I can't get my Wharfdale DVD recorder to record in 16:9

[AndyLGR]

I have a Wharfdale DVDR24F and I am trying to record a TV program from my satellite box to the recorder.

Someone I know has already recorded the same show on to a disc in 16:9 with no re-encoding, but whenever I try to record mine to a disc, it is always giving me 4:3 instead of 16:9

On the dvd set up menu of the Wharfdale, the recording is set to record quality: SP

In the set up menu for video of the Wharfdale. The TV type is set to PAL and the TV display is set to 16:9 WS

My sky satellite box settings are set to 16:9

The sky satellite box is scarted into the DVD recorder at AV2 and is then then scarted back out from AV1 to the TV.

Yet when I analyse the outputted disc its in dvd 4:3 instead of 16:9

The show wasnt recorded off a HD channel, just normal satellite.

I've tried + and - DVD's

I dont have the instructions for the Wharfdale though.

Am I missing something completely obvious?

Any help or advice would be appreciated, thanks.

[DB83]

You are probably seeing an anamorphic 16:9 recording squashed in to a 4:3 frame so that bodies look a little thinner than they should be.

It is possible that the Warfdale is not recognising the anamorphic signal so is not recording that with the video stream. There may be a setting on the tv - Sony's have auto, wide,smart and zoom - to stretch the recording as it really should appear.

[guns1inger]

My pioneer records 16:9 material as 16:9 if you look at the IFO, but the actual video itself is still tagged 4:3. Most players read the IFO tags and not the stream tags, so they play the discs back OK. However if I use something like VOB2MPG to get the video as an mpg file, I get a 4:3 video and everything looks squashed.

There is a simple fix for the problem. Rip the entire DVD to your HDD, then use DVD Patcher to change the tags in the video stream to 16:9. You can then burn this back to a disc as a proper 16:9 DVD.

Sorry - my bad. DVD Patcher will patch mpg files. Use VOB2MPG to get your titles as mpg files, patch with DVD Patcher, then re-author and burn. No re-encoding is done, so the process is relatively quick.

[AndyLGR]

My pioneer records 16:9 material as 16:9 if you look at the IFO, but the actual video itself is still tagged 4:3. Most players read the IFO tags and not the stream tags, so they play the discs back OK. However if I use something like VOB2MPG to get the video as an mpg file, I get a 4:3 video and everything looks squashed.

What part of the IFO tags it as 16:9?

Also when you say the actual video is tagged as 4:3, do you mean if you ran the disc through gspot or similar analysis software that it shows up as a 4:3 dvd?

There is a simple fix for the problem. Rip the entire DVD to your HDD, then use DVD Patcher to change the tags in the video stream to 16:9. You can then burn this back to a disc as a proper 16:9 DVD.

As I mentioned in the OP, someone else recorded the same show and I’ve analysed my disc and the other guys disc using gspot. Mine shows as dvd 4:3 whereas his shows as dvd 16:9.

Yet the only difference between both versions I can see is that mine has very very slight black borders down the sides of the screen on my pc. When I play them back on my TV they both look the same to me, but I assume that’s my tv compensating by making them both fit to 16:9?

When I play them back I dont see any squashing of my picture, but I'm assuming that its a 16:9 picture in a 4:3 frame, if that makes sense. Purely because of the very slight black borders down the sides and the fact that gspot says its a 4:3.

I haven’t tried both discs on one of the old 4:3 portable tv’s that I still have in the kids bedrooms though to see any difference.

I’ll also look into dvd patcher, thanks. But I was also hoping that there would be some way of correcting the issue when its recording into my dvdr. Maybe this isn’t possible though with this model?

Will screenshots of the dvd itself and a screenshot of the gspot analysis help?

[DB83]

The dvd-recorder records 720*576 (the most common) pixel ratio which is what the tv channel is actually outputing. It is only the DAR flag that determines whether the display is 16:9 or 4:3. If that flag is not recognised by the recorder then it defaults to 4:3 but still records all the image beit squashed if you actually looked at it on 4:3 equipment.

Seems that the other person's recorder is recognising the signal and records it. Not all recorders are created equally.

Your tv has compensated by correcting the display to what it really should look like.

Like guns1inger says you can only correct this with your present equipment by patching the ifo (and possibly the vobs as well) using the tools as suggested.

[AndyLGR]

The dvd-recorder records 720*576 (the most common) pixel ratio which is what the tv channel is actually outputing. It is only the DAR flag that determines whether the display is 16:9 or 4:3. If that flag is not recognised by the recorder then it defaults to 4:3 but still records all the image beit squashed if you actually looked at it on 4:3 equipment.

Seems that the other person's recorder is recognising the signal and records it. Not all recorders are created equally.

Your tv has compensated by correcting the display to what it really should look like.

Like guns1inger says you can only correct this with your present equipment by patching the ifo (and possibly the vobs as well) using the tools as suggested.

That makes sense.

Basically as things stand I need to get the files on my pc and use dvdpatcher before authoring.

Is there any loss of quality once its set back to 16:9?

Thanks for the advice.

[guns1inger]

No quality loss. You could try changing the IFO flag first, which would save having to re-author. IFOEdit or PGCEdit can do this. Most players will be happy with this arrangement.

[AndyLGR]

No quality loss. You could try changing the ISO flag first, which would save having to re-author. IFOEdit or PGCEdit can do this. Most players will be happy with this arrangement.

Thanks again.