Hi,
I'm converting a number of avi files to later on view on my hopefully-arriving-tomorrow-N810 and got one question.

I'm pretty comfortable with all the deinterlace, fps, etc settings but the one that I'm struggling with a bit to understand is the size/ration setting.

Currently I am set on producing 576x352 WxH movies but when I've read in the file to convert I have the following source specs (following are three actual examples):

Example 1) 664x274 and aspect ratio 2.42

Example 2) 660x276 and aspect ratio 2.39

Example 3) 632x258 and aspect ratio 2.45

In all three examples above I want to create a full-screen movie in the N810 that;
- does not have any black borders,
- does not stretch or narrow the original aspect ratio, and
- does not require too much to be cropped off.

I am using Handbrake.

Could someone please let me know what settings in size and/or crop I should use to achieve this (if I can....as my desire is a 352 width that would, I assume extrapolation to get to that point).

Really appreciate for any expert help out there

Since your videos are all less than 352 high, you're not going to get your desired resolution from those sources. (You don't want to increase the size! Those pixels are lost forever, you have to accept that and move on! )

Since you're starting with fairly low resolution sources to begin with, my suggestion is to reduce your height to 240 (1/2 of the tablet's resolution) and then crop the width to 400. This always produces very nice looking videos on my tablet, and its an easy target (doesn't require very much math). It also has the benefit of adding a bit of blur to fix the blocky high-motion scenes.

If you think this cropping is too excessive, then you're going to have to put up with black bands above and below your video. But it really isn't bad at all. Try it.

Thanks qole, I'll give that a try for one of those example files and see how it turns out

One last example (where the size WOULD allow me to get the height I wanted) where I would love to achieve a full-screen 576x352 resolution movie with intact ratios (cropping is fine..but I don't know how much or how to determine how much):

Source File:
Resolution: 1280 x 544
Aspect Ratio: 2.35

The way I THINK about this is as follows (and probably WAY off...):

a) 576/1280 = 0.45
c) I now think I need to scale the height down as well using .45
d) 544 x 0.45 = 244
e) I now think "Uughh.., that means there is no way I can do a 576x352 without distorting the original image ratio!". I guess I could get a 576x244.

OR

Can I just:
a) Set the output to 576x352,
b) Leave the Crop-option to 'Automatic'
My assumption here would be that the program would do the following:
352/544 = 0.647
0.647x1280 = 828
828-576 = 252
252/828 = 0.30
Cropping will therefore be 15% of the screen on each side (loosing 30% of the original picture screen).


Am I COMPLETELY lost here (math was also never my strong side)?

What, if anything could I had done to get to a 576x352 ratio?

What if I DO save it as 576x244 - will it play in nice, full-screen on the N810.

(Sorry, just trying to prep some movies before I GET the device..and learn how some of these calculations works...).

Thanks again!

One question on that:

Example source:
660x276 w/ an aspect ratio of 2.39

In Handbrake:
Step 1) I set the Height to 240 and Width to 400
Step 2) I leave the Crop option to 'Automatic'

(Assumption on Auto-cropping:
a) 240/276 = 0.87
b) 660x0.87 = 573
c) 573-400 = 173
d) 173/573 = 0.30

Don't I here end up in a situation where the program would crop out 30% of the original picture?

(Btw, I leave my bitrate to 750 and FPS to 'as source' - are those values ok to use?)

I'm lost

Thanks!

UPDATE:
I did what I outlined about for this particular movie but..it doesn't seem as if it cropped 30%..instead it appears as if the movie has been squashed together a bit.

Here is a picture showing what I mean:
The frame to the left is the converted image to be used on an N810 and the frame to the right is from the original 660x276 movie.

It looks..odd...so I must be doing something not-so-right.

On a widescreen movie, you can't avoid the borders above and below; the NIT screen is not widescreen ratio.

What I usually do is take the calculator and figure the width:height ratio and try for some value where width=400 (like qole said) and let the height fall where it will. If that's 240, it's full screen. If not, oh well... If you go over 400 wide you start hitting framrate problems.

silvermountain:

I like fullscreen, but I see by your screenshot that you've chosen at least one movie that is aggressively widescreen, making it difficult to crop.

But anyway, here's what I was trying to say. Using your example:
Resize 660x276 to 574x240.
Crop 87 pixels from each side.

This gives you a final size of 400x240.

But as I said, the movies you've chosen are very widescreen, and the image you've chosen shows me that they're not only widescreen, but agressively widescreen, so cropping them may have adverse effects.

I've attached your example screenshot, at original resolution and then resized and cropped to the tablet dimensions. If you can live with the poor guy's eyes being cropped like that, then you're good to go

EDIT: Please do try cropping it. You might agree with me that the high impact of fullscreen video on the tablet is worth the loss of 30% of the image from the sides like that.

Very good !