Completely new to IfoEdit - could really do with some advice

[dh2005]

Hey guys,

I'm completely at a loss with around 100 of my .VOBs. Even though they come from an anamorphic source, my PS3 (and even VLC player, on my laptop) cannot recognise them as being anamorphic. As such, I need to zoom the image rather than stretch it, which sucks.

I'm really new to all this, but I've thrown myself into research and done my best on my own - I found a program called DVD Patcher which looked to be the answer to my prayers... but, according to DVD Patcher, these .VOBs are already marked as being 16:9, so there's nothing more that it can do for me (I think, anyway... if anyone knows otherwise, please let me know!).

In desperation, I've downloaded IfoEdit, and I haven't got a clue what to do with it. As I understand it, it's for patching .IFO files - but, if I'm thinking about this correctly, I'm pretty sure that I delete these files after ripping a .VOB, and run the .VOB without them.

Could this explain why these .VOBs don't know that they're anamorphic? Is the critical information stored in the .IFO files that I've dumped? If so, is there some way that I can get the .IFOs onto my PS3 and associate them with the appropriate .VOBs so that they run correctly?

Failing that, can anyone help in a way that I've not thought of...?

Please, if you know what to do, let me know. This is driving me mad.

Thanks,


DH.

[Alex_ander]

Yes, AR is also stored in ifo's with stream attributes for a VTS or a menu. In PGCEdit right-click on the VTST in problem -> select Domain Stream Attributes line and you'll see AR checkboxes.

[dh2005]

Hello,

thanks for getting back to me about this. I need all the help I can get.

I've downloaded PCGEdit and, to be honest, it's bewildering. It looks very powerful and impressive, and I look forward to being able to use it, but it's blowing my mind at the moment.

I need to ask this - will PGCEdit allow me to repair the bad a/r information in these .VOBs so that they can be played back on a PS3? I'm not trying to create disc images to be burned onto DVDs - any fix for this problem is only going to help me if it makes the .VOBs play correctly by themselves.

[r0lZ]

The AR is stored in the VOBs and in the IFOs. The IFO takes precedence, so it should be sufficient to fix it. Anyway, if DVDPatcher says that the VOBs are already in 16:9, there is no need to fix them.

In the right pane of PgcEdit, select any PGC pertaining to the VTST you want to modify. (You can find the main movie easily by looking at the PGC durations or by using the preview.) Right-click on the PGC label, and select "Domain Stream Attributes". Tick the 16:9 box, and save. The aspect ratio will be modified for all titles of the same VTST. (However, usually, the main movie is alone in its own VTST.)

Note that you cannot normally change the AR of a menu domain (VMGM or VTSM) if it has menu buttons, as the button highlights will be misplaced when you play the DVD.

[dh2005]

Thanks for getting in touch.

I'll give what you've suggested a try and report back.

[blutach]

I'm pretty sure that I delete these files after ripping a .VOBThis is where you are going wrong. To play your DVD correctly, you need these files. Most software players will load VIDEO_TS.IFO to load the DVD and play it correctly from there.

Regards

[dh2005]

Wow! This is the first time that anyone's had any idea about this problem... thank you, everyone.

Actually... you seem like very knowledgeable people, so d'you mind if I ask you all something else?

I'm very new to this DVD-ripping business, and I've been learning as I've gone along. But I've run into a couple of problems that I can't seem to fix. One is the anamorphism problem I've already mentioned, but the other one concerns timecodes.

Sometimes when I rip a .VOB from a disc, the timecode gets messed-up. Like, even though it's a 120 minute movie, VLC and my PS3 report that it's 32:13 long, or 54:12, or something crazy like that, and when I try to play it back it works for a while, but it reaches certain points where the playback locks-up. And it doesn't matter how many times I rip it, or which ripping program I use (Shrink, Fab, Decrypter, Smart Ripper...), the timecode always comes out wrong.

I discovered, through random trial and error, that when I remux these .VOBs to .M2TS files with tsMuxeR the timecodes come out perfect, and the files run from beginning to end... but, at least once in every file I've remuxed, there's a small amount of video break-up - artefacting, like you might get when watching a damaged DVD. And it's really, really annoying me.

Is there another program you would recommend, rather than tsMuxeR? Or should I use the .TS container instead of .M2TS? Or is that just the way things go when you remux, and there's nothing that I can do about it?

Sorry for getting off the initial topic, but whenever I ask this question on other forums no-one answers me!

Thanks again,


DH.


