Aspect ratios, please explain....

[smileylives]

Hey guys, I've searched through the forums but haven't been able to find reasons for the following.

I want to encode all movies so that they have the full number of lines (PAL = 576). I want the quality, and don't want black bars added to a movie which reduces the number of lines, though I realise a lot of dvd's already come with black bars. But I also want my movies to be able to be played on standard tv or widescreen.

I know in DVD2SVCD you can choose 4:3, which will not add the black bars, but then it doesn't enforce the correct aspect ratio which is often 16:9

I have tried this and it works on my dvd player fine. For example, 16:9 movie encoded as 4:3, and played back on dvd player. I'm in Australia, so I don't know what other countries dvd players are like, but I can tell the dvd player to play letter box, pan and scan or widescreen, so it can get the aspect ratio that I want.

My problem is that when I play it on the computer with a software dvd player, it is stretched. When I used to rip dvd's another way, it still played correctly on the computer and must have stored the 16:9 info somewhere.

I know DVD2SVCD has the 3rd option, but I'm a bit worried with that as only a few dvd players apparently support it.

Just want to know if I'm doing something wrong. I definately want to keep the full 576 lines of resolution in the encoding, but there must be a way to encode at 4:3 while storing the aspect ration of 16:9 on the SVCD.

Any thoughts??

ps. I'm using cce for encoding

[markrb]

I know DVD2SVCD has the 3rd option, but I'm a bit worried with that as only a few dvd players apparently support it.

You hit the problem in a nutshell. On many DVD players it will not work and that is the only option I know of using the 16:9 do not add borders.

There is a work around for some DVD players. Encode with the 16:9 do not add borders. Play a regular DVD that is anamorphic and then insert the 16:9 SVCD. Some players will read it right then, but only some and not all the time.
There is no definate way to do what you are asking that I know of.

Some software DVD players (I think WinDVD) have an option to not enforce aspect ratios so you can make the image any size you want. Of course the movie will not be completely fullscreen though.


Mark

[Fmazzanti]

Originally posted by markrb

To me it all came down with trying to be consistent. If we allow these characters then how can we not allow the others. It probably is perfectly legitimate, but most others will not see it this way.
I could be wrong and believe it or not it does happen.
Mark
Please excuse me but I desagree here. The way I see it, '...' and
'!!' or '??' play a completely different role. While the latter are meant to atract attention as you say, '...' is a different thing.
As other people say, forum rules are important but doesn't need to be pushed that forward... that's just my opinion :p

But going back to the original thread here, I don't know the solution to the problem, but my experience goes as follows: I have a widescreen TV and ALWAYS encode at 4:3. If the original material is 4:3, then it goes ok and I have to put my TV in 4:3 mode (that is, with black bars left and right). If the material is 16:9, then it feets perfectly on my screen with no distortion.
Would you say there's a smarter way to do things? If so, please explain...

[smileylives]

Are we getting back on subject any time soon? :)

[markrb]

Split the unrelated talk off to clean it up and try to get back to the original question. If you wish to further comment on the other subject that part of the thread is still around.

Mark

[Fmazzanti]

Originally posted by smileylives
Are we getting back on subject any time soon? :)
Take it easy, guy... If you read my last post you'll see I already said something I believe is related to what you originally said...

[smileylives]

Okay thanks guys, think I'll stick with 4:3 from now on, seems to be a crowd pleaser ;)

[scorpio61]

The best work around I have found, is to encode at 4:3, even on a 16:9 movie. Then, when I view this on my 50" wide screen tv, the picture is stretched, and the aspect looks correct. If I encode 16:9 with borders, then I find I have as much border at the top and bottom of my screen, as I have movie. In other words, the sum of the borders widths, equal the video width. This drives me crazy, since I have a 16:9 tv.

I guess my question is, why isn't there just a 16:9 ratio option, without anamorphic? Perhaps I don't understand enough about what this tag entails.

Personally, I'd just like to see the 16:9 with borders option removed.

The soap box is now free for the next person....

Rob

[markrb]

I guess my question is, why isn't there just a 16:9 ratio option, without anamorphic? Perhaps I don't understand enough about what this tag entails.

All the tag does is tell the DVD player to add black borders if the internal aspect ratio is set to 4:3 and not to if it's set to 16:9. However to get this tag you must tell CCE to encode as 16:9. Somewhere here is where the problem with the DVD players arises. If we tell CCE to just encode what we give it as 4:3 then the problem with the DVD players goes away.

In theory by encoding a 16:9 video as 4:3 without borders this does exactly what you want. It keeps the original video and does not add anything, including the tag to add the black bars by the DVD player.

If there was an option to create 16:9 without adding a tag all it would be is the same thing as 4:3 do not add borders named differently. We are actually controlling the aspect ratio in Avisynth and not in CCE.

Mark