Real Resolution of mpg2 video?

[JasperJones]

Hi,

I do not consider myself a newbie but have some sort of basic question. I have a movie, which i want to encode in the fullest possible quality. i mean, i dont want to loose a lot of image information in the process so im opting for 2.5mbits xvid bitrate. (not that much of a fan of 264).

i ripped the dvd which is interlaced progressive anamorph content. gspot 252 tells me its 720x576px as does vdubmod (i even made a screenshot and looked at the dimensions in psp). yet zoom player (cyberlink codec) tells me, its 768x576 which is closer the assumed 4:3 of PAL. im confused now. i dont think i lose information if i encode at 720, but why the differing resolutions.

can anyone clear this issue up for me or point me to a resource where i can find an explanation? thanks in advance.

[CWR03]

A PAL DVD rip is always 720 x 576. Zoom Player must be giving you the resized aspect, which is one possibility for resizing. I've never worked with PAL material, but with NTSC rips (which are 720 x 480) I like to keep the cropped width and only resize vertically to maintain optimal quality. In your case you could either upsize vertically to match height to correct aspect or downsize horizontally, but I don't think 2.5Mb/s will be enough for either.

[Guest]

i ripped the dvd which is interlaced progressive That's like saying the color of my shirt is black white.

Do you mean progressive content encoded as interlaced?

[JasperJones]

i might have exaggerated the 'fullest possible' line. but i assume, that 2.5mbs (not counting audio streams) is enough for me.

Meanwhile i read up on the issue. seems to be the different pixel ar between frak-tv an 1:1 pc-screens. when resizing to 16:9 and when encoding for midclass standalone compatibility i should go 720. but with fullscreen pal content i have to stretch it to 768 so i dont lose any scanlines? thats pretty frakked up.

edit2:
@neuron
exactly.

[Awatef]

Jasper, never upsize.
If you want max quality, you encode as is in 720x576 (or just crop the black bars if they exist, you'll usually get around 720x436 then), and then use the MKV container which allows you to set the aspect ratio for proper display (choose between 4/3, 16/9 and 2.35 depending on the source).