... oh, and I'll see what I can do re the .IFO files. Though I've a feeling my PS3 won't be interested in looking at subfolders, and will only pay attention to the .VOBs themselves...

[dh2005]

[sigh]

Ya know, I'm pretty close to giving up on this anamorphic problem...

... I re-ripped one of the discs that has this problem ("Zelig", a Woody Allen movie) with DVD Shrink, and I this time stipulated that it should create VIDEO_TS and AUDIO_TS subfolders. I left the .IFO files (VTS_01_0 and VIDEO_TS) and their back-ups in the VIDEO_TS directory and tried to run the main .VOB (VTS_01_1) back with VLC... and the bloody thing still wasn't anamorphic.

What's more, when I opened these .IFOs with IfoEdit, I found they were already set to 16:9... HOW THE HELL IS THIS POSSIBLE?!?!

Please forgive my impatience, but I've been trying to solve this problem for almost four weeks. It gets a bit much after a while...!


EDIT: Oh, and, for extra amusement... when I open the .VOB files on the original DVD itself with VLC, they're not anamorphic either, and all the .IFOs are set to 16:9. For the love of God, where is this critical information that VLC and my PS3 can't see...?

EDIT EDIT: And when I click the "DVD Play" button in IfoEdit to run the ripped .VOB (VTS_01_01), it is anamorphic. And when I open the "Info -> Video attributes" option, the window contains the following information:

Aspect: 16 x 9
Source Resolution: 720 x 576
Is Source Letterboxed? true


So far as I can see, all the necessary information to run the file anamorphically is there. So why can't my chosen media players do it...?!


[sobbing]

[blutach]

Though I've a feeling my PS3 won't be interested in looking at subfolders, and will only pay attention to the .VOBs themselves... They are not in sub-folders. They go in the same folder as the VOBs. Explore a commercial DVD using Windows Explorer and see.

Now as to your time codes. Let's assume you have the IFOs. The timing is done from a time map in the IFOs - which is a map of sectors versus time measured in a certain number of seconds per entry - see the VTS_TMAPI part of a VTS IFO. If your IFOs have been deleted, then there is no time map and the timing is taken from the VOBs. If there is only one Vob ID, these will be sequential. This will happen pretty much always on a remux. But some DVDs break the movie in half (particularly at the layer break) and start a new Vob ID there. A new Vob ID restarts off the timing in the VOBs at zero (see?, you really do need the IFOs!). WIthout IFOs to go on, VLC will start the timing off at 0. Of course, you won't be able to seek easily either.

You can read this post (http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?p=1219388#post1219388) for some extra clarification (you should search for things first, btw).

So, I suspect most of your problems are in your ripping techniques - rip the disc in File mode, all files and you should be OK.

As to playback, you should not use a playlist of VOBs. Just drag your folder with the ripped files onto the VLC interface and it will open the DVD.

Regards

[r0lZ]

I agree with blu. VLC can play a DVD perfectly, including the menus, but if you give it only some VOB files, it does what it can do without having the necessary information. Play a DVD as a DVD and things should be fine!

[dh2005]

Thanks again for your informed feedback.

blutach - I assure you that I did search for advice on my problems beforehand. I spent more than two weeks looking for answers before posting anything on forums - I promise! What handicapped me is that, basically, I don't know very much about DVD structure, DVD authoring, DVD anything, so when I performed searches my vocabulary was very limited - I'd search for things like "anamorphic problem .VOB" and get nothing...

r0lZ - I read you loud and clear - it seems that both you and blutach are telling me that I am not going to be able to run these .VOBs anamorphically when they're organised in 'playlist' fashion inside a single directory on an external HDD. Sadly, this is the only way that the PS3 can read them, so my hands are tied. Although I'm curious as to why 60+% of my anamorphic DVD's have produced anamorphic .VOBs, whereas the rest have not... presumably this arises from differences in the way the DVDs they came from were authored - the overwhelming majority of the problematic .VOBs I have are from MGM discs, so clearly, the way MGM write DVDs differs from the way Universal and Warners do it. Pity I couldn't find a way around it, because in other respects the PS3 is proving to be a very graceful and versatile media centre.


As for timecodes...

... I never said that I was certain that I didn't need the .IFOs. I said, in fact, that I was aware that I had been deleting these files and I was curious as to whether important information was within them. As I've just mentioned, I've been deleting the .IFOs because the PS3 (so far as I can tell...) doesn't know what to do with them, so there was no point in having them on there.

