Aspect Ratio Changes

[chetfan]

How can I change the aspect ratio of DVD films I've bought and put on the hard drive? One of them is 16:9, and I'd like ''Full Screen'' 4:3?? I think, the format of old movies.
Is there any 'Freeware' to do this?
Would appreciate any help.

[VHG]

Movies have never been 4:3, they have always be some sort of widescreen format.

When they used to show them on old 4:3 TVs they either used to "chop" the sides off to make it fit the "narrow" screen, or make it "letterbox" where they had the right film width, then reduced the height, so we had black bars at the top and bottom.

[ChuckFickens]

As above...

But if they are on your hard drive just use a player that lets you set the aspect ratio to whatever you want, such as VLC player.

You'll have to decide if you want to distort the image by just setting a 4:3 aspect or loose part of the image by zooming in on it.

[heathfield]

Having served an apprenticeship in the cinema industry, I have to say that the original aspect ratio for film was very definitely 4:3. This was taken into account when the first TVs were being introduced, and was the reason for adopting 4:3 ratio for TV. Several different widescreen formats came into being, but not until the 1950s - Vistavision, Cinemascope, Todd-AO, Cinerama. These are the formats that have their sides chopped or are ''letterboxed'' for 4:3 ratio TV screens.

http://www.cinemasour...les/aspect_ratios.pdf

[chetfan]

heathfield, Thanks for your help