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The most complete MPEG, MP4, DVD, WMV, 3GP, AVI video converter. Supports all popular video formats. Split. Merge. Extract audio.
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Need4Video Blog - latest news about video and DVD, discounts and special offers.Fresh news about video and DVD formats, video conversion for mobile devices, Internet video and many others. |
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The most complete MPEG, MP4, DVD, WMV, 3GP, AVI video converter. Supports all popular video formats. Split. Merge. Extract audio.
overview
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We have recently released our new long-expected product – Need4 Video Editor! The program allows you to perform the most common video editing tasks.
With Need4 Video Editor you can:
Turn your personal video into a cinema masterpiece – download and evaluate Need4 Video Editor today!
When we spoke about HD video, we explained what shorthands for HD videos like 1080p, 1080i and 720p mean.
The letters p and i are used to designate the scanning system: progressive scanning (p) or interlaced scanning (i).
We promised to discuss the scanning systems and related problems later.
So, let’s start.
A scanning system type characterizes the way the image is being redrawn when refreshing picture.
There are two different scanning systems – progressive scanning and interlaced scanning.
Progressive scanning redraws an image frame (all of its lines) when refreshing each picture.
Interlaced scanning system implies that each frame is divided into two half-frames (or fields). One field contains all the odd lines of the image, the other contains all the even lines of the image. Thus, during the first image refresh operation the system draws odd numbered lines, and then draws the remaining even numbered lines during the second refreshing.
This technique allows to double a frame rate of a video signal without consuming extra bandwidth. Interlaced scanning was initially designed for TV broadcasting so that the refresh rate of a screen fits the power frequency.
Watching an interlaced video on a device that uses progressive scanning method causes a very unpleasant effect.
Interlace (or combing) effect occurs when an interlaced video is being played on a device that employs progressive scanning. Edges of moving objects have the form of a “comb”, the video is covered by horizontal stripes that distort the image (see Pic. 1).

The cause of this effect is that a progressive scanning combines two adjacent half-frames to draw the image. Lines of these two half-frames interleave, that is the first line from the first half-frame is drawn, then the second line from the second half-frame, the third line from the first half-frame, the fourth line from the second half-frame, and so on. The combined half-frames can contain different motion phases, so that the lines are shifted relative to each other, and the picture looks striped.
If you watch TV on your computer using a TV tuner, you have probably seen this effect (as computer monitors use progressive scanning system, while TV broadcasting standards imply interlaced scanning).
Many camcorders also shoot interlaced video, so you will see interlace stripes when watching it on your computer.
At last, you can face this problem when ripping DVD, since many DVDs are interlaced too.
You should remember that the combing artifacts are most visible on moving images.
To be played correctly by devices that use progressive scanning, an interlaced video is converted into a non-interlaced form. This process is called deinterlacing. The conversion can be performed both hardwarily (by devices, such as TV sets, DVD players and computer video cards) and softwarily (by the means of video conversion software).
For example, Need4 Video Converter allows applying deinterlacing to MPEG video files. Pic.1 gives an instance of software deinterlacing performed by Need4 Video Converter program.
Probably each of us has faced the challenge of missing or accidental deletion of files we value.
The most common causes for that can be:
- Accidentally pressing format or delete button on your camera, camcorder, iPod or smartphone;
- Memory card/flash card shows “unformatted/unallocated” drive when you connect it to your computer;
- Sudden disappearance of a file/folder from your iPod, camera, camcorder or smartphone.
Disk Doctors Photo Recovery is comprehensive recovery software for any digital media. It features an extremely easy interface and powerful functions that allow you to recover deleted and lost photos, music and video files.
Special offer from Need4Video: Purchase Disk Doctors Photo Recovery today and get a 20% discount!
Note: If you accidentally deleted files from a drive and want to recover them, never save any data on this drive. Please, install Disk Doctors Photo Recovery on a drive different from which you are going to recover data.
Q: What is HD video?
A: High-definition (HD) video implies video that has higher resolution than standard-definition (SD) video, i.e. higher than 720×576.
Q: What is the difference between HD and SD videos?
A: Evidently, the main difference is the higher resolution. Moreover, HD and SD videos can be easily distinguished visually – HD video is notable for much higher detail level than standard video.
Pic. 1 illustrates the difference.

Q: What resolutions HD videos have?
A: The most widely used resolutions are 1920×1080 and 1280×720 pixels.
In Pic. 2 you can see the comparison of the most popular video resolutions, both HD and SD.