But yes - the point about dual-layer movies makes perfect sense to me now that I've had it explained to me. And thank you for that. I noticed from following the link that blutach provided that you, r0lZ, recommend using PCGDemux and Muxman for remuxing. Are the video problems I'm getting from my remuxing caused by tsMuxeR, or will the absence of .IFOs cause these video problems in my remuxed .VOBs no matter what I remux them with...?

Again - curious that some .VOBs from dual-layer discs have perfect timecodes (with perfect seeking too, I might add...), whereas some are broken.

Thanks again,


DH.

[r0lZ]

As the IFOs are tiny files, you should keep them anyway. They may be useful to play the files with another player. And they contain important information. Look at the PgcEdit GUI (which is basically an IFO editor), and you will discover that there are many things in the IFOs! However, a good player should be able to play the VOBs alone, with the correct aspect ratio. Try to patch them with DVDPatcher, to force the 16:9 AR (in the whole files, as it might be insufficient to patch only the first cell.)

As I've explained in the other thread, the break in time codes are not authoring errors. It is perfectly legal (and sometimes necessary) to create several VOB IDs in the same file. The problem is not in the file, but in the player. The Muxman trick should be sufficient to let you display them without problem. I don't know tsMuxeR, so I can't say if it causes problems. Maybe it doesn't copy the 16:9 flag correctly. You might also try VIDChanger, as it patches the files in place and will certainly be much more rapid and simple to use than Muxman, but I don't know if it will be able to change the VOB IDs correctly.

[dh2005]

Thanks again. It helps to have experts on hand.

Yes, I understood about the timecode breaks. You explained that very clearly. And I understand that you can't comment on tsMuxeR, so I'll use PCGDemux and Muxman before bothering you with a question about remuxing again.

As for the anamorphic problem, your most recent comment, "The problem is not in the file, but in the player" is all too correct. A user on another forum recommended I use MediaCoder to transcode my .VOBs and force them to 16:9, to see whether that worked... let me start by saying that it didn't, but something more interesting emerged from the experiment - when I played back my troublesome .VOBs through MediaCoder, they were anamorphic. By which I mean, individual .VOBs with no .IFOs associated with them. For whatever reason, MediaCoder could tell that they were anamorphic from the .VOB alone, where VLC and my PS3 could not. Weird...

I gave DVD Patcher a try a couple of weeks ago. The .VOBs I'm having trouble with are already labelled as being 16:9. I tried patching a whole .VOB file, just to make sure that it wasn't only the header that was tagged as 16:9, but it didn't make a difference... like I said, I tried my best to sort this out by myself before bothering other people. I actually enjoy the problem-solving process of embarking on new projects, but when I run out ideas I get frustrated pretty quickly! That's when I turn to the online community.

[dh2005]

And yet another question - can PGCDemux (v1.2.0.5) be used to demux .VOBs? The top field reads "Input IFO", and can't see .VOBs...

I don't mean to annoy anybody - I've taken on board everything that's been said about the importance of .IFOs, but the fact of the matter is that the PS3 can't use them, so any solution that's .IFO-based is no solution at all. What I need to be able to do is demux a .VOB into its individual streams, then remux them with something that will produce a video file with a good timecode and (ideally...) no artefacting or picture-smearing. If someone can help me to do that, I'll go away happy.

It looks like the anamorphic problem I'm having can't be solved with the PS3's current media firmware. I guess I need to just sit tight and wait for a downloadable update...

[r0lZ]

Oops, yes, we forgot that PgcDemux needs the IFOs. (BTW, it uses them only to know where are the start and end points of the PGCs.)
You can generate new IFOs with IfoEdit. Or perhaps use another demuxer? The important part is the remuxing.

And have you tried VIDChanger? It should not need the IFOs.

[dh2005]

Hello again,

VIDChanger uses .IFOs too, yes. But not to worry. I've re-ripped a disc and left the .IFOs intact, just to see whether this process helps. If it does, I'll re-rip them all, all over again. It'll take time, but I don't mind doing it if I know it'll work.

One more thing about PGCDemux - when I directed it toward the .IFO (VTS_01_0), it found the .VOB (VTS_01_1), but when I processed the .VOB it only produced individual streams of 38 minutes in length, and 2.1GB in size (it got 67% of the way through, then suddenly announced that it was finished). Perhaps this is because PGCDemux is better at processing 1GB .VOBs, rather than single composite .VOBs (the one I'm trying to demux is around 3.4GB).

Never mind. I'll keep trying...

[dh2005]

Seems I'm being foiled at every turn...

