# resizing video ( as in ws seinfeld )
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/resizing-video-as-in-ws-seinfeld/524780
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [January 13, 2010, 12:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/resizing-video-as-in-ws-seinfeld/524780 "2010-01-13T12:56:38Z")
**Posts on this page:** 11
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@flano1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/flano1)
#### Post date: [January 13, 2010, 12:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/resizing-video-as-in-ws-seinfeld/524780/1 "2010-01-13T12:56:38Z")
OK so I’ve been watching widescreenised eps of old tv shows…
They haven’t been stretched creating funny heads etc.
I understand there is no new information in the picture that I see.
I want to know how difficult the process is to accomplish, and if there are any
easy to use programs that would allow me to wsise some avi or divx files I have.
I assume that it is not cost effective for those in their high towers to wsise every old tv show, but it sure would be nice.
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### Author:  [@YamatoTwinkie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/YamatoTwinkie)
#### Post date: [January 13, 2010, 1:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/resizing-video-as-in-ws-seinfeld/524780/2 "2010-01-13T13:22:42Z")
If there’s no new information, aren’t they just cutting off the top and bottom of the original 4:3 broadcast and zooming in? Isn’t there a setting for your Widescreen TV or monitor to do this automatically?
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### Author:  [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)
#### Post date: [January 13, 2010, 1:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/resizing-video-as-in-ws-seinfeld/524780/3 "2010-01-13T13:37:39Z")
They’re cropping out a widescreen-shaped rectangle from the 4:3 frame, then scaling it up to widescreen size.
Hopefully, they’re being a bit more selective and adaptive than just cropping the top and bottom - otherwise you’ll just end up with a no-feet-robocop effect. Certainly when widescreen movies are cropped to ‘fullscreen’, they usually do some sort of pan and scan so as to try to preserve the pertinent details.
For the amateur, simple cropping and resizing can be done with something like VirtualDub, but if you want to pan and scan, you’ll need a fairly decent video editor - I think Sony Vegas can do it.
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### Author:  [@HorseloverFat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HorseloverFat)
#### Post date: [January 13, 2010, 1:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/resizing-video-as-in-ws-seinfeld/524780/4 "2010-01-13T13:48:45Z")
This isnt stretchovision. Its a native widescreen ratio.
Seinfeld was shot in widescreen and cropped for standard TV (or shot in both at the same time). Now with HD, it can be shown as the original widescreen. I believe this is the case with some old TV shows like Hogan’s Heroes too.
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### Author:  [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)
#### Post date: [January 13, 2010, 2:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/resizing-video-as-in-ws-seinfeld/524780/5 "2010-01-13T14:06:58Z")
> [@HorseloverFat](#):
>
> …Seinfeld was shot in widescreen…
In 1989? Are you sure?
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### Author:  [@HorseloverFat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HorseloverFat)
#### Post date: [January 13, 2010, 2:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/resizing-video-as-in-ws-seinfeld/524780/6 "2010-01-13T14:54:40Z")
According to a couple different sources it was shot on film and then transfered to 4:3 television:
[http://hd.engadget.com/2008/09/03/seinfeld-goes-hd-on-tbs-hd/](http://hd.engadget.com/2008/09/03/seinfeld-goes-hd-on-tbs-hd/)
Now it was transfered to whatever is closest to 16:9 for HD.
At the end of each episode it says it was shot in Panavision. My understanding is that means it was film.
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### Author:  [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)
#### Post date: [January 13, 2010, 3:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/resizing-video-as-in-ws-seinfeld/524780/7 "2010-01-13T15:02:58Z")
Panavision is just a brand - if it was shot flat onto 35mm, that’s (as near as dammit) a 4:3 ratio.
ETA: from your link, it sounds like it was originally cropped to 4:3 out of some sort of filmed footage that wasn’t widescreen, but did have some slack, and that the widescreen release is a new 16:9 crop out of the original film frame, making use of some of that slack, but also cropping some of the top and/or bottom in comparison to the 4:3 release.
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### Author:  [@YamatoTwinkie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/YamatoTwinkie)
#### Post date: [January 13, 2010, 3:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/resizing-video-as-in-ws-seinfeld/524780/8 "2010-01-13T15:04:23Z")
Then that means that there is “new” information on the WS Seinfeld episodes (at least compared to the original TV broadcast). There is no possible way to duplicate the effect without obtaining the film from similar-shot TV episodes.
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### Author:  [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)
#### Post date: [January 13, 2010, 3:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/resizing-video-as-in-ws-seinfeld/524780/9 "2010-01-13T15:21:20Z")
> [@YamatoTwinkie](#):
>
> Then that means that there is “new” information on the WS Seinfeld episodes (at least compared to the original TV broadcast). There is no possible way to duplicate the effect without obtaining the film from similar-shot TV episodes.
Agreed - if all that’s available is the 4:3, the only practical way to get widescreen is to crop out a widescreen-shaped selection (hopefully with some regard to content).
I started a thread a while back discussing the potential to digitally recreate the ‘missing’ edges of 4:3 footage - the general consensus was that it would be too costly and difficult at present and that there would not be sufficient demand to warrant it.
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### Author:  [@HorseloverFat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HorseloverFat)
#### Post date: [January 13, 2010, 4:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/resizing-video-as-in-ws-seinfeld/524780/10 "2010-01-13T16:00:07Z")
This is also the situation with Hogan’s Heroes on HDnet. It was remastered from the original film, which gave them enough extra room to make it fit 16:9 with some zooming and padding.
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### Author:  [@ZenBeam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZenBeam)
#### Post date: [January 13, 2010, 5:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/resizing-video-as-in-ws-seinfeld/524780/11 "2010-01-13T17:42:10Z")
> [@Mangetout](#):
>
> Agreed - if all that’s available is the 4:3, the only practical way to get widescreen is to crop out a widescreen-shaped selection (hopefully with some regard to content).
>
> I started a thread a while back discussing the potential to digitally recreate the ‘missing’ edges of 4:3 footage - the general consensus was that it would be too costly and difficult at present and that there would not be sufficient demand to warrant it.
Whenever I watch animated holiday specials, like “Merry Christmas Charlie Brown” I think that this would be very easy to do. There’s typically panning and zooming across a static 2D background, so there’s extra background available. Sometimes the characters would have to be shown to one side, if there’s no screen shots farther. Possibly some added background would need to be generated occasionally, but for an animated show, that should be possible.
For a real life show, I agree it would be much more difficult.