Does aspect ratio signalling work at all currently?

[Leak]

So I'm just backing up my R1 "Ghost In The Shell: Stand Alone Complex" DVDs (and getting rid of the telecine and the oversharpening while I go along).

Now, for the first 8 episodes I used one of celtic_druid's builds made just after beta1 was released, and encoding with a 16:9 NTSC PAR did work perfectly (without B-frames, which I've turned off since I've got bitrate to burn), but the next 2 episodes, which I encoded with Koepi's beta2 build, suddenly don't contain any aspect ratio info at all, according to MPEG4Modifier, and of course neither the XviD decoder nor ffdshow will resize the image accordingly...

So - does setting a PAR/DAR with beta2 work for anybody? :(

np: Markus Guentner - Track 3 (In Moll)

[squid_80]

AR signalling still works as expected for me, but I haven't tested without b-frames.

[Leak]

Originally posted by squid_80
AR signalling still works as expected for me, but I haven't tested without b-frames.

Well, maybe I should have worded it differently, it's not the signalling per se that's not working, but it seems as if XviD doesn't write the info into the file/the bitstream that's needed for adjusting the aspect ratio (at least with B-frames turned off)...

Just tried again with a 100 frames clip, all settings made by hand and double-checked - it still doesn't work, so I guess I can rule out operator error...

EDIT: I also chose the 2,35:1 setting, and tried all possibilites of using B-frames, packed bitstream, and even tried going from DXN HT NTSC to unrestricted profile, but none of the files produced would get resized. The "old" files I made, on the other hand, got their aspect ratio corrected as expected...

np: Ulf Lohmann - Track 02 (Because Before)

[Koepi]

Do a proper uninstall and then reinstall and then try again.

Did you change any other software in your system?

It works for me, too, I'll try to reproduce the issue later at home, but I've not much hope that I'll succeed in that.

Cheers
Koepi

[Sharktooth]

Ensure you use the Xvid decoder bundled with the codec, or lastest FFDShow.

[Leak]

Originally posted by Sharktooth
Ensure you use the Xvid decoder bundled with the codec, or lastest FFDShow.

The problem definitely isn't on the decoder side, as it still works with the (anamorphic) encodes I did before installing 1.1b2 - those still work using either XviD, ffdshow or mplayer, whereas the new encodes don't...

I'll try again when I get home...

EDIT: Okay, so I made 4 encodes after making sure I had purged every last bit of XviD from my harddisc, reinstalling beta2 and loading the defaults.

One was with the PAR set to "16:9 NTSC", one with a custom PAR of 40:33, one with a DAR of 16:9 (which should net a slightly different result, due to cropping black borders) and one with a DAR of 2,35:1...

Surprise, surprise - all 4 files are byte-for-byte identical according to cygwin's cmp... :(

Could it be a bug in the VfW frontend not passing the setting on to the XviD core, or what's going on? :confused:

EDIT2: Oh, now that's just great!


vfw frontend
============
* dxn profiles now confirm to "DivX Certified Profile Compatibility v1.1",
February 2005. this document was provided by DivXNetworks, USA. when a
dxn profile is selected, strict conformance is enabled:
- force 1:1 picture aspect ratio
- disable bframes if interlacing is enabled
- force maximum of 1 consecutive bvops for the portable and ht profiles,
2 bvops for the hd profile
- always write divx 5 userdata string to bitstream
- force packed bitstream option
- updated dxn vbv parameters


That's from the ChangeLog that comes with the source tarball - of course, I'm using the DXN HT NTSC profile and 2-pass encoding because of VBV... :(

Shouldn't the aspect ratio tab at least be disabled if a DXN profile is chosen? Or, even better, how about making the VBV settings freely configurable when using the "(unrestricted)" profile?