... I used tsMuxeR to demux the streams to an episode of House MD (now that I understand that it's the remuxing that's the tricky part), and put these streams into Muxman - which looks like a good little program. I set the remux going, and went away to do something else - when I came back, it had remuxed the video and the audio, but it had created two .VOBs (i.e. it had started a new one after 1GB). This is no good, because the PS3 doesn't link .VOBs on the fly - they're separated by black-outs that make even the worst layer changes look like grace itself.

I seem to recall hearing about a program called VOBMerge (or something like that...) that I assume might be able to assist me here. But if this causes new technical problems, I might just as well have stuck with tsMuxeR - at least that program can create .VOBs of over 1GB!

[sigh]


EDIT: Actually, that's not fair. tsMuxeR can't create .VOBs at all - it creates .ts and .m2ts files...

... sorry for moaning. I've been ill for the last three days, and I've been trying to crack these two problems for weeks. If only I could sort them out, this PS3 archiving idea of mine would be beautiful...!


EDIT EDIT: VOBMerge appears to have worked just fine. The link between the .VOBs is seamless, and the timecode's correct. Now all I need to do is run this file from beginning to end, and see whether there are any video errors in it. If not, we may finally have a breakthrough.

If I ever get this setup running as I'd like, I'll be sure to put together a guide for other people trying to setup their PS3 as a DVD-archiving tool. Then I can go to my grave knowing this suffering wasn't for nothing...!

[blutach]

One more thing about PGCDemux - when I directed it toward the .IFO (VTS_01_0), it found the .VOB (VTS_01_1), but when I processed the .VOB it only produced individual streams of 38 minutes in length, and 2.1GB in size (it got 67% of the way through, then suddenly announced that it was finished). This is because you have joined the VOBs. Just leave them alone at 1Gb size and PGCDEmux will demux the lot.

If you absolutely need only a single file, join them as your very last step.

If you want a single VOB (after all your machinations), use the DOS copy /b command

copy /b file1+file2+file3 newfile

But the easy solution for you is to buy a real DVD player (they're cheap). Seems SONY is just making life hard for you.

Regards

[dh2005]

Dude, I have a real DVD player. The PS3 itself is a DVD player (as well as a Blu-ray player), and a very good one. What I'm trying to do (sorry if this wasn't clear), is archive as much of my DVD collection as possible onto a couple of external hard drives, so that my discs (of which I have almost 650) can be filed away in storage.

I'm a student, and I'm currently living in a teeny, tiny room with very little shelf space. I tried putting my discs into binders, but these provide poor protection against trauma (in fact, I think some binders actually scratch the discs themselves...), so I decided that backing-up my discs onto HDDs and leaving the discs at my family home was a better way to do it...

... and, when it works, it works beautifully. Seriously - they run flawlessly, and the 400 discs I've backed-up are all accessible from my chair at the touch of a couple of buttons. But these two technical glitches are ruining the party, somewhat!


EDIT: I agree with your sign-off, by the way - cheap media is useless, useless trash.

[dh2005]

I'm playing .VOBs, stored on two 1TB external drives connected to my PS3 via USB, through a widescreen HDTV (yes, I'm a student with an HDTV... what else are summer jobs for, anyway?!).

The performance issues occur whether the files are being run from these external drives, or from the PS3's internal HDD. So, it's definitely not a streaming problem.

[dh2005]

Another development...

... the remuxed episode of House that I mentioned earlier, unfortunately, does have the same video break-up problem as before. However, it's definitely not Muxman's fault.

I kept the video and audio streams that tsMuxeR demuxed, and remuxed them with tsMuxeR... the video error was exactly the same, and occurred in exactly the same place, as the error in the file remuxed with Muxman. Which means the error was in the video stream that tsMuxeR created when it demuxed the original (flawless) .VOB.

So, I need another program for demuxing. And given that y'all swear by PGCDemux, I'll re-rip a troublesome disc without collating one large .VOB, and use PGCDemux and Muxman together, as previously advised... assuming, of course, that the timecode is still wrong. Maybe ripping the .VOB in 1GB chunks will prevent this problem in the first place...?

Here's hoping.

[dh2005]

Yes, I have... it's a fair enough question buddy, but I assure you - I've owned widescreen TVs for more than ten years, and I know how to use them!

The setting I generally use is 14:9, because it zooms 16:9 images slightly, filling the screen better, without over-zooming them and making them look crap. And because the screen's a reasonable size (32"), a 14:9 zoom is plenty big enough.

[dh2005]

Looks like I'm the unluckiest person in the whole World...!

