultant Xvid will not be 720X480 unless you add the appropriate top/bottom bars which will be burned in/a part of the new Xvid.
Here's another probably better explained solution.
I started using SDCopy to copy the video files over to my PC. I then added the necessary MPEG plugins for VirtualDub and then use VirtualDub's resize filter (16x9) and Xvidcompression, resave the video and all works well.