My MediaTek standalone needs VBV, but I'd sure like to get the right aspect ratio on my PC... :(

And I don't consider changing the aspect ratio on every file by hand using MPEG4Modifier as a solution to this...

np: Metamatics - Byeway (Clan) (From Death To Passwords Where You're A Paper Aeroplane)

[loni_blues]

Let's see how I can explain this. Resizing to 2.35:1 in the Xvid decoder no longer works for me on any program (it used to with a previous version).
What works is this: I set the 16:9 AR flag in the bitstream. I can resize the file properly with MPC and Zoomplayer if I set it to auto mpeg and use VMR9.
Hope it helps,

[SeeMoreDigital]

For me... XviD's Beta2 encoder and DSdec filter generate and display anamorphic encodes the exactly the same way as recent previous builds!


Cheers

[Leak]

Originally posted by SeeMoreDigital
For me... XviD's Beta2 encoder and DSdec filter generate and display anamorphic encodes the exactly the same way as recent previous builds!

Well, the encoder will still do it, as long as you don't choose one of the DXN profiles (which now enforce a 1:1 aspect ratio) - but how else can one activate the VBV code?

Sadly that information can only be found in the changelog that comes with the source code - it can't be discovered in the interface or in the readme... :(

(NB: I couldn't care less if my standalone simply ignored the aspect ratio info - that's the case the zoom mode settings on my TV are for...)

np: Ulf Lohmann - Track 06 (Because Before)

[celtic_druid]

Pretty sure that I left AR working in my MTK profiles. There is however an issue with packed bitstream. It is set to packed for 1 bframe for all profiles and I think unpacked for > 1 too. This was meant to only effect MTK profiles. I think I will do a new build where pb just does whatever you set it to, since mine and several other MTK based players handle pb fine.

Yep AR works fine with the MTK profiles I did.

I think I liked the original DXN patch where you had a stict DXN checkbox that enforced stuff like 1:1 AR.

[Leak]

Originally posted by celtic_druid
Yep AR works fine with the MTK profiles I did.

I think I liked the original DXN patch where you had a stict DXN checkbox that enforced stuff like 1:1 AR.

Is there a build of yours based on or newer than the beta2 source that has the MTK profiles? Or are those in all your builds?

[celtic_druid]

http://celticdruid.no-ip.com/test/xvidvfwtest.7z

Errr, wait a minute. CVS just got updated. Doesn't effect VfW though. Still I will put a new build up that doesn't change packed bitstream settings.

[Leak]

Originally posted by celtic_druid
http://celticdruid.no-ip.com/test/xvidvfwtest.7z

Errr, wait a minute. CVS just got updated. Doesn't effect VfW though. Still I will put a new build up that doesn't change packed bitstream settings.

Thanks - works great. :)

np: Mike Ink - Polka Trax 4 (Polka Trax)

[OCedHrt]

Quick question, semi-related. If I modify the AR/DAR using MPEG4 Modifer, the decoder from 1.1b2 should decode using the new AR right? It isn't working for me.

Edit:
Ran a quick test encode setting the AR to 16:9 in vfw configuration page using some random 4:3 file..output is decoded the same :/ I think it's just something that I am doing wrong though. I just spent 2 hours earlier trying to get the AR working in mp4 and I swear it wasn't working but I make a mkv file with the AR then I re-play the mp4 and it works?! (Using Haali's mkv/mp4 splitter)

What is needed to get the AR working in XviD? Just the AR set in the bitstream and using the decoder from 1.1b2 right?

[SeeMoreDigital]

Hi OCedHrt,

Try these 16:9 AR Signalling Test Encodes (http://82.2.167.237/Uploaded_Files/Doom9_Forum_files/16.9_AR_Signalling_Test_Encodes.zip) and these 4:3 AR Signalling Test Encodes (http://82.2.167.237/Uploaded_Files/Doom9_Forum_files/4.3_AR_Signalling_Test_Encodes.zip) please!


Cheers


EDIT: 4:3 test encodes added

[OCedHrt]

Thanks! I won't have access to my computer until Tuesday.