16:9 movies showing up as 4:3 in DVD2AVI

[brown edges]

Hi, why do movies that are 16:9 show up in smartripper and DVD2AVI as 4:3, I've also noticed that these movies always seem to give me trouble when I try to reencode them. thanks in advance.

[frank]

Because there is another info in the .ifo file!

[brown edges]

Thanks for the reply, you're right, the .IFO file says 4:3, but it is a 16:9 movie, DVD2AVI doesn't use the .IFO file it gets the information from the video file, so why is it showing up as 4:3 when it's in fact a 16:9 movie?

[mb1]

Which dvd2avi version ?
Which movie ? Which region ?

[brown edges]

1.77.1, Deer hunter, region 1.

[manono]

Hi-

Internet Movie Database here (http://us.imdb.com/DVD?0077416) shows it to be 2.35:1 and not 16:9. That's the AR of the movie itself. When DVD2AVI says it to be 4:3, you can believe it to be correct. That's the AR of the DVD. Those are two different things. Doom9 has guides that explain the differences. There are plenty of wide screen movies which have a DVD AR of 4:3. If you've had problems encoding movies in the past, perhaps it's because you didn't pay enough attention to what DVD2AVI told you.

[Razor04]

I am going to have to disagree with you. I had a similar problem with DVD2AVI identifying a anamorphic DVD (16:9 AR in DVD2AVI) as a pan & scan DVD (4:3 in DVD2AVI). One title that it identified incorrectly was Independence Day. I never could figure it out, but it was never a big problem for me.

[brown edges]

Manono, thank you for the reply. But what does that mean, that the movie is 4:3 and the bars on top and bottom are added to make the picture 2.35:1?

[manono]

Hey brown edges-

The DVD AR or DAR (Display Aspect Ratio) is a flag or indicator in the DVD which tells the player how to resize the picture. There are only 2 in common use, 4:3 and 16:9. The movie AR can be many ARs, 1.33:1 (aka 4:3 or full screen), 1.66:1, 1.85:1, 2.35:1, 2.55:1 and others. You'll have to read Doom9's article on the subject to more fully understand (sorry-I don't know how to link directly). Go to the Main page, and then Guides-Document Overview-DVD Related Articles-Aspect Ratios Explained. Pay special attention to the paragraph about 2/3 of the way down beginning:

There are also DVDs which have a DAR of 4:3 but contain widescreen picture.

I know the IFO is sometimes wrong, and I've read that even the back of the DVD box is sometimes wrong, and I've always relied on DVD2AVI to give me the correct DAR. But Razor04 says that even DVD2AVI has been wrong in at least one case he knows of. One way to be sure though, is to do your cropping and resizing in GKnot, tick the 16:9 or 4:3 box (depending on what DVD2AVI tells you), resize in the View Box and then scroll around to make sure the people look normal, and the wheels, clocks, suns, moons, etc. look round.

Razor04-I'm almost tempted to rent Independence Day again to check that out. I ripped it a long time ago and don't remember any problems. What you mentioned is interesting and shows, I guess, that you can't rely 100% on the information DVD2AVI gives you either. But I don't think that case relates to what brown edges was referring to. I think he was surprised at a wide screen movie showing in DVD2AVI as 4:3, thinking 4:3 meant it was full screen, when Deer Hunter is obviously wide screen (and not anamorphic). But I could be wrong.

Edit: Cool-I just learned how to link directly to the article. It's here (http://www.doom9.org/aspectratios.htm)

[Razor04]

I was definately surprised when I found this little problem. Normally I just verify that a proper resolution has been chosen in GKnot and that the resized movie looks good. The only reason I noticed it was because I was working on a guide at the time.

[brown edges]

Thank you for the reply, I understand a little better now.

[Mosaic]

and play a VOB from the VTS.

A rectangular screen stretching nearly to the ends of the monitor means 16:9

A nearly square screen is 4:3 .....

....Why use PowerDVD.....weel seeing is believing.....and letterboxed movies may actually be 16:9 movies with added black bands to fill out to 4:3 aspect.

[Gambit]

I also have this problem with DVD2AVI showing wrong information. Sometimes a 16:9 movie is reported as 4:3 and even more often a progressive movie is reported as interlaced.

[manono]

Hi-

Sometimes a 16:9 movie is reported as 4:3

If you mean a letterboxed wide-screen movie is being reported as 4:3 then read Aspect Ratios Explained (http://www.doom9.org/aspectratios.htm).

progressive movie is reported as interlaced.

Yep-for PAL movies, more often than not DVD2AVI is wrong.

[Razor04]

16:9 in DVD2AVI means that the source is anamorphically encoded, while 4:3 means that the source is encoded in pan and scan. The problem that most of us are talking about is when DVD2AVI identifies a anamorphic DVD as pan and scan instead of anamorphic.

[mguru]

Without getting technical into DAR, anamorphic, etc., I have written this to be like a dummy's way to look at it (I hope). (Not that anyone is a dummy, but sometimes it's best to think of it at kindergarten level to get the concept). I use the 16:9 and 4:3 in DVD2AVI to tell me whether I need to set the 4:3 or 16:9 setting for source in TMPG (this setting controls the DAR whether extra black bars are added at playback). You see, in my experience, a widescreen can be read as 4:3 because with the DAR, black bars are added to make it widescreen (1.85, 2.35, etc.). So for instance:

SOURCE W/S RATIO | DVD2AVI RATIO | BLACK BARS ON SOURCE FRAME?
-----------------------------------------------------------------
~1.85 | 4:3 | yes, ~15% t&b
~2.35 | 4:3 | yes, ~25% t&b
~1.85 | 16:9 | no (~1% t&b)
~2.35 | 16:9 | yes, ~15% t&b

Abbreviations: ~ = Approximately, W/S = widescreen, t&b=Top & Bottom of frame

This system works for me most of the time, and its easy for me to understand it like this without getting really technical over a very simple concept. Think of it as 3 progression levels from: No black bars, to short 1.85 black bars, to really wide 2.35 black bars. If DVD2AVI reads 16:9 then that means that you'll have to add one progression level of black bar width on playback. If it reads 4:3 then the black bars (or lack thereof) are already present and nothing needs to be done to the source aspect ratio.

***Of course, you should ALWAYS make sure of these settings with a test encode to see if everything looks proportional.***

I often check the aspect ratio on Amazon.com technical specs to make sure. 2.20 - 2.35 should be around 25% blacks bars on top and bottom in widescreen. 1.85 should be less than that, around 10-15%.

Hope this helps at least one person who might have been confused before.

mGuru