need some help with wrongly authored dvd (aspect ratio)

[cy]

Hi,

I have here this PAL dvd and it think it is authored wrong.
It is a dvd of a PAL broadcast i bought.
If i play it on any software dvd player, it thinks the aspect ratio should be 4/3
but the content should be 16/9, so i need to change the AR to 16/9 in the player to have it play correctly.

I should say first that i know nothing about authoring dvd's, but i searched around and came up with this:

I've looked at the VTS_01_0.IFO file with ifoedit and it says this:

---------------------------
VTS overview:

Menu attributes:
Video: MPEG-1 720x480 (NTSC) (NTSC 525/60) (4:3) (pan-scan & letterboxed)

Title Set (Movie) attributes:
Video: MPEG-2 720x576 (PAL) (PAL 625/50) (4:3) (not specified perm.display)
Audio 1: blah...
--------------------------------


What i did was i demuxed the two main vobs with dgindex en fed the m2v file to restream and filled in:
resolution 720 x 576 and aspect=16:9
I didn't change anything else.
Then i let it write the modified m2v file and fed it, together with the ac3 stream to muxman.
It said the video was actual PAL 720x576 MPEG-2 16:9 LB
I didn't specify anything myself in the preference boxes, i left everything at "none" and defaults
and just let it write the dvd files.

Now every software mediaplayer plays the dvd with the correct aspect ratio.
I've lost the menu, but that is not important, i don't want it anyway, there's only one feature on the dvd.

But i wonder if i did everything correctly?
I have no means of testing at the moment if it will play correctly in a hardware dvd player on a widescreen tv
AND on a 4/3 tv.
In other words, did i author it correctly now?

Will it play correctly under all circumstances?

Looking at the re-authored ifo file with ifoedit, now it says this:

-----------------------------------
Menu attributes:
Video: Mpeg-1 720x576 (PAL) (PAL 625/50) (4:3) (pan-scan & letterboxed)

Title Set (Movie) attributes:
Video: MPEG-2 720x576 (PAL) (PAL 625/50) (16:9) (letterboxed)
Audio 1: blah...
---------------------------------

Is this correct?
I'm beginning to think i should have made it pan & scan, AND letterboxed in muxman.

You can look at a small sample of the source vob and the re-authored one here (http://users.edpnet.be/cy/samples.rar)

I would really, really appreciate it, if somebody could take a look and let me know
if i did everything correctly or not.

[Capsbackup]

It's been quite some time since I've used IFOEdit, but I seem to remember you can change the aspect ratio within the IFO without demuxing/remuxing the vob's.
Try double clicking on the original ifo, VTS_01_0.IFO for example if this is the movie's ifo, and you should see a place where you can change the setting of the ifo to 16:9 letterboxed.
Check this out, it may work for you, scroll down to post # 15 on this link. :)
http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?t=140208&highlight=ifoedit+guide

[cy]

Hey caps,

Thanks for your reply.
I tried the ifoedit thing first and it didn't work.
The way i've done it now does work.
But i need to know if i did it correctly, so it will play the way
it should on a hardware player and both 16/9 and 3/4 tv set.
It's because i bought this dvd as a present for someone.
I can't test it myself, because i don't have a hardware dvd player (I use a htpc myself.)
The way i did it, it plays correctly on software dvd players, so it "seems" to be ok.

[Ghitulescu]

That was a commercial DVD?

Gosh, did they use TMPGenc DVD Author?

:confused:

[cy]

Yes, this was a commercial DVD.
It's a broadcast that aired on Belgian tv, which you could order afterwards on dvd, which i did.
Don't know who was responsible for making it.

Anyway, how about my "re-authoring"...did i do it correctly or not?

[Ghitulescu]

I think that you did too much work.
I think that was simply enough to set the correct AR with IfoEdit, as the DVD players are required to read the AR only from the associated IFO file.

However, I would go a step further, like you did: I'll demux the whole movie with PGCdemux, use dvdpatcher/restream to check/set the AR (if the check is ok, then IFOedit suffice), correct the whole file (not only the first header), remux them into a new VOB/IFO set, use PGCedit or VOBblanker to replace the old movie with the newly remuxed one. So you'll have the DVD as the original one (yeah, the menus are there:) but still NTSC - changing the NTSC menus into PAL ones is the subject of at least one thread here, have a look) .

Why? Because the DVD players might have a look also in the MPEG file (but the DVD recorders generally do) and, besides, it's always a good thing to have the things correctly done.

If you don't know the steps or the progs, there are guides both here or in internet.

[cy]

I already sent it on it's way..as it was a present and i was out of time, hoping i did it correctly.
I just wanted some peace of mind.
Thanks for your comments Ghitulescu.

[Ghitulescu]

All the steps were needed only if the movie was indeed 16:9. There are 16:9 movies that are encoded as 4:3, this is called Letterbox or 4:3LB - that is the image has 2 black borders top and bottom. If the movie was 4:3LB the AR is mandatory 4:3.

[cy]

Yes, it's an anamorphic dvd, with no black bars, as you can see from the sample.
The content should have a 16/9 AR when displayed.
I didn't know whether to set only "letterboxed" or "letterboxed and pan&scan" in muxman.
In the end i decided to make it "letterboxed AND pan&scan" for my final version.
Hope this was correct.