Now that I have a Widescreen TV...

[Holomatrix]

When encodeing a Widescreen movie (which doesn't have black bars at the top and bottom when watching on my 16:9 TV) should I still select 16:9 (boarders added, encoded as 4:3) as to let DVD2SVCD shrink the movie and add boarders so it is compatable with 4:3 TV's? or should I just encode at Anamorphic (no boarders, encoded as 16:9)? With boarders added I would assume that on my 16:9 TV the movie is now going to look a little squashed on my widescreen TV because of the boarders, right?
Thanks

[mcmanuf]

Hi.
I have thought of the same things.

I myself have a 4:3 television.
When i choose "16:9 (boarders added, encoded as 4:3)" and then choose 4:3 aspect ratio in the authoring program, the result is as the original DVD(on my 4:3 TV).

If I choose 16:9 in the authoring program, the picture will be squeezed on the TV.



Option two is to choose "Anamorphic (no boarders, encoded as 16:9)"
and in the authoring program one should select "16:9 Letterboxed" pixel ratio.

The result will once again be as the original DVD.


What the main difference I dont know. But I do know that the picure size on my 4:3 TV is the same under all circumstances.

[Monkeychops]

I think what you select depends on what you want to do really, and how transportable you want the conversions to be.

I have a widescreen TV and I nearly always select the 4:3 (No borders encoded as 4:3) option.

On a full widescreen film (ie no borders left and right on a 16:9 screen) you end up with an image that looks vertically stretched. This is corrected by setting the TV to widescreen.

On 4:3 aspect ratio film (ie no borders left and right on a 4:3 screen) you end up with a picture as original.

About the only time I use 16:9 letterbox is if I need to put a lot of film on a little discspace ie kiddies conversions to save a little bitrate with the flat black bars. If the TV is big enough children seem happy enough with anything that is moving.:D

I have never used the anamorphic option as I've never been sure how compatible it is with other DVD players.

This does mean that the SVCD of a widescreen film can only be played on a computer or a TV which can either strecth the picture horizontally or squash it vertically (as some seem able to do; try the engineers menu if you don't have it on the handset).

Another thing I would bear in mind with a widescreen TV (at least mine) is that if you use a FACAR script on a 4:3 mode file (ie you will not stretch it to fill the screen) if you have overscan set left and right, you may see black borders there. It seems to be connected to the screen area is now not limited by the edge of the tube, but electronically, so the overscan is not handled in the same way. I just use overscan top and bottom for these films.

Anyone else had this effect?

[Holomatrix]

Ok, so even though the movie is 16:9 I should encode as 4:3?
I need to do some testing :)
Thanks

[Monkeychops]

Yup, a 16:9 movie will play fine when stretched out on a widescreen TV. As I say, your friends with one of those square screens may struggle a bit though!:p

I'm not sure I understood mcmanuf's authoring process as I generally let D2S handle that with VCDXBuild, and it's never given me a problem. If it ain't broke.....

[WhipHubley]

some funny replies on here!

if you have an anamorphic widescreen movie, then encode it as "anamorphic, no borders added, encoded as 16:9" - especially if you are then going to watch it on a widescreen TV!

why would you want black borders when watching an anamorphic movie on a widescreen TV? the most you should ever experience are reasonably slim borders on a 2.35:1 movie. a 1.85:1 movie should completely fill your 16:9 TV - it looks great!

N.B. be careful of the resizing in the latest version of DVD2SVCD. You might need to edit the avisynth file yourself to get it right. use jsoto's avi resize calculator for this.

[Nick]

@ WhipHubley

I think these guys are discussing SVCD not DVD
Most standalone players will not play SVCD's correctly with 16:9 aspect ratio. The SVCD standard only allows for 4:3 video - full screen or letterboxed.

Therefore they are discussing the relative merits of encoding 16:9 sources either as letterboxed, letting the TV zoom horizontally and verically, versus squishing to fullscreen 4:3 and letting the TV zoom horizontally. The latter case needs does not need vertical zooming and therefore looks better but this is at the expense of it looking silly on 4:3 TV's.

A very old post of mine made it into the faq's on this subject and may be of help to (S)VCD users.

Obviously for DVD output, windescreen TV owners should encode anamorphic input for anamorphic output!

Hope this clears things up

Nick

Add - regarding your point on the resizing bug, can I just clarify that this applies only to AVI input, not DVD.

[r6d2]

Just a note to add to Nick's post. Most players don't play SVCDs anamorphic. However, most players play standard SVCDs when authored and burnt on DVD media.

When you do this, and source is anamorphic, select anamorphic as output too and your movie will play fine on both 4:3 and 16:9 TV sets. It also saves quite a lot of bitrate. I generally fit 3 movies per DVD this way, using Q<30 in CCE.

[Monkeychops]

@Nick /

Correct - I'm talking pure SVCDs here to CD-R (no DVD burner as yet)! I guessed Holomatrix was too since he said DVD2SVCD rather than DVD2DVD. Incidentally I tried an anamorphic encode in SVCD mode and the player made some very strained noises before giving up. I'll add my kit to r6d2's comment about most players not liking anamorphic SVCD soures

[WhipHubley]

Nick's right, I did jump the gun a bit on my previous post. Sorry about that.

When I author SVCD's from an anamorphic source, I encode anamorphically too, then burn the SVCD to a DVD. This way I can create a high quality "2-cd" SVCD and still fit it onto one disk.

My DVD player plays these back fine, as r6d2 mentions in his post. I'm sure yours will too (mine's only a cheap one :-)

Invest in that DVD burner!

[Monkeychops]

No sweat.

The idea of SVCD onto DVD interests me. As well as not having to get up to change a disk (although that does have an advantage as a convenient excuse to go to the fridge:p ) I guess you get about three movies on one disk right?

My DVD player is also a cheap one from ASDA (Wal-Mart to our American chums). Compared to my other expensive Sony play which plays next to nothing, the cheap one would probably give a picture from a beer mat if I could get it to spin. Savings fund started!