:-( how to set the correct aspect ratio for mpg-1's??

[borismex]

hi y'all
ive been having problems when backing up my dvds to
vcds, i have this dvd movie, and its a classic 16:9 aspect ratio movie,so when i play it with powerdvd, the heigth of the image is reduced automatically, so the people and objects don't look so "tall".

Now the problem is that i don't know what program should i use to create mpg-1's containing this "special instruction" to force the program or the vcd player to set the correct aspect ratio(in this case 16:9) so that the vcd movie look exactly the same aspect as the dvd, and of course, using the 352x240 vcd standard resolution.

I have tried everything with these programs, but none of their options fixes my problem:

Tmpgenc, dvdx, vcdgalaxy(dvd decrypter, dvd2avi & tmpgenc), dvd2svcd

Do you know what program adds this instruction to the mpg file to set to a determined aspect ratio? PLease help....

Thanx!!!
O another doubt: how many subtitles and audio languages does the standard svcd allow to be present in a svcd movie? can i mux 2 subs and 2 audio languages?

Thanks again!!!
:(

[jsoto]

Hi borismex,

AFAIK, 16:9 is not supported in (S)VCD. Please read carefully the option 3 of Q57 of official dvd2svcd Q&A. Dvd2svcd allows you to do exactly what you are asking for, but in advanced mode. Please note that a SW player (WinDVD, PowerDVD) detects correctly the aspect ratio but probably there isn't a settop able to play it.

I'm not absolutely sure, but I believe SVCD standard supports up to 4 OGT (Overlay Graphic and Text) channels and, in audio, up to 4 mono channels (or 2 stereo, or 1 multichannel).

jsoto

[Boulder]

You can maintain the aspect ratio by adding borders.

Use FitCD to get the correct cropping and AddBorder parameters. Or if you use DVD2SVCD, it will do it automatically (encode as 4:3, not 16:9!)

[mic]

Mpg1 does have an aspect ratio you can set, at least with some encoders... Don't think it's supported though in the VCD spec so you may or may not get the results you're after depending on your player.

To my knowledge SVCD playback usually does support the 16:9 flag set in the mpg2 header. FWIW, an mpg2 file for a widescreen DVD will normally have the widescreen frame squished into 720 x 480 to meet the spec - the file will have flags set for 16:9 & 540 height so the player will expand things out. Going from DVD -> SVCD you can keep the original frame size, re-encode to 480 x 480 mpg2 at lower bitrate, and set the flags either with the encoder or something like restream afterwards.

[borismex]

hi again...
Let me tell you that actually i own a vcd which has this instruction" to set the aspect ratio to 16:9 in power dvd (the same mpg without the vcd header also sets its correct AR), i didnt make this vcd, but there it is, it uses the standard res and ...well thats why i was asking what program should i use to do this... so??? what do you think about?? is there a program to do this??? or how the h... did this guy made this 16:9 vcd???

O buy the way i'd appreciate if someone helps me telling me why do i get this message error in dvd2svcd when it starts the 3rd or 4ft opening of Tmpgenc:
"Avisynth_script_file_CQ_TEST.avs file can not open, or is not found" and i press ok, and it happens again, again, and again, and there nothing i can do... Help me with this also please....

Cya

[mic]

You can set the aspect ratio in TMPGEnc to 16:9. If you've already got the file encoded, and don't want to do it again, demux the file using TMPGEnc tools, and run just the video through something like restream. Caution though, I did a quick test to make sure restream would take the mpg1 file, and the file it wrote had the proper aspect ratio, but, it didn't play as well as the widescreen I fed it.

RE: your 2nd ?: I don't do much with avisynth so can't help you there. But, if you're going from dvd2avi to TMPGEnc, why not save the dvd2avi proj, open & convert it in vfapi, then open that new file in TMPGEnc? Seems to work OK in TMPGEnc for me (use vfapi this way all the time with virtualdub and vegas), and might work better on your system if you're getting avisynth errors.