A DVD ripper that will produce AVC(NTSC) output...

[hello_hello]

That's odd. Aside from the PC, the only media players in this house which display anamorphic encodes correctly are the Sony Bluray players. Initially when I bought my Samsung TV I bought a Samsung Bluray player, but I returned it a couple of days later in exchange for the Sony, specifically because of the Samsung players inability to display anamorphic video correctly.

I don't know whether streaming could effect the way the video is displayed, but the two different Sony players in this house, along with a third model Sony player belonging to a friend, all display anamorphic video as they should. At least when it's played via disc or USB. The only time they didn't.... I remuxed some encodes at one stage and managed to remove the aspect ratio info. It was quite a while ago so I can't remember for certain but I think it was the aspect ratio at the container level which I removed. The correct aspect ratio was still written to the video stream. As a result the encodes still displayed correctly on the PC but the Sony players no longer did. I assume the PC player was looking at the video stream aspect ratio while the Sony player was looking for an aspect ratio written to the container. Once I remuxed the encodes again while setting the correct container aspect ratio the Sony player then displayed them properly.

I only mention all of the above as it may be worth checking your encodes to see how the aspect ratio info is being stored. When encoding using MeGUI the same aspect ratio is written to both the video stream and the container. I'd have assumed that's normal. If you check an encode with mediainfo it should show "display aspect ratio". Sometimes it'll also show "original display aspect ratio". If it shows both they should be the same. If it shows both and they're not the same, that could be the problem.

Were you streaming the video to the Sony players or playing the encodes via USB etc?

[Bootstrap]

That's odd. Aside from the PC, the only media players in this house which display anamorphic encodes correctly are the Sony Bluray players. Initially when I bought my Samsung TV I bought a Samsung Bluray player, but I returned it a couple of days later in exchange for the Sony, specifically because of the Samsung players inability to display anamorphic video correctly.

I don't know whether streaming could effect the way the video is displayed, but the two different Sony players in this house, along with a third model Sony player belonging to a friend, all display anamorphic video as they should. At least when it's played via disc or USB. The only time they didn't.... I remuxed some encodes at one stage and managed to remove the aspect ratio info. It was quite a while ago so I can't remember for certain but I think it was the aspect ratio at the container level which I removed. The correct aspect ratio was still written to the video stream. As a result the encodes still displayed correctly on the PC but the Sony players no longer did. I assume the PC player was looking at the video stream aspect ratio while the Sony player was looking for an aspect ratio written to the container. Once I remuxed the encodes again while setting the correct container aspect ratio the Sony player then displayed them properly.

I only mention all of the above as it may be worth checking your encodes to see how the aspect ratio info is being stored. When encoding using MeGUI the same aspect ratio is written to both the video stream and the container. I'd have assumed that's normal. If you check an encode with mediainfo it should show "display aspect ratio". Sometimes it'll also show "original display aspect ratio". If it shows both they should be the same. If it shows both and they're not the same, that could be the problem.

Were you streaming the video to the Sony players or playing the encodes via USB etc?

All was done by streaming via PS3 Media Server. To test the process, I took one of the mp4s that displayed stretched and ran it thru the Xilisoft converter, in effect a double conversion... and the result displayed correctly on all renderers. Before that it had displayed correctly on all but the Sony bluray players.

I know that the bluray players treat DVD-R burns differently than a stream, because of tests trying to play PAL on my system. It will stream, but the bluray rejects the same file when presented on a DVD-R. I haven't tried to any extent with USB, it just seems easier to stream or burn a DVD-R. By the way, the PAL I was working with was Blake-7, I can only get it on PAL DVDs, and they won't play on the bluray, only if I rip and stream them.

[Chopmeister]

As I advised above, Blu Ray players don't tend to be great media players. They aren't designed to do that, the capability is typically bolted on as an afterthought as a marketing feature, and they tend to be very limited in what they will cope with - in terms of codecs, containers and encoding parameters etc. In my opinion, Sony is one of the worst of a bad lot in this regard. As your encodes, by your own statement, play perfectly on everything except the Sony's, then re-encoding over and over again is unlikely to solve the problem - it sounds like it's an issue with the mickey mouse units you are trying to use as media players rather than the encodes.

You essentially have two options:

1) Find out *precisely* what container/codec/bitrate etc is well supported by your Sony units, and encode strictly using settings to produce this.

2) Spend comparatively few dollars and get a decent, purpose designed, media player that actually plays media files well. Something like a WD Live.

Endlessly re-encoding files well, and then trying and failing to have them play on a player that won't support the spec you are encoding to, wash rinse and repeat, is an exercise in futility. A proper media player need only cost small fraction of the time, effort and frustration you have already endured trying to hammer square pegs into round holes.





You have two

[hello_hello]

Thinking about it, I live in PAL-land so the Sony bluray players I have may be completely different units to the players where you are despite having the same model numbers. All the Sony Bluray players I've used are excellent media players. The two in this house (one is two years old or more while the other is about a year old) play everything I throw at them. To the extent that if someone tells me they can't play a video using the TVs built in media player, I tell them to plug the drive into the Sony player to try it that way before I look at having to remux/re-encode it. Usually, video will play using the Sony player instead of the TV, at least when the TV has refused to play something which in theory it should, but for reasons unknown it won't. I assumed all Sony players would be the same.... maybe incorrectly.

Maybe the PS3 media server is converting the frame rate on the fly which is keeping the Sony players happy? You could probably convert (slow down) 25fps PAL to 23.976 fps to see if that works..... I probably would just to find out what the problem is with PAL encodes. I'm not sure if Handbrake will do it but MeGUI will. If encoding PAL video that way made it more likely to play on lots of devices that's probably the way I'd encode them. You could even use MKVMergeGUI to remux a PAL encode with a 23.976 frame rate just to see what happens. Of course that'd put the audio out of sync but it'd be a way to find out if the frame rate is why they won't play. Logically the resolution shouldn't be a problem (except for the anamorphic support) as they'll play video up to 1080p. If the only way I could play NTSC encodes on all devices was to speed it up to 25fps when encoding then I would, but fortunately we don't have that problem where I am.

Chopmeister definitely has a point. You can encode for particular devices for the rest of your life or use a player which will play video however it's encoded. Easier said than done I guess when there's already existing devices in the house. It wasn't all that long ago I was still encoding most stuff twice, "properly" for myself and a second time as Xvid/AVI so everyone else in the house could use their AVI capable DVD players.

Blakes-7?? You're full of surprises. I actually watched the whole thing from start to finish again late last year. Wobbly BBC sets, special effects which were hardly special, lots of bad acting.... I love it. I'm surprised there's never been a remake, although maybe it's better there hasn't.....

[Bootstrap]

As I advised above, Blu Ray players don't tend to be great media players. They aren't designed to do that, the capability is typically bolted on as an afterthought as a marketing feature, and they tend to be very limited in what they will cope with - in terms of codecs, containers and encoding parameters etc. In my opinion, Sony is one of the worst of a bad lot in this regard. As your encodes, by your own statement, play perfectly on everything except the Sony's, then re-encoding over and over again is unlikely to solve the problem - it sounds like it's an issue with the mickey mouse units you are trying to use as media players rather than the encodes.

You essentially have two options:

1) Find out *precisely* what container/codec/bitrate etc is well supported by your Sony units, and encode strictly using settings to produce this.

2) Spend comparatively few dollars and get a decent, purpose designed, media player that actually plays media files well. Something like a WD Live.

Endlessly re-encoding files well, and then trying and failing to have them play on a player that won't support the spec you are encoding to, wash rinse and repeat, is an exercise in futility. A proper media player need only cost small fraction of the time, effort and frustration you have already endured trying to hammer square pegs into round holes.





You have two

You do understand, I hope... that when I began this thread, I had such a process in-place. I was happily encoding videos that streamed just fine to all of my renderers. But by peer pressure I was made to feel like I had a bad solution. It is my own fault, while new to this forum, I am not new to forums in general. Some good will come out of this, but there is a price to be paid. And I am paying it right now.

[Bootstrap]

Thinking about it, I live in PAL-land so the Sony bluray players I have may be completely different units to the players where you are despite having the same model numbers. All the Sony Bluray players I've used are excellent media players. The two in this house (one is two years old or more while the other is about a year old) play everything I throw at them. To the extent that if someone tells me they can't play a video using the TVs built in media player, I tell them to plug the drive into the Sony player to try it that way before I look at having to remux/re-encode it. Usually, video will play using the Sony player instead of the TV, at least when the TV has refused to play something which in theory it should, but for reasons unknown it won't. I assumed all Sony players would be the same.... maybe incorrectly.

Maybe the PS3 media server is converting the frame rate on the fly which is keeping the Sony players happy? You could probably convert (slow down) 25fps PAL to 23.976 fps to see if that works..... I probably would just to find out what the problem is with PAL encodes. I'm not sure if Handbrake will do it but MeGUI will. If encoding PAL video that way made it more likely to play on lots of devices that's probably the way I'd encode them. You could even use MKVMergeGUI to remux a PAL encode with a 23.976 frame rate just to see what happens. Of course that'd put the audio out of sync but it'd be a way to find out if the frame rate is why they won't play. Logically the resolution shouldn't be a problem (except for the anamorphic support) as they'll play video up to 1080p. If the only way I could play NTSC encodes on all devices was to speed it up to 25fps when encoding then I would, but fortunately we don't have that problem where I am.

