good DVD player for digital cable recordings

[niceified]

I've got some DVDs I've made from digital cable recordings. My current DVD player doesn't stretch the image properly because they are a non-standard resolution. (528x480, to be exact) I'm looking for a DVD player that will stretch the image to fill the screen. I know there are DVD players that work with non-standard resolutions, I just don't know which specific brands or models. Does anybody have any recommendations?

[red616]

Most players have a "zoom" control. Have you tried that?

[SeeMoreDigital]

I've got some DVDs I've made from digital cable recordings. My current DVD player doesn't stretch the image properly because they are a non-standard resolution. (528x480, to be exact)...What's the make and model number of your current DVD player?

528x480 is not that uncommon for 4:3 or even 16:9 DAR broadcast content.

By-the-way, have you checked to see if the streams actually contain the required DAR signalling information? It may have been lost!


Cheers

[niceified]

Most players have a "zoom" control. Have you tried that?
Yeah, I tried that. But it doesn't really work, as the video isn't centered- it's all the way on the left side of the screen and a black bar is on the right.


What's the make and model number of your current DVD player?

528x480 is not that uncommon for 4:3 or even 16:9 DAR broadcast content.

By-the-way, have you checked to see if the streams actually contain the required DAR signalling information? It may have been lost!


Cheers

My DVD player is the RJ-Tech RJ-1500DVXII. I know I could burn the DVD as a data disc and it would play the videos at the correct size, but I'd rather not do that, since I wouldn't be able to have menus and stuff.

I'm not sure if it has the DAR information. How do I find this out?

I tried playing it on someone else's DVD player and it worked okay.
I also tried playing the DVD in Media Player Classic and oddly enough, it had the same problem as my set top player- the video's all squashed to the left. However, the VOBs that I used to author the disc played fine in MPC.

I used DVDStyler with mostly default settings to author the disc. Perhaps it messed something up?

EDIT:
After doing a little research, it seems like the problem might be in the IFO. Ifoedit says the resolution is 720x480 which it obviously isn't.
I tried changing the resolution to 352x480 and played the DVD in MPC. The video was no longer squished, but instead stretched way too much. This leads me to believe that if I were to change that to 528x480 it would work correctly. Is there a program that will let me do this? Ifoedit doesn't seem to allow me to set it to a non-standard resolution.

[SeeMoreDigital]

My DVD player is the RJ-Tech RJ-1500DVXII.An ESS Vibratto II chip-set based player. I presumed as much!

A weak chip-set, with little support.....

I'm not sure if it has the DAR information. How do I find this out?Applications such as GSpot and/or MediaInfo will inform you whether your MPEG-2 streams contains DAR signalling.

[niceified]

Here's what I got from MediaInfo:



General #0
Complete name : F:\temp2\test.vob
Format : MPEG-2 Program
Format/Family : MPEG-2
File size : 438 MiB
PlayTime : 22mn 33s
Bit rate : 2714 Kbps

Video #0
Codec : MPEG-2 Video
Codec profile : Main@Main
Codec settings/Matri : Custom
PlayTime : 22mn 33s
Bit rate : 15 Mbps
Bit rate mode : CBR
Width : 528 pixels
Height : 480 pixels
Aspect ratio : 4/3
Frame rate : 29.970 fps
Chroma : 4:2:0
Interlacement : Interlaced
Bits/(Pixel*Frame) : 1.975

Audio #0
Codec : AC3
PlayTime : 22mn 33s
Bit rate : 192 Kbps
Bit rate mode : CBR
Channel(s) : 2 channels
Sampling rate : 48 KHz
ChannelPositions : L R



Everything seems to be correct here, I think...

[setarip_old]

@nicefied

Hi!But it doesn't really work, as the video isn't centered- it's all the way on the left side of the screen and a black bar is on the right.On most players, when the "Zoom" function has been implemented, image positioning can be controlled by the left, right, up, and down arrows on the remote control...

[SeeMoreDigital]

Okay.... according to MediaInfo that particular MPEG-2 (528x480 resolution) source has an DAR of 4:3

Meaning when viewed via a 4:3 "standard" TV, the image should fill the width screen. Or when viewed via a 16:9 "widescreen" TV, the image should be positioned in the centre of the screen complete with electronically produced vertical black bars to the left and righ of the image.

Before we go any further. Can you confirm your TV size type (ie: 4:3 or 16:9)?

And are you able to play your source in an software player, take a still image from it and show us it please?

[niceified]

My TV is 4:3.
I'm able to play it in a software player, but it's not letting me take a screen shot for some reason.

EDIT: Ok, I turned off the overlay and got it to take a screenshot:
http://img530.imageshack.us/img530/9780/screengrabja7.png

[niceified]

Today I decided to try upgrading the firmware, to see if it might help... and it did! Everything's working perfectly now. :D
And I was just about to break down and buy another player. lol