Aspect ratio embedded in Macrovision?

[BluDChyLD]

Hey,
I've just encountered a very strange problem with a DVD i've just bought. When playing the DVD in a software player the aspect ratio is 16.9 widescreen, but when I rip it onto my HDD and play the VOBs it changes to 4.3 fullscreen!

I tried using smartripper instead of dvddecrypter but the same problem kept happening. I managed to fix it by using vstrip and telling it to remove the macrovision at "16.9 display" instead of "original". This way the VOBs appear as the original widescreen ratio, not fullscreen.

This isnt common I've only seen this problem on two DVDs, does anyone know what causes it?

[Dimmer]

Originally posted by BluDChyLD
I've just encountered a very strange problem with a DVD i've just bought. When playing the DVD in a software player the aspect ratio is 16.9 widescreen, but when I rip it onto my HDD and play the VOBs it changes to 4.3 fullscreen! You're playing VOBs from HDD? You have to play the entire DVD structure with IFO files in order to achieve proper results. For example, PowerDVD 4+ can do that. This has nothing to do with Macrovision. Aspect ratio is embedded into m2v stream.

[Matthew]

The m2v can be flagged as 4:3 but actually be 16:9 and flagged as such in the ifos. An example of this is automatic pan and scan - scenarist requires the m2v to be flagged as 4:3 even though it's really 16:9 with an option to chop off the sides. So if you play the m2v/vob alone you get 4:3 and "eggheads".

Sounds like vstrip is rewriting the aspect ratio flag to 16:9.

[BluDChyLD]

Hmm... I don't see what the problem is as 99.9% of the DVDs I have ripped to the HDD have the correct aspect ratio when playing directly from the VOBs with PowerDVD. Why is this one different?

DVD2AVI also detects it as 4.3, and so does Zoomplayer.... It's really odd these programs have always given me reliable results in the past.

[Matthew]

As I just explained, the m2v is flagged as 4:3, so when you play the vob/m2v on its own it plays as such. Similarly, apps like DVD2AVI read their info from the vobs - they are just accurately reporting the embedded information.

The ifo contains the 16:9 flag so it plays as 16:9 when you play the DVD in the normal fashion.

As to why the flag is 4:3, maybe the DVD supports automatic pan and scan, otherwise the dvd makers were just a bit sloppy I suppose.