DAR on standalones

[Wolfman]

Just been checking my encodes and I am finding that widescreen movies eg LOTR-fotr-1 (2.35-1) do not display correctly when played back on my SA dvx6100. When the original dvd is played back the display height is 80mm howver when I play back my encode of the same movie the display height is only 65mm,.(whole screen 300mm Height/400mm wide) quite a significant decrease. When I play this same clip on my pc however the display aspect ratio looks correct and when measured (using a ruler) comes out at an aspect ratio of 2.35-1. The encode was done with xvid using the latest 0.98 beta using constant quality 0.75.

Any suggestions or other people having similar problems??
Is this perhaps becuase AGK does its calcs based on 16:9 or 4:3 rather than 2.35-1 ?? or is this just on standalones..
Gspot reports encode 704x288.. maybe this should be 704x312/320?

Further thought .. This encode is being done from a 6 minute section re-authored as a folder on hard disk..AGK reports "Video info: PAL - 720x576 - 16:9 Anamorphic - 25fps - 0:06:41.760"

[len0x]

I believe all standalones which don't have manual or automatic AR adjustment for PC content suffer from that due to the fact that pixels are square on PC and _not_ on TV. So there is no way to make an encode which looks good both on PC and standalone. I do know what to do for compensating non-square pixels (and probably do that and some point), but encode will look a bit streched on PC though...

[Wolfman]

I would prefer correct size on SA rather than pc. I am open to suggestions?

[Wolfman]

I have tested this and it also occurs with dr.divx..sadly.. does this mean I will have to learn full GK or is a fix/change/wish-list going to appear. I can live with this on fullscreen (hardly anything I ever do) and even on 1.85-1 widescreen, but on the 2.35-1 super widescreen this does become more of a problem. If this (Aspect-ratio correction) was incorporated, it would be another point in AGK's favor.

Also do any other standalone users have the same problems with different machines eg Phillips dvd737 ellion 8883 or how do you get around it/ live with it?? :(

[manono]

Hi Wolfman-

Do you really want a make a movie with incorrect AR, just so it'll scale properly on your standalone? As you know, it's a deficiency in the ESS firmware that the company just has to fix sooner or later. And then you'll be stuck with all these incorrect AR movies. Have you been bugging Tech Support about it? You can't be the only one that's noticed the problem.

Mine (Bravo D1 with the Sigma Designs EM5000 chipset) scales everything I throw at it perfectly. Guess I'm lucky. It does have other problems (no DivX 3.11, no sub support, temporary freezing at bitrate spikes), but scaling isn't one of them

But I don't think I'd hold my breath waiting for AutoGK to support a variable AR. But I can't speak for len0x.

By the way, I think that the PC/TV square pixel issue that len0x brought up is much less of a difference than what you're experiencing. I don't even think that one's noticeable, but the differences you're experiencing would be very noticeable, and make everyone look short and fat and squashed. Like when you have a widescreen TV set, but set the DVD player to output for a standard TV set, and extra black bars are added to the top and bottom. My brother-in-law has his set up like that, he won't let me fix it, and it makes me so mad that I refuse to watch DVDs at his house. Here I spend a lot of time working to get good AR on my movies, and he prefers to make everyone look fat. He also prefers to have standard sized broadcasts fill the screen on the widescreen TV so, again, everyone is fat. Drives me up a wall. So I sympathize with your problem.

[Wolfman]

thanx for reply .. will test this further with all possible options. (breadth not held).

[Wolfman]

Well .. no further answers.. so all other users must be happy :mad:

I do know what to do for compensating non-square pixels (and probably do that and some point), but encode will look a bit streched on PC though...
If you or anyone else. can give some info on the GK settings I can test this out ... I have heard pc pixel is square, whilst tv pixel is 4:3, ergo height needs to be stretched by 33%. Its def the height that is the prob..

[Zhnujm]

height=height*1.08 should work.

But the problem is that not all resolution are the same with ESS players, some need a correction, some a bit less and some dont need a correction at all :rolleyes:
Sell it and forget it i would say...

I am about to create a comparison with various resolutions to show the effect, heres an example at 704x528:
ftp://zhnujm.dyndns.org/704x528.jpg

left side elta 8883 (mediatek), right side yamada 6100 (ess).


---edit
BTW, dont underestimate the effect of this correction, on a big tv screen its a big difference.
I had to reencode some DVB captures because i only cropped black bars, wich perfectly fit for my Yamada, but not for the elta or the PC. Unfortunatly you wont see this on a small PC monitor, so i thought it wont be a big problem.