video extraction tools

[tacohell36]

I had extracted a show from my stand alone sony tivo, before muxing it shouws frame size of 352x240..I think, after I muxed it using TemGNC it becomes a 480x480 frame size, I do not have a dvd recorder yet, I played them on my PC, and show a high quality dvd, but the size makes it distorted, people look taller..these are my question:

is the size ratio ok?

how do I fix it if I have to?

if I want to burn it to a cd and then be plaable on my pc or svcd capable DVD player in my entertaiment system?

How would they look in SVCD, would they fill the whole TV screen?

if I want to burn it to a dvd later, do I have to fix the ratio or the dvd authoring software would know what to do with it?

As far as Authoring tools and Video editing software, what is the recommended retail product to use, I could spend a couple hundred bucks on it?

Thank you
PS: these very knew to me, but I already was succesful at extracting a high quality video, your answers will be appreciated.

[laserfan]

I'm guessing, but it appears that when you muxed w/TMPGEnc you somehow said "make an SVCD" and it transcoded your file to 480x480, which is SVCD-standard.

In any case it ought to play OK in a standard settop player that plays SVCDs, but some PC software-based players don't correct for aspect ratio thus you are "stretched" taller. Look for a "keep aspect ratio" setting on your player to correct this.

The file should burn to DVD OK if you use an authoring program like SpruceUp that can be fooled into thinking it's 720x480, but then you change-back and burn at 480x480. Again, you need a settop player that will correct the aspect ratio for your TV. I think some have reported here that their Pioneer players don't display these correctly.

Incidentally, I don't think you are gaining anything by converting 352x240 recordings to 480x480; if you want to make SVCDs you can use tivoweb to tell your Sony to record at 480x480 in the first place. I use 352x480 for most everything, at least from analog signals, as it imports to Spruce-Up directly without having to Patch-crash-patchback the file.