Elecard watermark and aspect ratio problems

[esmonde]

I hope someone can help with some frustrating problems I'm having with MPEG files.

I'm new to VCD, SVCD, and MPEGs but have begun converting my edited AVI files to MPEG1 and MPEG2. I'm also using MPEG2 archive files downloaded from the web. All are in 4x3 aspect ratio.

I have the Matrox (Ravisent) DVD player software installed, and also downloaded the Elecard MPEG viewer. When I create my MPEG files (using TMPGenc 2.5 to convert from AVI) the resulting .mpg files have two problems.

1. They have the wrong aspect ratio, except when played in the Elecard (unregistered) player. When I force them to open in Windows Media Player they are stretched vertically. Even playing them in the Matrox DVD player has the same vertical stretch issue. The files should be in 4x3 aspect ratio.

2. Even when played in players other than the Elecard, the files have the Elecard unregistered watermark on the top right of the screen. Even the Matrox DVD player seems to use the Elecard codec. And when I uninstalled the Elecard software, even though the Matrox DVD player now played without the watermark, it still had a stretched vertical picture instead of the correct 4x3 aspect ratio.

Is there a way to force WMP to choose the Matrox/Ravisent codec for MPEG2 playback? Is there any way to force the players to respect the original aspect ratio?

Thanks,

Roy
Dublin, Ireland.

[lordsmurf]

Elecard sucks. I had issues with it:
https://www.videohelp.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=164687

[snowmoon]

WMP sucks for mpeg-2 playback. It's not streching it, it's just displaying it at 480x480 ie 1:1.

I'm still looking for a goof mpeg-2 codec that understands SVCD and pulldown, respects aspect ratios ad actually looks good. PowerDVD barfs on 3:2 pulldown SVCD, elecard does not respect aspect ratios...