rip anamorphic or not?

[SaMe]

Hi,

I rip some of my dvd's to nero mpeg4 to playback from the hd on my xbox. I noticed in Nero the option 'USE SQUARE PIXEL' which i think (correct me if i'm wrong) converts the anamorphic source on disc to a format (downscaling) as it would be shown on a 4:3 television, thus LOSING quality in the vertical dimension.

If this is so, than it is a pitty because i have a 16:9 television, and my xbox scales the resolution back up to cover more screenarea. However, although the xbox's upscaling algoritm is amazing, it is not the original picture from disc.

If I would disable the 'square pixel' setting in nero, it makes an anamorphic rip, meaning it doesn't change the anamorphic source, but takes in all pixels recorded on disc. When viewed, it can be directly played without upscaling anything, thus a better quality.

My questions: When I play the anamorphic rip on my computer with quicktime, I can see the vertically stretched image (my computer has WXGA) which is not that cool to look at :D ... so i know the xbox renders the movie correctly for me.

-> How does the xbox (or any player for that matter) notices that the content is is anamorphic? Is there some sort of flag like on the dvd? And where is it at? Maybe in MPEG4 there is an FourCC like in AVI? Could you give me a little explication of this?

-> How can i display the movie correctly on a computerscreen (whether on xga or wxga) Apperently showtime displays the movie correctly, but is it also possible in mediaplayer, winamp and quicktime?

-> When i make a rip whitout the square pixel convertion, the movie is significantly better when viewed on my (rather large) widescreen television. So i tend to make future rips in the anamorphic style, but i noticed that few do (or none for that matter) I also can't find a guide which suggest ripping this way, as converting to this square pixel (even when ripping in divx/xvid with guardian knot etc...) SO: is it foolish to rip the anamorphic resolution? If so, why???

I hope someone can enlighten me with his overwhelming knowledge ;)
thanks in advance...

[SeeMoreDigital]

My questions: When I play the anamorphic rip on my computer with quicktime, I can see the vertically stretched image (my computer has WXGA) which is not that cool to look at :D ... so i know the xbox renders the movie correctly for me. .None of Apples QuickTime players supports MPEG-4 signalling detection, so your 720x480 or 720x576 anamorphic image will not be presented correctly.

You will need to use a different type of software media player, such as VLC (which contains it's own set of filters) and/or install an MPEG-4 direct-show filter that can detect anamorphic signalling, which will work in-conjunction with your existing software media players.

-> How does the xbox (or any player for that matter) notices that the content is is anamorphic? Is there some sort of flag like on the dvd? And where is it at? Maybe in MPEG4 there is an FourCC like in AVI? Could you give me a little explication of this?The MPEG-4 bit-stream will indeed carry an "anamorphic" flag. It works in much the same way as the "anamorphic" flag within an MPEG-2 bit-stream.

There's even an application called "MPEG4 Modifier" that can add anamorphic signalling to an MPEG-4 bit-stream, after the encode was first generated.

-> How can i display the movie correctly on a computerscreen (whether on xga or wxga) Apperently showtime displays the movie correctly, but is it also possible in mediaplayer, winamp and quicktime?As I mentioned above, you need to install a software media player, such as VLC (which contains it's own set of filters) and/or install an MPEG-4 direct-show filter that can detect anamorphic signalling, which will work in-conjunction with your existing software media players.

-> -> When i make a rip whitout the square pixel convertion, the movie is significantly better when viewed on my (rather large) widescreen television. So i tend to make future rips in the anamorphic style, but i noticed that few do (or none for that matter) I also can't find a guide which suggest ripping this way, as converting to this square pixel (even when ripping in divx/xvid with guardian knot etc...) SO: is it foolish to rip the anamorphic resolution? If so, why??? ...Personally I'm unable to help you with Gordian Knot but there are quite a few posts about this subject.

I generate anamorphc encodes all the time. Some with the black mattes, some without ;)


Cheers

[SaMe]

thanks for your explications, it is really appreciated... I guess for the mpeg4 direct show filter, that FFDSHOW will be a very good option? Anyone else perhaps has an opinion about making anamorphic rips?

[SeeMoreDigital]

thanks for your explications, it is really appreciated... I guess for the mpeg4 direct show filter, that FFDSHOW will be a very good option? Anyone else perhaps has an opinion about making anamorphic rips?FFdshow contains a wide range of video and audio filters, with excellent selectivity options.

If you are a "newbie" to FFdshow you might find it quite intimidating to begin with but it's well worth the effort ;)

By-the-way, in order for FFdshow to correctly display MPEG-4 encodes with anamorphic signalling, you will need to select the following "Output" options (as well as the required MPEG-4 decoder filter): -

http://img244.imageshack.us/img244/1023/ffdshowdecodersettings4cl.png


Cheers

[SaMe]

i installed k-lite codec pack, which containes ffdshow, and i can play fluently all files i have, even my anamorphic test looks nice in mediaplayer. At first i installed only ffdshow but for some reason i still couldnt play the mpeg4 files.

K-lite did work instantly (and the output alteration setting was selected by default) I noticed when i play a file that not only ffdshow is in my system tray, but also 'haali media splitter' I don't quite understand all of that yet, but I will look at it, and study the ffdshow a bit :p ... thanks man! everything works fine now... and i think i will rip evrything anamorphic from now on...

I think the haali has something to do with splitting the audio and video track and sending it to different decoders. It seems that video is being send to 3ivx decoder, and the sound to coreaac or 3ivx aac (which ever i choose) since it uses 3ivx for video (so apperently 3ivx supports the nero digital format?), i selected use for 3ivx aac. But i'm not sure from all of this.