meGUI's aspect ratios

[mitsubishi]

I was wondering where meGUI gets the decision to use the aspect ratios. When I load up a UK DVB d2v, it sets "ITU PAL 16:9 (1.823361)" rather than 16/9. DGindex just says 16:9 and when I play the files normally it stretches to 1024x576, not 1050x576. I don't see many test-cards these days, but on the BBC interactive streams when nothing is on, there is a shape, which if a circle in a square, is correct at 1.77778 and incorrect at 1.823361. So why does meGUI want to use this figure and is it right or wrong?
http://img529.imageshack.us/img529/2980/vlcsnap6507296xe5.th.jpg (http://img529.imageshack.us/my.php?image=vlcsnap6507296xe5.jpg)

[buzzqw]

ITU is used only on dvd source .. afaik isn't used on broadcasting

PAL ITU=53.3333/52

so 16/9*53.3333/52 = 1.82336171

BHH

[mitsubishi]

I see, thanks. So I should be using 16/9 on DVB sources. I wonder if there is a way to tell automatically.

[anonova]

My captures from digital broadcast come up as ITU 4:3 PAL (1.367521) for some reason. It got the 4:3 part right at least, but it's a broadcast in Japan. It should be NTSC, no?

buzzqw, so captures from digital broadcasts should just be forced a certain aspect ratio? If so, rounding to the nearest thousandth is good enough (as megui doesn't allow any more precision than that)?

[buzzqw]

it's hard to tell when forcing ITU compliant or not

On dvd spec ITU is striclty enforced, but often not respected.. moreover when movie are remastered or re-encoded for another region.

The better approach is the visual check. Just look for something obviusly circle , then apply or not the itu.. more rounded is better

BHH

[Octo-puss]

I think I have similar problem. After encoding a movie into 264, using MeGui of course, the aspect ratio is weird. Not on all movies though. I got no idea how to "fix" this as I don't really have any idea how to tell the correct ratio out of the blue. MG lets me manually pick one, but which?...

edit: Also different players give different results. BSPlayer somehow plays one movie at 5:4 ratio, while Media player classic is fine. Etc. I just don't get it at all.

[buzzqw]

@Octo-puss

First of all Welcome to the Forum!

megui flags container with correct aspect ration AND mpc will respect it, while bsplayer not...

use the visual preview for determining the correct ar, also.. on imdb is reported ar movies, and evenmore on your backcover of dvd

BHH

[Octo-puss]

@Octo-puss

First of all Welcome to the Forum!

megui flags container with correct aspect ration AND mpc will respect it, while bsplayer not...

use the visual preview for determining the correct ar, also.. on imdb is reported ar movies, and evenmore on your backcover of dvd

BHH

Thanks:)
With some movies BSP works well too, why is that?

As for visual preview, well, that always shows ok. I don't click on the auto resize button. And no matter what ratio I select the preview looks the same!

[Octo-puss]

Encoded all movies again and mpc just isn't working with some, strange, isn't it? I can't even force it to show it properly, because it doesn't have many predefined aspect ratios, as opposed to bsp.
I am slowly giving up.

[Sharktooth]

BullShit Player...
the name says it all :)
However, ensure you're using the Haali Media splitter.
Another thing to check is your decoder. If you have CCCP (Communist Crappy Codec Pack:devil:) throw it outta window (uninstall it) and get the latest FFDShow from the FFDShow tryouts project page on sourceforge.
Remove any codec pack and install Haali media splitter and the latest FFDShow.
Open the movie in MPC and ensure (right click on then Filters) it is using the correct filters/decoders.
everything should be fine then...

[SeeMoreDigital]

it's hard to tell when forcing ITU compliant or not

On dvd spec ITU is striclty enforced, but often not respected.. moreover when movie are remastered or re-encoded for another region.

The better approach is the visual check. Just look for something obviusly circle , then apply or not the itu.. more rounded is betterUnfortunately there aren't any "software" based players that cater for ITU over-scan. So an PAL MPEG-2 source with 4:3 or 16:9 aspect ratio signalling will be displayed at 768x576 or 1024x576 pixels. And never ever at 788x576 or 1050x576 pixels.


Cheers

[Octo-puss]

BullShit Player...
the name says it all :)
However, ensure you're using the Haali Media splitter.
Another thing to check is your decoder. If you have CCCP (Communist Crappy Codec Pack:devil:) throw it outta window (uninstall it) and get the latest FFDShow from the FFDShow tryouts project page on sourceforge.
Remove any codec pack and install Haali media splitter and the latest FFDShow.
Open the movie in MPC and ensure (right click on then Filters) it is using the correct filters/decoders.
everything should be fine then...

Hold your horses.
What's this Haali thing?
I just have FFDshow and it should be sufficient for everything. I also was told FFD is not a codec, but something else I don't understand. No idea what's splitter, either. (not gonna google at sunday midnight, sorry :) )

Might as well go back to DivX cause those movies work like a charm no matter what.

Oh another funny thing - BSP no longer plays .mp4 files no matter what.
I still like it way more than MPC for the functionality.

[Sharktooth]

http://haali.cs.msu.ru/mkv/MatroskaSplitter.exe
The "splitter" is a source filter. That means it's a filter to read file formats.
Haali media splitter is a DirectShow filter able to read .mp4 and mkv files (and other formats too).

[Octo-puss]

http://haali.cs.msu.ru/mkv/MatroskaSplitter.exe
The "splitter" is a source filter. That means it's a filter to read file formats.
Haali media splitter is a DirectShow filter able to read .mp4 and mkv files (and other formats too).

I wonder why shouldn't FFDshow be enough?

[saint-francis]

I wonder why shouldn't FFDshow be enough?

Because FFDshow is a decoder while Haali splitter breaks the file down into pieces that FFDshow can decode.

[Octo-puss]

That's weird, because MPC can play a mp4/mkv files with just FFDshow...
Well anyway, I recoded the movie into .mkv and guess, the ratio is still screwed. I really got no idea what else to do.
As you obviously noticed, I'm no expert in this :P

[J_Darnley]

That's because Media Player Classic has many "Source" filters built in, it has a few "Transform" filters too but not one for AVC or ASP decoding. Look in the options if you want to see what ones it has.

If MeGUI isn't setting the aspect ratio correctly enough for you then why not set it manually with either x264's --sar width:height argument (that is the Sample or Pixel Aspect Ratio) or mkvmerge's --display-dimensions TID:widthxheight which can either be set manually or it will be set automatically based upon video frame dimensions and aspect ratio information.

[Octo-puss]

But how do I do that in MEGUI? There's no such option really...

[Octo-puss]

I understand now :)

Found this, too:
http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?t=105920&page=16

on the lower side of the page.