Ripped DVD Plays Back Too Wide - Help!

[consultant]

I'm using DVDFab to rip just the Main Movie. On some of the DVD's I'm ripping the playback is stretched. When I use VLC Media Player on my PC or stream it to my PS3 it is too wide. In VLC it shows the resolution as 720x480 but it is stretching it wider than that. The movie is Disney Atlantis and I noticed on the insert it says it has "been ehanced for 16 x 9 televsions" When I play the actual DVD, it is wide screen with black bars on top and bottom, but when I play the ripped bars the black bars are a lot thicker. Do I need to correct something using IfoEdit as DVDFab has virtually no options in it and I'm hoping I'm not forced to use something else as I've had trouble finding something that will decrypt, rip, and reauthor at the same time so the main movie can be easily burned to DVD if needed. DVDFab is one of the few that will do it.

[setarip_old]

HI! (yet again ;>})

According to the Disney website:Choice Of Viewing Options: Fullscreen (1.33:1) or Widescreen (2.35:1) Original Theatrical Aspect RatioAre you sure you're not comparing apples and oranges?

[consultant]

Thanks for the quick reply, I really appreciate it.

The back of the case says Technical Specifications: Widescreen 2.35:1

This is the disc:

http://www.amazon.com/Atlantis-Lost-Empire-2-Disc-Collectors/dp/B00005RDSN

There is no reference to a 4:3 version (what page did you look at?) It's anamorphic I believe is the problem.

I checked the actual DVD menu options and there are only audio options, no ability to select aspect ratio.

I did some more fooling around. When you play the DVD my TV is set to full (16:9) aspect ratio and the movie is presented correctly with small black bars on top and bottom. When I play the ripped VOB, it is stretched with huge black bars, but when I put the TV into 4:3 mode the movie aspect ratio is correct but it isn't wide screen (it has bars on all sides).

There are actually two main movies on the disc one has 20 chapters the other 40. I have no idea what the difference is. I also though originally maybe one is the correct aspect ratio so I ripped the other main movie. Same problem.

[consultant]

Here's the exact problem I'm having (in case others here run into it). I'll try the proposed solutions:

http://club.myce.com/f116/dvd-fab-vob-passthrough-aspect-ratio-problems-254776/

[setarip_old]

As I said, I viewed the Disney website:

http://disney.go.com/Atlantis/

(After the page loads, scroll down the right side)

[setarip_old]

1) Have you as yet played a burned backup copy on your standalone DVD player? If so, does it exhibit the same problem?

2) What mode did you use with DVDFab, "DVD to DVD" or "DVD to Mobile"?

[consultant]

That's the 2002 single disc version:

http://www.amazon.com/Atlantis-Empire-Michael-J-Fox/dp/B00005RDSQ/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=dvd&qid=1262976193&sr=1-1

You see it says fullscreen.

My version is the 2001 2-disc Collectors version. No fullscreen option.

[consultant]

1) Have you as yet played a burned backup copy on your standalone DVD player? If so, does it exhibit the same problem?

2) What mode did you use with DVDFab, "DVD to DVD" or "DVD to Mobile"?

DVD to DVD. I can't use DVD to Mobile as I want to be able in one click to burn a DVD. The DVD to Mobile will create one large VOB and you can't have VOBs over 1GB when you burn DVDs or at least the burning programs won't let you do it.

[setarip_old]

Again:

Have you as yet played a burned backup copy on your standalone DVD player? If so, does it exhibit the same problem?

[consultant]

Problem resolved. I can't say what the exact problem is as I don't know the ins and outs of the specifics of the DVD authoring standards. But here's my best explanation...

The problem also occurs when you burn the backed up disc.

What I think is causing it is the fact I only extracted the main movie from the disc. My guess is there is some information in the rest of the disc that tells the player that it is an anamorphic and that information gets lost if you just rip/burn the main movie.

It does not happen on all anamorphic discs only certain ones and I don't know why. Possibly it is some error made in the authoring of the disc? It happens on 2001 Collectors Edition Atlantis, Disney Mulan, and Disney TRON. It does not happen on most of their other anamorphic DVDs.

Per my earlier post others have run into this and the solution proposed worked. I used DVDPatcher to change the Aspect ratio in the VOBs from 16:9 to 4:3. This is counter intuitive but it is what works. Streaming and on burned backup discs, the correct aspect ratio is displayed after patching the VOBs this way.

Not the problem happened in both DVDFab and DVDShrink so it isn't a problem with the ripping program. It is has to do with the way the DVD's were authored. If you play the original DVD which contains much more information than the main movie, it works fine too.

Not that I had to use DVDShrink to rip the disc to one large VOB, then separate it into 1GB VOBs before using DVDPatch. The reason is, and this was the case with DVDFab and DVDShrink, is that on some, not all of the VOBs, DVDPatch could not patch the VOB because no Sequenceheader was found for the VOB. I have no clue why. Actually when I ripped it with DTS instead of AC3 all the VOBs had a sequenceheader. This seems to be some weirdness/inconsistency in the ripping software but it probably is linked to the other problem I bet.

I didn't see hardly anyone else run across the problem but that is because I think few people are ripping just main movies for streaming and if they are, the chances they will run across one of these problem titles is even less.

[setarip_old]

Glad to hear you've resolved your dilemma.

But (a third time) please be good enough to answer:

Have you as yet played a burned backup copy on your standalone DVD player? If so, does it exhibit the same problem?

[Ghitulescu]

So far as I know, only VLC exhibits this problem. maybe it's a problem with VLC.

[RocketJet]

There is a bug in VLC that is triggered when a file contains information for the option of selecting a 4:3 window inside a 16:9 frame.

VLC incorrectly interprets this as a widening of the aspect ratio.
MPC has the same bug.

PowerDVD and Windows Media Player do NOT have this bug,
so if they play the video correctly,
then this may well be the cause.