Q: What do shorthand names like 1080p, 1080i and 720p mean?
A: Numbers (1080 and 720) stand for a vertical frame resolution of 1080 or 720 lines, respectively.
The letters p and i are used to designate the scanning system: progressive scanning (p) or interlaced scanning (i).
We’ll keep different scanning systems and related problems to be a topic of a next post as it is a good question with a lot to say about. We’ll surely discuss the matters later.
Thus, 1080p stands for 1920×1080 progressive video, 1080i – 1920×1080 interlaced video, 720p – 1280×720 progressive video.
Q: What is Full HD?
A: Full HD is a marketing name for 1080p and 1080i video.
Q: What are the most popular HD formats?
A: Today the most popular HD video container format is MPEG-2 Transport Stream, the most often used codecs are H.264 (AVCHD) and MPEG-2.
Q: Do I need a special device to watch HD video?
A: To be able to watch HD video you need a device (computer monitor, television display, projector, etc.) that can process and display high-definition source video signal. This capability is generally determined by technical characteristics of a display, such as display resolution.
Q: If I convert a standard-definition video to a high resolution, will the output video be an HD video?
A: Nominally, such video can be called HD video, as the main difference between HD and standard video is higher resolution. But if you convert video from a lower resolution to a higher one, the quality of the video will not be improved. There are devices that can upscale video (i.e. convert video from a low resolution to a higher one), but the quality of upscaled videos is still lower that the quality of “true” HD videos.
Q: Comparing the output quality of a video file upgraded to HD with the help of video converting software and an upscaling device, which quality is better?
A: The most conversion programs use simple bilinear upscaling algorithm, while devices use more complex methods allowing to improve picture quality, so that the quality of hardwarily upscaled videos is better that the quality of softwarily converted ones.
However, as we have already said, the quality of upscaled video is worse compared to “true” HD.
Q: How can I tell upscaled video from “true” HD video? Are there any objective characteristics?
A: Unfortunately, there are no objective characteristics that an ordinary viewer can use to differentiate “true” HD video from upscaled video. It can be done visually by comparing video frames: HD video frame will have much more small details than an upscaled video frame (see Pic.1). One can say that HD video contains more information per a square unit.
Previously we have mentioned the most common problems connected with aspect ratio: when you play video on your DVD player it is stretched horizontally or vertically. Such problems can be easily solved hardwarily – by setting a DVD player or a TV set to the correct aspect ratio.
But what can you do if your video is shown incorrectly when being played in a software media player? For example, you have a video file that was converted before and for some reason it was converted with the wrong aspect ratio.
There is one more problem related to aspect ratio. Our users often ask how to remove black bars at the edges of the video.
With Need4 Video Converter you will easily convert your stretched video so that it becomes normal as well as remove unwanted black bars.
Let’s systematize all the problems associated with aspect ratio we have mentioned above:
Knowing the height of the converted video, we need to calculate its width. Let’s denote the width of the video by W, and the height of the video by H.
As the converted video is supposed to be 16:9, i.e. W:H = 16:9, the width can be calculated as follows:
W=16×H:9.
The converted video is supposed to be 4:3, i.e. W:H = 4:3, then the width can be calculated as follows:
W=4×H:3.
You can remove the bars and return the video to the 16:9 aspect ratio using the Crop resize method. We need to crop the video vertically leaving the width of the video unchanged (see

Since the converted video is supposed to be 16:9, i.e. W:H = 16:9, the height can be calculated as follows:
H=9×W:16.
The converted video is supposed to be 4:3, i.e. W:H = 4:3, so that the width can be calculated as follows:
W=4×H:3.
To perform conversion of a problematic video file, follow these steps:
If you still have problems or need detailed instructions on converting a certain video file, please contact our Support Team.
Dear Friends,
Today, shortly before Christmas, we are happy to announce that we launch Need4Video Partner Program, and now everyone can join it for free. It’s easy, free and profitable!
You simply get your personal partner link, share it with everyone who may be interested in Need4Video software offering them a 20% discount, and get 20% from every sale to your PayPal account.
Feel free to contact us for more information at partner@need4video.com.
To quicken computer performance and specifically video conversion speed, we often recommend to our users our partner’s software – Uniblue SpeedUpMyPC 2010. It is a tool that we also use, and we hope you’ll like it as well.

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In our previous post we considered what aspect ratio of a video file is, what aspect ratios are most widely used and what problems are connected with aspect ratio. In this post we will try to give clear instructions on converting video with a glance of aspect ratio using Need4 Video Converter.
There are several alternatives possible:
Let us review all these cases.
If you still have problems with aspect ratio, feel free to contact Need4Video Support Team.
According to Wikipedia, aspect ratio of an image is the ratio of the width of the image to its height, expressed as two numbers separated by a colon, e.g. x:y (pronounced “x-to-y”) .
The most common video aspect ratios are 4:3 and 16:9.
These aspect ratios can be easily distinguished. 4:3 has more “square” form, while 16:9 is more “rectangular” (See Pic. 1).

It should be mentioned that 16:9 aspect ratio is considered to be more aesthetically pleasing and closer to human eyesight. This aspect ratio approximates to the so-called golden ratio.
Many problems connected with aspect ratio can be solved hardwarily – by setting a DVD player or a TV set to the necessary aspect ratio.
If you want to convert your video, you should remember about aspect ratio. Here you can find some tips on converting video with a glance of aspect ratio.
Probably, you know that a pixel is the smallest unit of an image. In video files square pixels are primarily used. It is evident that the width and height of a square pixel are equal to each other. In this case, the ratio between video dimensions in pixels will correspond to the aspect ratio of the video file. For example, a video file which consists of square pixels has 640*480 resolution, and its aspect ratio is 4:3 (640:480 = 4:3).
However, DVD files often use non-square pixels (they have rectangular shape, and the pixel width slightly differs from its height). In this case, the ratio between video dimensions in pixels will differ from the aspect ratio of the video file. For example, a 4:3 DVD video can have 720*480 resolution (720:480 ≠ 4:3). This difference is conditioned by different dimensions of a non-square pixel.
We have finally released a new long-awaited version of Need4 Video Converter! We did our best to take into account all your wishes and make Need4 Video Converter user interface clearer and more attractive.
What other improvements are included?
We attempted to make Need4 Video Converter more functional, faster and easier to use. We hope that you’ll like it.
Download and try Need4 Video Converter 8 today!