Movie is 16:9 but flagged as 4:3

[apfraats]

This is more a general question, but knowing all people here are into the DVD-backup bussiness, I ask it anyway:

I have a DVD backed u with DVD-RB-PRO.

I checked the result and saw some strange thing happening.

I used POWERDVD and the main movie was played back and the image had not the correct aspect ratio.

Then I checked the source material, SAME THING !

(How bad can commercial DVD-mastering be ??!!)

So it's not a real DVD-RB problem.

But the question is:

If a movie or title is flagged as 4:3 but all other properties such as resolution points out it should be 16:9, what to do to correct this probem ?
At the same time, if the movie is played back with POWERDVD , it's image has a faulty aspect ratio and is disorted in horizontal/vertical sizing.

Using a real DVD-player where you sert youre TV manually to WIDESCREEN should be no problem, but still the source material is incorrectly flagged as 4:3.

Does anyone know how to solve this ?

Thanx.

[jdobbs]

Are you playing back the VOBs directly or through the IFOs (with a player). Remarkably enough there are some commercial discs in which the MPEG-2 stream itself is tagged as 4:3 even though it is intended to be played back at 16:9.

There is a setting in the IFO file that overrides the stream settings.

Some authoring packages (like SpruceUp) cannot do 16:9 -- so the author just encodes and authors the DVD as if it is 4:3 (but with pictures that are anamorphic) and then manually forces 16:9 in the IFO.

Sometimes I am amazed at the poor quality and bad practices that are in use by professional authoring houses.

IFOEDIT has the ability to modify the IFO for 16:9. Do a search, there is a post here on Doom9 that tells you how.

[apfraats]

Thx for answering.

Indeed the picture itself in POWERDVD is anamorphic but viewed in 4:3 !

I think that powerDVD uses IFO information.

For my stand-alone player it doesn't matter, cause I've the SCART input selected on WIDESCREEN. So a 4:3 Anamorpic picture is automatically converted to WIDESCREEN by the TV.
On the other hand if you look on a 4:3 TV set , the DVD-player would not be signalling a 16:9 aspect ratio probably and a 4:3 TV-set will not be forced into 16:9 mode (cutting of upper and lower screen scanning to imitate a 16:9 aspect ratio on a 4:3 picture tube).

So the DVD isn't complying to standards....

I'll look for IFOEDIT , and try to solve it,

Thanx again.

[jdobbs]

In IFOEDIT, look under VTSI_MAT at offset 0x200. Double click and select 16:9 and "Automatic Letterboxed"

[apfraats]

Ok JDOBBS you were right all along !

Using DVD-REMAKE I found a hidden menu saying

"SPRUCE TECHNOLOGIES" , suppose that's Spruceup.

Wat a fu..ing piece of authoring software.

By the way I solved the problem as follows:

LOAD VIDEO_TS.IFO and adjusted aspect ratio for VTS_04 (main movie)
from 4:3 to 16:9.
Then I saved it, overwriting the original IFO.

LOAD VTS_04.IFO and also adjusted aspect ratio form 4:3 to 16:9 and saved it over the old one.

Also there was a rotten 5.1 track I removed. Just playing sound from 1 speaker....
The AC3-2 channel track was quite large (size of a 5.1 track) but sounded ok.

POWER-DVD is now playing the DVD ok.

I also had to remove a PGC 2 in VTS_04 with REMAKE-PRO, which was a lot of crap. In the VMG they even referenced to tittle 255 in VTS_04 which was even non-existing !!!


This was the dvd STYX with DUTCH subtitling only.

Whow, what a lot of crap was this DVD.....

Now all looks fine.

But I wonder how in gods name someone could author a DVD commercially this BADLY !!!

later: I recorrected the presence of PGC 2 in VTS_04 !
They used it for SCENE SELECTION !! MY GOD.....

[jdobbs]

More remarkable is the fact that somebody paid them to create it.

Spruce also created DVD Maestro -- which was one of the top professional authoring packages for a while, and DVD Virtuoso which was mid-level. SpruceUp was their low-end package.

If I recall correctly, Apple bought them up -- and used their code to make DVD Studio Pro. Small world, huh?

