Aspect ratio for TV-series (4:3) won't work

[Eruendil]

Hi Forumers!

In the past days I tried to encode a tv-series from DVD to SVCD (PAL).

I use DVD2SVCD to produce a DVD2AVI-Projectfile and an mp2-Audiostream. Then I start up TMPG and let it encode.

With MOVIES up to date NO problem, works superior! :sly:

With the tv-series in 4:3 format it produces a SVCD, which my Player shows as strange middle-format between 16:9 and 4:3 (not cut away but "compressed" in the y-axis). :(

After wondering a lot, I tried to change the ratio-settings in TMPG (source/stream 4:3/16:9 and combos, video arrange method: all possibilities incl. center and custom), but virtually NOTHING happens, no matter what setting I use: The output always looks the same. :confused:

Might it be that the DVD2AVI-Project overrides my settings???

By the way: in "Source Range" and "Preview" output the film looks perfectly alright.

This is so strange to me that I think I must be making some very simple and very stupid mistake. Can anyone help me?

Greetings,
Eruendil :rolleyes:


PS: I heard about some frame-problems of DVD2AVI???

[LeonMcNichol]

Why don't you let DVD2SVCD output your file? It's a front end that uses TMPGEnc. It has a NTSC to PAL conversion option. (Never used it, live in NTSC region.)

In your case, it's probably letterboxing the rest of the lines, 480 -> 576, which played back, should both result in 4:3, but because the black bars were added, it gets squished a little. So in your TMPGEnc settings, under the advanced tab, make sure Video arrage Method is set to "Full screen" and not "Full screen (keep aspect ratio)".

If this is not the case, then please post anymore information you can give, such as your AVS script, if you are using one.

[Eruendil]

Thanx for your reply, Leon!

:p Now, after spending another day of trying, I have found a working but not quite satisfying solution. I just set "Video Arrange Method" to "Custom" with size of 360x576 (which is 4:3 if 480x576 is 16:9, strange enough that 480 is broader on the screen than 576 is high... That means that every pixel in the x-axis is 2.1333 pixel on the y-axis if I'm not mistaken).

:confused: My thoughts about this so far: Might it be that the film on SVCD always has a resolution of 480x576 and therewith ratio of 16:9 (it doesn't matter for instance, if I set Size (not under "Advanced->VideoArrangeMethod" but under "Video->StreamSettings") to 368x576 = 4:3)? The result is exactly the same as if I set it to 480x576. Perhaps it is overridden to match SVCD specs? Or might my player be stretching it to 480...?

Has anyone of you tried to encode 4:3 material in MPG2 for SVCD and got it out working (without nasty tricks like I use)?

Anyway, in this 480x576 pixel (= 16:9) window I can resize the material under "VideoArrangeMethod->Custom->Size" as I like and it works fine. So I end up with a film with a black frame around it (360x576 (4:3) in a 480x576 (16:9) window. Now I just have to tell my DVD-Player to zoom in on the film and I have perfect ratio.

:mad: Negative: Zooming necessarily spoils the quality (although diffucult to notice IMHO).

If letterboxing is done automatically, in which step does this happen and where can it be deactivated?

I'm still thankful for any ideas/corrections!

Bye, Eruendil ;)

PS: I don't let DVD2SVCD do the job to have some control over the process and to be able to repeat certain steps manually, if something goes wrong, which always does (greetings to Murphy). :angry: