Scenarist with 4:3 and 16:9

[merlin001]

I'm trying to get both 16:9 and 4:3 on the same disc. I've tried creating a seperate VTS for each, but they're all playing at 4:3. Could someone point me in the right direction?

Thanks!
~ David

[Dimmer]

Does your 16:9 video is indeed flagged as such? Check the properties of the video clip in Data Editor. If Aspect Ratio says 4:3, you need to update the MPEG headers to 16:9 with ReStream for example, and then re-import.

That would work only for true anamorphic footage. If you're re-authoring an existing DVD, it's possible that widescreen video was made as 4:3 letterbox with black bars embedded into the picture. You can't do much in this case except re-encode it performing digital zoom, which usually doesn't produce good results.

[merlin001]

I found it had to do with TMPGenc re-encoding it in 4:3. Anyway, thanks for your help.

[Dimmer]

Keep in mind that 16:9 is just a flag. You don't need to re-encode in TMPGEnc if you set it to 4:3 by mistake. Simply run the .m2v through ReStream.

[Deckerr]

Hi

I backed a lot of DVD's with TMPGenc at 4:3 (TMPG was detecting the wrong setting) when it should have been 16:9 input. I have tried to using ReStream but it has not fixed the problem.


That would work only for true anamorphic footage. If you're re-authoring an existing DVD, it's possible that widescreen video was made as 4:3 letterbox with black bars embedded into the picture. You can't do much in this case except re-encode it performing digital zoom, which usually doesn't produce good results.
I take it if Restream has not fixed the problem this is what happened to me?

[mpucoder]

Not necessarily. DVD players ignore the aspect ratio data in the video stream and rely on the ifo file. You can change the video attributes using IfoEdit.

[Deckerr]

Ok, I've changed the setting in the ifo as well but it is still the same. Have tested a few DVD like this and they all display as 4:3.

Edit; I'm beginning to think it might be the way I encoded the video originally.

[Dimmer]

Ok, I've changed the setting in the ifo as well but it is still the same. Have tested a few DVD like this and they all display as 4:3.
Once you've changed IFO flag to 16:9, DVD should display as 16:9 even if it was originally encoded as 4:3. Of course, the picture would be distorted in this case. If you still see 4:3 picture, you probably set the wrong flag. In IfoEdit, you have to find the line in the bottom panel that says Title Set (Movie) attributes (not Menu attributes!) within the IFO file corresponding to the VTS of the main movie such as VTS_01_0.IFO (not VIDEO_TS.IFO!). In case you're having trouble figuring that out, change the aspect ratio flag in every IFO file and see what happens.

It would help if you mentioned the authoring tool you're using; obviously, not Scenarist since it takes care of aspect ratio automatically according to the flag within MPEG header.

http://x2.putfile.com/7/19718034716.jpg

[Deckerr]

Are you saying the picture will be distorted, so changing the flags to 16:9 is a waste of time?

I changed all the flags to 16:9 but the picture is not tall enough (the black bars on top & bottom are too large). The original display ratio is about 2.27 and the backup with flags changed to 16:9 is about 2.85.

Yes I am using ifoedit. I thought I could copy the disc to the hdd and change the flags then reburn. Otherwise I will need to encode it all again.

[Dimmer]

Are you saying the picture will be distorted, so changing the flags to 16:9 is a waste of time?
What I'm saying is that the picture will look distorted if the flag doesn't match the actual aspect ratio the video has been encoded with. In other words, it's an easy test allowing you to determine whether you have to re-encode the movie. And it appears that indeed you will have to re-encode it. If the black bars on the backup are covering portions of the picture visible on the original, you obviously used wrong settings in TMPGEnc. Try to play there with MPEG Setting menu, Advanced tab before re-encoding.