Change DAR 16:9 flag to 4:3 w/o re-encoding?

[Digifreak]

I encoded a bunch of DVDs to SVCD with TMPGEnc with the 16:9 Dar flag set on the output. Well, all my family's and my Apex players puke on this setting but play with the 4:3 flag OK. Ignoring the playback consequences to the aspect ratio, is there a way to change this flag from 16:9 to 4:3 without completely re-encoding?

[Doom9]

pulldown.exe is just one option. make sure you read the documentation (run pulldown.exe without any params and you get to see all the options)

[Digifreak]

Thanks alot, I didn't realize that feature had been added to the latest release of pulldown. I shall give it a try when I get home from work.

[Digifreak]

No success, I used pulldown to strip the 16:9 encoded m2v of all pulldown and rff flags to return the stream to its original 23.976fps progressive format. I then used the command "pulldown.exe source.m2v target.m2v -aspect_ratio [4:3]". The resulting m2v still plays back on Powerdvd at 16:9. What am I doing wrong? Any other software suggestions to convert the 16:9 DAR to 4:3?

[mikeathome]

Originally posted by Digifreak
(...)
What am I doing wrong? Any other software suggestions to convert the 16:9 DAR to 4:3?

?
Try Darim MPEGChanger from the DVMPEG package.
Should work on SVCD content (NOT on DVD).
- demux A/V
- Video stream -> Darim MPEGChanger (or the new 1.04 DVDPatcher will do as well) patch to 4:3
- mux

Are you sure that you set the Pixel Aspect ratio right while encoding, means the resize/crop/add borders settings in TMPEG ?
If you've created a REAL 16:9 Aspect ratio patching the stream won't help. Than you have to live with your 16:9.
Ok, read again your post, foresure you can ignore the wrong aspect ratio and 'force' the TV to 16:9 only have the flag set to 4:3 for standalone player compliance.
I am not the SVCD expert just a few hints.

mike

[maven]

vStrip can change aspect-ratio flags in VOBs, but might have to change the flags in the IFO as well (if SVCD has such a thing...)