SVCD Dimensions

[joncom11]

Ok, I have been making SVCD's for a while and am getting confused the more I make. Supposedly SVCD dimensions are 480x480... but then why does my windows media player play it as if its 640x480...

When I make a SVCD, since it just turns it to 640x480 anyways, can't I just encode it at 640x480 anyways, adding some pixels and quality to my high resolution videos?

Is there some kind of weird thing here that I am missing!??! Please explain in depth, I really want to understand the whole concept here..

[twodogs]

it's got to do with Display Aspect Ratio, and that pixels are not necessarily square.

Have a read of Vitualis' reply here for starters...
https://www.videohelp.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=166977

you'll probably find if you did some 640x480 experimenting, it would display like a 'widescreen', but squashed vertically.

[Vejita-sama]

People often seem to confuse resolution with display aspect ratio (DAR) they are not the same. There are 3 DARs you're likely to deal with:

1:1 PC
4:3 Standard TV
16:9 widescreen TV and film

Under the 16:9 flag there are several aspect ratios:
1.85:1 academy flat
1.77:1 widescreen tv
2.35:1 anamorhic widescreen

You can have any DAR at any resolution. Now all (correctly encoded) PC video has a DAR of 1:1. Now you can't display a 4:3 or 16:9 source on your 1:1 monitor without resizing it. The software DVD players (or WMP) will read the DAR and resize as necessary to maintain the source aspect ratio.

That's why 480x480 MPEG looks 'weird' on your PC but plays fine on your TV as well. For more info do a forum search.