Chopmeister definitely has a point. You can encode for particular devices for the rest of your life or use a player which will play video however it's encoded. Easier said than done I guess when there's already existing devices in the house. It wasn't all that long ago I was still encoding most stuff twice, "properly" for myself and a second time as Xvid/AVI so everyone else in the house could use their AVI capable DVD players.

Blakes-7?? You're full of surprises. I actually watched the whole thing from start to finish again late last year. Wobbly BBC sets, special effects which were hardly special, lots of bad acting.... I love it. I'm surprised there's never been a remake, although maybe it's better there hasn't.....

In the early 70s, I lived for about 3 years in Woodbridge. Do you know it? I used to love to go down to the shoreline there... a bit cold at times, and windy, but often very beautiful as well. At any rate, I learned to love British Television, which carries over to this day. My favorite show is Luther, and I am delighted to read that it is coming back for a 3rd series. Have you watched it? Alice is a treat!! To die for, literally.

Anyhow, I figured out the problem. I do not know which it is, because frankly I change too many things at once, but I had been running HandBrake in a mode where I just never exited the program, after it finished a rip, I went and gave it another, and went back to whatever I was doing -- reading the forums, testing videos, playing Chess... whatever. So HandBrake would stay in-memory for long runs of conversions.

I have stopped doing that. I exit the program now, after each conversion. Maybe unnecessary, but it makes me feel better. The 2nd thing, is probably the one that really fixed the problem, I switched to "Strict" anamorphic, and that seems to work a treat!

[Chopmeister]

Blakes-7?? You're full of surprises. I actually watched the whole thing from start to finish again late last year. Wobbly BBC sets, special effects which were hardly special, lots of bad acting.... I love it. I'm surprised there's never been a remake, although maybe it's better there hasn't.....

Snap! I watched all four series of Blake's 7 about six months ago. Hadn't seen it in decades. Wonderful series. Unlike most of the cookie-cutter cutsie predictable moralising formulaic pap that seems to be passed off as Sci Fi nowadays. Personally, I hope if it's ever remade or (shudder) made into a movie, that it's the Brits and not Hollywood that do it.

[hello_hello]

In the early 70s, I lived for about 3 years in Woodbridge. Do you know it? I used to love to go down to the shoreline there... a bit cold at times, and windy, but often very beautiful as well. At any rate, I learned to love British Television, which carries over to this day. My favorite show is Luther, and I am delighted to read that it is coming back for a 3rd series. Have you watched it? Alice is a treat!! To die for, literally.

Woodbridge, Perth, Australia? If so I know of it, I might have even passed through it, but that's about it. I'm in Melbourne.
I've not seen Luther, but I'll Google it shortly.
"Breaking Bad" returns soon. Made in the U.S. but if you've not seen it.... one of the best TV series ever made, in my humble opinion...

I have stopped doing that. I exit the program now, after each conversion. Maybe unnecessary, but it makes me feel better. The 2nd thing, is probably the one that really fixed the problem, I switched to "Strict" anamorphic, and that seems to work a treat!

No reason why running multiple encodes in a row should effect anything. I often line up multiple encoding jobs using MeGUI and let it run overnight.
Are you saying Strict Anamorphic lets the Bluray players display anamorphic video correctly, as opposed to using loose anamorphic, or did it fix some other problem?

Snap! I watched all four series of Blake's 7 about six months ago. Hadn't seen it in decades. Wonderful series. Unlike most of the cookie-cutter cutsie predictable moralising formulaic pap that seems to be passed off as Sci Fi nowadays. Personally, I hope if it's ever remade or (shudder) made into a movie, that it's the Brits and not Hollywood that do it.

Star Trek.... always seemed like cartoons with real actors to me.
After years of hoping it would happen, I'm still emotionally scared by The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy movie. Remakes aren't something I hope for any more.

[Bootstrap]

@hello_hello

Actually, it was RAF Woodbridge, in Suffolk, UK. I was a chap in the US Air Force, stationed there for a few years in the early 70s.

I tried exiting the program after each encode, because it was changing the file extension between mp4 and m4v in a random way... and that was annoying. Now it just uses mp4, as I have it set. Otherwise, the only thing I changed was the anamorphic setting. At first, I just turned it off, and that worked. Then I saw on a web site someplace that others had had trouble with "Loose" anamorphic and aspect ratio being wrong. Actually a different problem than I was having, but anyhow, I gave it a try. And it surprised me... it works. I have fixed all the videos that were messed up, and I am moving forward.

I read in the HB Forum that there is some fuss about the Target Size option being removed, so I actually gave the old version a try. Target Size worked, but produced results that were generally larger than I thought necessary. So I went back to the current version, and I am happily using the Constant Quality option.