Anamorphic SVCD on DVD Players

[DVDHack]

For some time now I have been struggling with 16:9 vs 4:3 aspect ratios and playing back on the two format TVs.

I now encode 4:3 as recommended for best quality on 16:9, my eventual format - long term view. Recently I have begun encoding 720x576 to at least eliminate some of the stretch on a 4:3 display.

My question is:

Does anyone know of some DVD players that will play a SVCD anamorphically ie reapply the letterbox format on playback of SVCD, the same way DVDs are treated?

Is there an alternative encoding that will work well with 4:3 and 16:9 TVs. I don't want to do a stretch in both directions to watch my SVCDs on 16:9.


:confused:

[mrbass]

Not too sure about dvd players...my pioneer seems to have three options which might do that.(can't remember exactly which they are). My wega has a 16:9 enhanced view which seems to take a 4:3 to 16:9.

[svcdentro]

Yes the pioneer players have three modes:

4:3 leterbox
4:3 pan/scan
16:9 wide

[DVDHack]

Lots of DVD players have the options listed for Pioneer but on most players they don't seem to function with SVCD in those modes, only with DVDs. I'd like to find one that is confirmed to work with SVCD.

[markrb]

Give the guys over at www.vcdhelp.com a shout on this. They tend to know a little more about hardware.

Mark

[svcdentro]

I've never seen a dvd player with more specs for svcd, just the subs support, chapters, timer, menus, and that kind of stuff, i think you can prove with the brand new labels or with consolidated marks 2002 models because they are focusing now to many formats and specs, pioneer has a model supporting mp3 now and so will be the other companies, i've always checked vcdhelp and on the specs comparison chart they don't include screen options. I own a 4:3 screen and always make svcds with 4:3 letterbox, the format is almost respected everytime and of course encoded to 4:3 by dvd2svcd, then i play them on my dvd player and the screen is full, i tell you this because i know that if you want to make compatible svcds with 4:3 and 16:9 screens you must choose always 4:3 on dvd2svcd, because the dvd never changes the screen on a svcd...

[vcdude]

On my Pioneer DV-344 there are 3 options for screen type but they are disabled when playing a SVCD, but I havent tried it with an anamorphic SVCD.

[DVDHack]

I was advised by Pioneer that the DV 533K model had an ability to change the aspect ratio on SVCDs also. Does anyone have thsi model to confirm?