deuceloosely wrote:I tried mpeg1, but it gave me a messed-up aspect ratio, regardless how I adjusted the values (I want 720x480).
720x480 isn't a proper resolution for computer distribution (square pixels). Work out the ratios for 720:480 and you'll find that it doesn't come near the usual ratios of 1.33:1 (4:3 or 'fullscreen') or 1.78:1 (16:9 or 'widescreen').
Since TVs use rectangular pixels, 720x480 is fine. And if you are encoding MPEG-2 for a DVD, then that is fine. Editing in 720x480 is fine also since most editing software understand the difference between PAR and DAR and should resize the video to the correct aspect ratio while editing and previewing.
http://www.animemusicvideos.org/guides/ ... deo1.htm#4
http://www.animemusicvideos.org/guides/ ... ocId742447
Most videos should be resized after all editing is done and before final encoding to 640x480/512x384 (4:3) or 848x480/768x432/720x400/640x352 (16:9) or similar. Another option that doesn't always work correctly is to leave the video as 720x480 but flag the video as 4:3 or 16:9. This is wasteful for 4:3 videos since you are encoding extra pixels that would be lost when the player resizes the video on playback, but it can be helpful to 16:9 videos.
If you are using 720x480 as an in-between resolution to mix 4:3 and 16:9 footage together without cropping (or letterboxing) footage, I don't recommend doing it, but that's your choice...