... I re-ripped the pilot of Twin Peaks, because the previous .VOB's timecode was wrong and the file needed remuxing. I took a perfect, unadulterated copy of the title, allowing DVDShrink to separate the episode into four separate .VOBs (the previous file I'd compiled was around 3.7GB...), I maintained the directory structure, and I didn't delete the .IFOs.

The four .VOBs it created all had incorrect timecodes, but I wasn't fazed by this - oh no. I opened PCGDemux and pointed it to the VTS_01_0 file, and asked it to demux the associated .VOBs. It produced one video file of around 3.5GB in size and one audio file of around 125MB. I opened Muxman, put the demuxed video and audio files into it, and left it to work its magic...!

Guess what? It produced four .VOBs with incorrect timecodes... the very same timecodes that the first four .VOBs had before I demuxed them.

Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha...!

... have you ever had that feeling - the one where you think that today just isn't your day...?


Honestly, guys. I've followed every piece of advice and got nowhere. Sucks to be me...!

Thanks for the help, anyway. I feel like I've learned a lot... just a pity that I didn't manage to achieve anything!

[r0lZ]

BTW, you can cut a large .VOB with CutFile (http://download.videohelp.com/jsoto/others.htm). Be sure to cut it at LESS than 1GB, and at a multiple of 2048 bytes.

Can you verify with PgcEdit if the DVD created by muxman has really several different VOB IDs in the PGC? (Double-click on the main movie PGC to see the complete list of cells. The VOB ID is near the end of the line, with the cell ID.)

And, finally, you might want to try to remux without importing the celltimes.txt file. This will create a single big chapter, and there should be no timecodes problems. If there are still breaks, then it's definitively a PS3 bug!

[dh2005]

Oh, don't worry. I'm becoming increasingly comfortable with the idea that the PS3's bloody useless...!

I don't see a "celltimes.txt" option in Muxman. Am I missing something? There's one in VOBMerge...


EDIT: Ignore that. It's in PGCDemux, right? I've found it.

[r0lZ]

Yes, you create the file with PgcDemux, to import it in muxman, via the File menu. (It is called "Import chapters" or something like that.)

If you haven't used that feature yet, that means that the PS3 cannot handle the timecodes even when there is only a single chapter in the VOB. Pity!

[dh2005]

Oddly enough, the individual .VOBs produced by this remux still have incorrect timecodes individually (VLC reports them to be 14 minutes, 14 minutes, 16 minutes and 17 minutes long, respectively...), but once they're combined via VOBMerge they produce a single .VOB with a correct timecode (a running time of 90 minutes and 57 seconds). Isn't that weird...?!


EDIT: Thanks for all your help today, by the way. I'm going to bed, now - it's 2:30 in the morning here, and I have class tomorrow!

[dh2005]

Sure, I follow you. But none of the other settings can correct the aspect ratio without zooming it.

[r0lZ]

Ah, good point, Setarip!

dh2005, are you sure that your DVD is really in anamorphic 16:9? There is a cheap trick to simulate the 16:9 with non-anamorphic video recorded in 4:3 but with black borders (called "4:3 already letterboxed" in PgcEdit). Theoretically, the DVD player can send a signal to the TV to tell it to zoom in the 16:9 part of the image, but very few players and/or TVs can handle it, and most DVD authors omit to set it in the Domain Stream Attributes, so it is really not useful. Anyway, that flag exists in the IFOs only.

[dh2005]

It's definitely anamorphic, dude. I know the difference - for instance, my 'Four Weddings & A Funeral' DVD is "in widescreen", but it's not anamorphic, so when I play it back through a widescreen TV I need to zoom the image rather than stretch it. These .VOBs that I've been having trouble with come from true anamorphic DVDs.

I must also say something further to my previous post - there's an element of truth to what Setarip has suggested, and I apologise for having previously appeared dismissive...

... there's a setting on my TV (a Panasonic Viera) called "Zoom 1", which stretches the video vertically until the black bars above and below the screen are gone - which makes my tricksy 16:9 ratio .VOBs fill the screen. This is correct, and I never meant to suggest otherwise...

... the only problem is that, because it's a "Zoom" of any kind, it's a little bit ugly. Definitely moreso than the true anamorphic .VOBs that do work properly. Hence, I choose to use 14:9, because it's only half as "zoomed", and a little less ugly for it.

I hope that explains things a little better.

And now, I really am going to bed!

