16:9 SVCD-s and letterbox

[Juhan]

How to tell standalone player that my movie is 16:9 and needs letterboxing in 4:3 TV ? I tried 16:9 aspect ratio setting in CCE and it didn't help. I'd like to encode SVCD's that can be viewed in 16:9 and 4:3 TV-sets (just like anamorphic DVD-s). Until now I have to switch TV into 16:9 mode manually but I want the player to add black bars automatically, just like it does with 16:9 DVD-s.

Has anyone tried it ?

[markrb]

You can't do it. You have to pick one or the other. The bars are either permenant or there not there.

There is plenty of info on the board on how to encode a 16:9 for widescreen already if you want to do that do a search.

Mark

[Juhan]

I have done them both (4:3 and 16:9).

I want to do an universal SVCD which is encoded in 16:9 and tells standalone player to add black bars in 4:3 mode. It is like a DVD which is encoded in 16:9 and player adds bars when you watch it in 4:3 TV-set. If you watch the same movie in 16:9 TV then bars are not added. It's an "anamorphic SVCD" :)

How to force standalone player to add black bars only in 4:3 TV ?

[DVDHack]

Juhan,

It can not be done. DVD players do not recognise SVCDs as anamorphic. I have been searching for a DVD player that has this facility for some time but I haven't been able to find one. Pioneer say there DV533-K is capable (I emailed most DVD manufacturers) but it was not available in Australia at the time and I decided to wait for a 5 disk version. I check it out and report back.

Anyone already know ??

What I do is encode without resizing and without black bars. This yields me a 720x576 picture. It looks acceptable on a 4:3 format since it is no where as stretched as 480x576 on 4:3 but it is not 100% correct - my DVD player allows me to select NTSC and by send my TV that signal a small vertical correction is achieved which gets me to the correct aspect ratio. This encode works perfectly on a 16:9 - obviously.

[Franklin2K]

Hi,

I've done some testing yesterday and I found out something interesting for me.

First: My DVD-player is a Pioneer DV-444.

Here are my two attempts: (I ripped in both cases the first chapter of "The 5th element" with DVD2SVCD & FitCD)

1) 16:9 in DVD2SVCD/FitCD, player mode "Fullscreen": perfect picture with black bars (generated by DVD2SVCD)

2) 4:3 in DVD2SVCD/FitCD, player mode "Fullscreen" => egg heads, mode "Letterboxed" => pefect picture with black bars (generated by Pioneer DV-444).

My stand alone player isn't able to determine the aspect ratio automatically, but if the standard dvd-mode is "Letterboxed", it works both for DVDs and for SVCDs perfectly.

Greetings, Franklin2K

[Maras]

thx, i've 545 & think it is posible in it too. There is quality proble ofcourse... anamorfic SVCD can not have more than 40-50 min IMHO. For 2CD 90-100 min movie encode this is perfect. For longer movies black bars increases quality IMO.

btw.
what do you mean "DVD2SVCD/FitCD" ? where FitCD do you use ?

greets,
Maras

[Franklin2K]

Hi Maras,

I use FitCD to enhance the AniSynth script. I do the following:
First I load one VOB file in DVD2AVI to determine the coded pixel (that is the size of the mmovie after cropping the black bars). FitCD, which you can get @doom9, is a bitrate calculator. I enter the coded pixel and load the .d2v file, FitCD calcualtes the resolution for the SVCD and generates a perfect AviSynth script. I replace the original sript with the one FitCD created for me. It works fine ;-)

Maybe you should read the FitCD readme file to unterstand what the program does: http://mitglied.lycos.de/fitcd/ReadMe.txt

HTH, Franklin2K

BTW: I usually encode @CBR with 2400-2500 kbps video and 224 kbps audio. Is this enough bitrate for anamorphic SVCDs? I read somewhere 4:3 SVCDs need 33.3% more bitrate than 16:9 coded movies?

[Maras]

i used FitCD obout few times when i did SVCD 'manualy' (w/o dvd2svcd) and it's ok, but it cannot calc bitrate for 2CD (1CD only). I use it specially when convert AVI 2 SVCD. I do not like use it with DVD2SVCD becouse it is incomfortable (have to wait for audio process).

i think this is true that anamorfic svcd uses more bitrate. 33% may be good approximation. When you do 2400kbps only problem you have is number of CD, no quality problem at all!

[Franklin2K]

Hi,

that's right, FitCD calculates the bitrate for only one cd, but in my case DVD2SVCD does the bitrate calculation and not FitCD. I use this program only to get the optimized AviSynth script, which I paste in DVD2SVCD.

I have activated "edit when dvd2avi processing is done" in the frameserver tab, so i don't have to wait until audio is finished as you described.

I like FitCD because it gives me the possibility to optimize the AviSynth script: macro block optimization, TV-overscan optimization and so on.

Greetings, Franklin2K