Can any players play 16:9 Divx in non-letterboxed mode?

[bluefear]

Hi all,

I bought a cheapo Crystal Divx player recently (ESS Chipset). All of my 16:9 Divx play in 4:3 letterbox mode. On my widscreen TV this means that they are stretched and are incorrectly displayed. Now obviously 720X576 (PAL) 16:9 videos play correctly but all re-encoded 16:9 AVIs play stretched.

My question is this: Do all Divx players suffer from this? Which players play widscreen 16:9 avis properly on a 16:9 TV?

I am aware of the whole point about AVIs are square pixels and DVD/DVB is not but is there a player out there that would stretch a 16:9 AVI vertically to fill the whole of my widescreen TV?

cheers,
leapius

[freelock7]

Square pixels are used in Divx. That's why you have to resize your 16:9 anamorphic source to keep aspect ratio.
Just add at the end of your avs script:
lanczos4resize(720,432)

Or add it in virtualdubmod (section: filters/resize). :)

[SeeMoreDigital]

You might not have to go to those lengths...

Most MediaTek chip-set based players are able to correctly display MPEG-1, MPEG-2 and MPEG-4 video which contains anamorphic signalling embedded within the video stream.

One of the advantages of purchasing such a player is their ability to recognise, play and correctly display MPEG-4 streams encoded with square pixels and/or anamorphic pixels.... automatically :)

I'm sorry to inform you that very few ESS chip-set based players are able to do this.... And the same goes for Sigma chip-set based players running Syabas middle-ware


Cheers

[bluefear]

I was looking to swap this player with either a Yakumo DX4 or a H&B DX3255 - I read the Chipset thread and both seem to be under the Mediatek MT1389 list. Do you think either of these will do the trick?

Also what happens to a xvid/divx which doesn't have any anamorphic signalling embedded into it? Can a player manually stretch an avi anamorphically, which just has a 16:9 resolution?

thanks for the replies,
leapius

[SeeMoreDigital]

I was looking to swap this player with either a Yakumo DX4 or a H&B DX3255 - I read the Chipset thread and both seem to be under the Mediatek MT1389 list. Do you think either of these will do the trick? To be honest I don't know. It all comes down to how pro-active the manufacturers are at exploiting the chip-sets capabilities!

The VideoHelp.com web site allows users to post comments about their players.... so this is a good place to start.

Also what happens to a xvid/divx which doesn't have any anamorphic signalling embedded into it? Can a player manually stretch an avi anamorphically, which just has a 16:9 resolution?This will depend on how they've been encoded.

If you've got or have generated a cropped and re-sized "square pixelled" encode, with say, a pixel frame size that represents the movies "theatrical" aspect ratio (ie: 720x304 pixels would represent 2.35:1), then the player and your TV should be able to display this image perfectly.... Both my players can ;)

If you've got or have generated an with "anamorphic signalling" with say, a pixel frame size of 720x576 pixels (ie: just like a PAL DVD), then the player and your TV should be able to display this image perfectly.... Both my players can ;)

And if you've got or have generated an obvious looking anamorphic encode, which for some reason does not include "anamorphic signalling", you can always add this to your encode using say, MPEG4 Modifier ;)


Cheers

[bluefear]

May I ask which player / chipset you have? I have a lot of avis with pixel resolutions of: 702x400, 702x384, 640x480 as well as the 'scene standard' lower resolutions. Would it be possible to have all these played full screen on a widscreen TV? Obviously 4:3 stuff would be stretched but I don't mind about that. How would a player say deal differently between 702x400 and 702x384 - ideally I would like both of them to be stretched to fill the whole of my 16:9 TV regardless. Is this possible? Thanks for the input mate. :)

cheers,
leapius

[SeeMoreDigital]

I have a Pioneer DV-575A. However, all Pioneer players fitted with MediaTek's chip-set will perform much the same!
Obviously 4:3 stuff would be stretched but I don't mind about that. How would a player say deal differently between 702x400 and 702x384 - ideally I would like both of them to be stretched to fill the whole of my 16:9 TV regardless.This is where "anamorphic signalling" comes into its own. As genuine 4:3 content can actually be displayed at 4:3.... even on a 16:9 TV ;)

[bluefear]

Well I went and swapped the Crystal player for a Yakumo DX4 (mediatek chipset I think) and all is well! It streches all my 16:9 avis and displays them in their proper aspect ratio on a 16:9 TV. Very pleased with the player actually - it even plays AVIs over 2gb. :)

cheers,
leapius

[SeeMoreDigital]

That sounds great....

I wish there were more people who would follow in your footsteps!


Cheers