[Alex_ander]

Theoretically, the DVD player can send a signal to the TV to tell it to zoom in the 16:9 part of the image, but very few players and/or TVs can handle it, and most DVD authors omit to set it in the Domain Stream Attributes, so it is really not useful. Anyway, that flag exists in the IFOs only.
You probably mean "letterboxed" attribute for 4:3 videos, which can be set e.g. with PGCEdit/DVDRemake. I thought it was intended for a DVD player to output anamorphic (from letterboxed) analog signal in case it is configured for 16:9 display, not just to produce some command. Am I wrong? Anyway, a player does such internal conversions from WS to letterbox (using other flags) in case it is configured for 4:3 display.
There is also an attribute film/camera (accessible in DVDRemake), theoretically a player could use it for selecting proper resize method for progressive/interlaced at such conversions. What is in real practice?

[dh2005]

Setarip - yes, I'd thought of that, too. But given that the majority of my .VOBs run perfectly through the PS3 alone, and that my niggles are purely aesthetic (I can live without the anamorphism - I'd just rather not...!), I'll probably not bother.

Another solution is to use a streaming program like TVersity. I'm told that TVersity does a better job of decoding video files than the PS3 does... but I'm also told that when the bit-rate gets too high, the playback can get a little choppy. Plus, having to leave my laptop on to watch a film through my PS3 just seems kinda silly to me if I can avoid it.

[r0lZ]

You probably mean "letterboxed" attribute for 4:3 videos, which can be set e.g. with PGCEdit/DVDRemake. I thought it was intended for a DVD player to output anamorphic (from letterboxed) analog signal in case it is configured for 16:9 display, not just to produce some command. Am I wrong? Anyway, a player does such internal conversions from WS to letterbox (using other flags) in case it is configured for 4:3 display.
I don't think the player has to resize the image itself. When the player is connected to the TV with a SCART connector, it is supposed to send a signal through one of the pins to instruct the 16:9 TV to zoom in the image, like when it receives a TV broadcast in non-anamorphic 16:9. But I've never been able to see that in action!

I don't know how the film/camera flag works. Anyway, it's a flag in the video stream itself, and it should not be changed.

[Alex_ander]

I don't think the player has to resize the image itself.

At least for standard analog composite video output, conversion from anamorphic to letterboxed should be performed in the player, before conversion to analog (incl. PAL or NTSC color encoding). It is necessary for compatibility: you can't vertically resize picture in analog TV (it is defined by the standard number of TV lines). I use and old TV (made long before DVD standards appeared) without a single digital chip and get letterboxed from anamorphic just by 4:3 setting in my DVD player.
I think it could also (in theory) work for other resizing tasks (differently for 4:3 and 16:9 display type settings in the player).


I don't know how the film/camera flag works. Anyway, it's a flag in the video stream itself, and it should not be changed.

It is also described in ifo's (video attributes table):
http://dvd.sourceforge.net/dvdinfo/ifo.html

[r0lZ]

I haven't said that the player does not have to resize the anamorphic 16:9 to send it to a 4:3 TV, but the case of the 4:3 already letterboxed is exactly the opposite: the original format is in 4:3, and can therefore be accepted without any modification by the old 4:3 TVs, and can be enlarged automatically by the new 16:9 TVs. Therefore, the player has nothing to do, except to pass the information to the TV. However, I agree with you: the resize could be handled by the player as well, but since the 16:9 TVs are supposed to do that anyway, it's not what the standard implies.

You're right, I forgot that the film/camera flag is present in the IFOs. I know its description, but that doesn't explain how the player uses it. I don't think it is related to the size or anamorphic format of the image. It is probably related only to the progressive/interlaced nature of the video stream, as you said. But in this case, why is it used only for PAL?

[Alex_ander]

I don't know. Maybe because in case of NTSC, 'film' can be reliably taken from pics per second number 23.976 (otherwise - camera). In case of PAL not all encoders use progressive flags, so probably this is an opportunity to put in that data independently (using some authoring application etc.).

P.S. Or maybe in case of NTSC, video should be anyway resized as interlaced outside mpeg decoder (it should output an already pulled-down stream).

[dh2005]

I think, when all's been said and done, the problems I've been having are all PS3 flaws - the remuxed files that play messily on the PS3 play perfectly on a PC, and the anamorphic problem can be solved by any PC media player with the option to force the playback to 16:9. It's got to be the PS3's fault, and there's nothing to be done about that; other than wait for Sony to release a firmware update (I'll not hold my breath for that...!).

Anyway, thanks everyone for your interest and suggestions. See y'all around.