[SeeMoreDigital]

Hi JD,

As a matter of interest, may I ask if you know how accurate MediaInfo (http://mediainfo.sourceforge.net/) is a reading IFO file information?


Cheers

[jdobbs]

Sorry, I haven't tried it.

[apfraats]

Hi JD,

As a matter of interest, may I ask if you know how accurate MediaInfo (http://mediainfo.sourceforge.net/) is a reading IFO file information?


Cheers


Mediainfo is not usefull for studying IFo files. It's just a read only tool that provides you with information about media-streams. Not structure and contents of an IFO file.

IFOedit is a read/write tool for viewing and changing *.IFO files in special.

IFOedit and Mediainfo are in fact not to compare in any way.....

[SeeMoreDigital]

IFOedit is a read/write tool for viewing and changing *.IFO files in special.

IFOedit and Mediainfo are in fact not to compare in any way.....I was not suggesting that.... I just wanted to know if the information MediaInfo provided was accurate? And more particularily, is the AR info identified correctly?

Anyway, here's what it said about an IFO, I quickly threw at it: -

General
Complete name : T:\MPEG-2 DVD Test Sample with subtitles\VIDEO_TS\VTS_01_0.IFO
File size : 12.0 KiB
Format : DVD Video

Video #0
Codec : MPEG Video 2
Bit rate mode : VBR
Width : 720
Height : 576
Aspect ratio : 16/9
Frame rate : 25

Audio #0
Codec : AC3
Channels : 5.1
Sampling rate : 48 KHz
Resolution : DRC
Language : English

Audio #1
Codec : AC3
Channels : 2
Sampling rate : 48 KHz
Resolution : DRC
Language : English

Audio #2
Codec : AC3
Channels : 2
Sampling rate : 48 KHz
Resolution : DRC
Language : English
Language info : Director's comments

Text #0
Codec : ADPCM
Language : English

Text #1
Codec : ADPCM
Language : English
Language info : Director comments

Text #2
Codec : ADPCM
Language : English
Language info : Director comments

Text #3
Codec : ADPCM
Language : English
Language info : Forced
Cheers

[apfraats]

In fact I don't know , I didn't compare results in detail.

But I have the beleieving that reported details from Mediaman about mediastreams are accurate. Otgerwise the tool is totally useless, cuase that is it's main goal.

So to take a qiuck look, Mediaman may be more 'userfriendly' and more clearly reporting the details you inetrested in.

But take the streams itself such as VOB files.

Ifoedit get's it's information from the IFO files itself. Not from examinating VOB files.

So if you want to know what is reaaly in a VOB I would say use Mediaman.

Do you want to know what an IFO is saying, use IFOedit.

In a correct authored DVD the information schould be the same.

But Í have seen more 'rotten' authored commercial DVD's than correct one.

Then finally you would have to use both tools.

Mediaman isn't looking into the IFO file.
Ifoedit does.
Mediaman is looking into the VOB file properties.
Ifoedit doesn't.

Hpoe this helps, and anybody correct me if I'm wrong.

[NightSta]

Sometimes I am amazed at the poor quality and bad practices that are in use by professional authoring houses.

IFOEDIT has the ability to modify the IFO for 16:9. Do a search, there is a post here on Doom9 that tells you how.

Has anyone (yourself, or users here) maintained a list of which commercial DVDs this has been the case for? I actually experimented with the DVD RB AVS Command of "Make LB 4:3 to 16:9" (option to that effect). It took a movie that looked squelched and made the perspective "about right" by removing most of the black bordering which effectively made the picture taller in perspective.

Not knowing its exact limitations or applications, I tried another movie with exceptionally wide black bars (in the previous case and this one, bars actually encoded into the frame). The result was narrower bars, but a verticle compression aspect (taller/thinner).

Not bad considering I had to go from PAL to NTSC, then at same time progressive conversion, and the "frame-rate faker" (DGPulldown) to sync the video/audio to fool NTSC systems. I consider the former one a success, the latter a failure. In both cases it left bars, but did narrow them. These are the things you do when you want to experiment and have the time :)

[jdobbs]

You can go from 4:3 to 16:9 with no loss of picture or aspect distortion on any movie other than one that is full frame. But in order to get in closer and remove more of the bars (for example on a 2.35:1 movie) you would have to trim off some of the picture on the left and right as you resize.