Smokey & Bandit strange lb format, please help on resize method

I am trying to encode Smokey & the Bandit, but it has a strange flag. According to info online, it is supposed to be 1.85 aspect ratio, but when I call it up in dvd2svcd, it shos up 4:3. When you preview movie it shows up with large black bars on top and bottom, because it is a 1.85 showing up in a 4:3 window. I know how to resize a 2.35 movie to fit 1.85 aspect (crop), but I dont know what to do with this 1.85 flagged I presume as a 4:3. It will need to be cropped I assume, so what would be the setting to make it a 1.85?

Play the DVD in WinDVD or PowerDVD, but not in fullscreen mode. See if it is truly 4:3 or 16:9. If it is 16:9 and there are no black borders then simply tell DVD2SVCD to encode it as 16:9 add borders or if you are encoding for a widescreen TV then 4:3 do not add borders. There are issues with the 16:9 do not add borders with most players. The IFO information could be wrong. It happens often. If it is "letterbox" and the black bars are part of the video or if it's truly 4:3 to create a new 16:9 video out of it is a bit messy. If it's 4:3 letterbox I would just leave the black bars and encode as 4:3. Mark

I already played on Windvd and black bars shows up. Does appear to be a 1.85(not 2.35):1 aspect ratio inside the 4:3 window, so is there a way to crop it to remove the black bars? What did you mean by a bit messy

Get Gordian Knot, open in it DVD2AVI project file, hit "Auto crop". after that follow DVD2SVCD Q&A Q62. Good luck.

Hi- It's a 1.85:1 letterboxed movie. The DAR is 4:3. Nothing unusual about that, so what's the problem? Perhaps reading Doom9's will help.

It's messy because you have to edit the AVS and find the exact right point on which to crop if the black bars are part of the encode and not worth it to boot unless you are encoding for a widescreen TV. Are you planning to add the borders back in after the encode? Are you encoding this for a widescreen TV? This is the only reason I can see to remove the black bars that turn the 16:9 video into 4:3. If the movie is letterbox just encode the black bars with the video as 4:3 no harm done. Many early DVD's where made letter box (having the black bars actually encoded as part of the video stream) instead of anamorphic. This was done because some early DVD players did not have the ability to add the black bars. Pretty normal. Most people just encode it as 4:3 do not add borders. I have done several letterbox movies this way and they all came out fine. Am I missing something? Mark

Summarized: you can't remove the black bars unless you want to make an anamorphic svcd instead of a normal letterboxed. The problem is only that most players can't play those. @lonewolf454, If the real aspect ratio is 1.85:1. It can mean two things: your dvd is widescreen anamorphic or widescreen letterboxed. The former doesn't contain black bars and must be resized like 16x9, and the latter contains black bars and must be resized like 4x3. If you are not sure whether it is anamorphic or letterboxed you can always check .