16:9 XVCD Possible?

[Teleport]

I have a few 16:9 ratio DivX files I am trying to convert to XVCD.

Problem is I think I read somewhere that XVCD only supports 4:3 and not 16:9. CAN ANYONE CONFIRM THIS?

If this is the case I guess T'll just have to encode for 4:3 and let my 16:9 TV streatch the picture back out to keeep the ratio correct.

The DivX is 608x368.

Cheers

[mysticgohan17]

i already asked this question, from what i was told, the output aspect ratio selected in TMPG does not affect the display on your standalone DVD player. it does display correctly on your PC. i haven't tested my DVD player.

[Vejita-sama]

x(S)VCDs have a DAR of 4:3 only. Normally you would have to letterbox your video if you wanted to maintain the source ratio on your xVCD. It _MIGHT_ be possible to produce an xVCD with a DAR of 16:9 (it would only play correctly on widescreen TVs). You can give it a try, but I doubt it'll work.

[LeeBear]

The (S)VCD standard doesn't support the DAR (Display Aspect Ratio) tag in the MPEG stream so it'll always play it so it'll fill the entire screen of your TV. You can still make 16x9 anamorphic (S)VCD's though but they will not play properly on regular 4x3 TV's (the black bars don't get added so everything looks tall and thin). If you're using TMPG just set the Aspect Ratio setting to 16:9 in the "Video" tab and you'll be fine. I've made a few VCD's using this method and it works fine. When watching on your 16:9 tv remember to use the Full mode of the TV and not one of the stretching modes since the encoders has already done the stretching when you encode it. Just remember that this VCD will not like right on normal 4:3 TV's, everything will look tall and thin.

-LeeBear

P.S. you'll know you've encoded it correctly if when you play the mpeg in Media Player everything looks tall and thin.

[j1d10t]

What I've done is just set TMPGEnc to 4:3, full screen (even though the video source is wide-screen), then set my wide-screen TV to "full", and it stretches the image out so it looks right on the TV. It doesn't look right on my standard TV, but I don't care about that - if I want the video to look correct that TV someday, I'll just re-encode. I've found that setting TMPGEnc to 16x9 my DVD player makes it looks funny on my wide-screen TV, either by cutting off the sides of the video, or by making the video look distorted somehow. And I have my DVD player set to 16x9. I've done this with both (x)VCD's and (x)SVCD's. Hope this helps

[ktnwin]

same experience as other folks here.
I had a 16:9 anamorphic video (from my DigCam that has this mode).
I use TMPGenc to encode as 4:3 and made X/VCD from it.
My wide screen TV look fine since it expands the horizontal direction.
On my normal 4:3 TV, everyon look taller and there is nothing I can do about it. To play correctly with the 16:9 ratio, I have to re-encode telling TMPGEnc to use 16:9 ratio, then it look right. But this VCD will look wrong on the wide screen (if I set normal mode, then it look right but there are gray areas all around and the picture look smaller).

[Teleport]

Thanks for your replies guys.

Cheers j1d10t. I have just tried to encode using a 16:9 setting an it gives distorted and unpredictable results as you found. I guess I'll have to encode it as squashed 4:3 and have my widescreen TV streach it back out.

Looks like the guys who wrote TMPGEnc have some more work to do in this area (unless it is a shortcomming of the VCD format). It would be nice if TMPGENc had a more comprehensive preview feature so you'd get a more predictable idea of how the finished encode will look on a stand alone DVD player and 16:9 TV.

[j1d10t]

That would be great - all the preview shows is what the video will look like after the "filters" are applied. When I encode with the 16x9 setting, my computer will play it back correctly (using PowerDVD, or some DVD software), but not my DVD player. Better preview in TMPGEnc; Things to hope for...

[vitualis]

As others have stated, the S/VCD standard doesn't support another DAR other than 4:3 (which means that S/VCD players simply ignore the DAR flag). That means, unless you have a DVD player or TV where you can FORCE the aspect ratio, then anamorphic X/S/VCDs won't play back properly. Most/all widescreen TVs can do this. Most DVD players cannot.

PowerDVD does understand DARs and will interpret them for X/S/VCDs as well. Thus, anamorphic X/S/VCDs will play in the correct aspect ratio under PowerDVD -- however, you really shouldn't be making S/VCDs for PC playback...

Regards.