Further explanation about SVCD aspect ratio

[FlimsyFeet]

I have just been reading the explanation of aspect ratios in the DVD basics bit on this site. My question is regarding watching an SVCD on a widescreen TV.

If I understand correctly, the picture on a typical SVCD is 4:3 anamorphic. A widescreen TV then has to stretch the picture both horizontally and vertically to show it correctly.

I was wondering if it would be better to re-encode in a 16:9 form, so the TV only has to stretch in the horizontal direction. (Basically TMPEnc would do the vertical stretching instead of the TV).

"Formats for standalone players like VCD and SVCD work differently, since they too have a DAR flag (4:3 or 16:9, where the latter won't work properly on all known players)."
So a 16:9 SVCD will not automatically change the TV to 16:9 mode?

And I also noticed this:
"But SVCD is 480x480 and if you apply the same calculation rule as above (480*4/3= 680)"

I get 640! :devil:

[manono]

Hi and welcome to the forum-

the picture on a typical SVCD is 4:3 anamorphic.

If I'm not mistaken, Anamorphic is by definition 16:9. A typical widescreen SVCD is 4:3 letterboxed.

I was wondering if it would be better to re-encode in a 16:9 form,

You might want to consider that. But because of the extra video in the frames, you'll need more CDs. As you said, the idea is to stretch in only one direction.

So a 16:9 SVCD will not automatically change the TV to 16:9 mode?

You have to tell your DVD player to output 16:9.

I get 640!

Must be a typo.

[FlimsyFeet]

Hi and welcome to the forum-
OK, thanks

If I'm not mistaken, Anamorphic is by definition 16:9. A typical widescreen SVCD is 4:3 letterboxed.
But the resolution is 480x480 (NTSC) 1:1, so there must be a bit of squashing so it looks OK on a 4:3 TV?

You might want to consider that. But because of the extra video in the frames, you'll need more CDs. As you said, the idea is to stretch in only one direction.
Oh. I didn't think about needing extra CDs. What about if I convert it to PAL? There are only 4/5 frames from the NTSC video, or does the increased vertical resolution take up this space?