automatic widescreen switching

[Mishman]

I'm having a probelm with widescreen switching.

I'm in the UK where most programming is now widescreen. I'm capturing broadcast widescreem images on my Panasonic DMR E-50 in DVD-RAM mode. The pictures are flagged as 4:3 but are anamorphic (i.e. they look squished).

I'm importing the files to my computer and using Uleads MovieFactory 2 to create the menus, chapter points etc.

Since DMF2 does not support widescreen I am then taking the finalised VOB files and, with the use of DVD Patcher v1.06 am chnaging the aspect ratio to 16:9 for the "entire file" (not just "first header only").

I am then using IFOedit to amend the aspect ratio to 16:9. I am also selecting "automatic letterboxed" (though I think this is only for people with 4:3 sets.

This is then burnt using Nero 5.5.8 on a Panasonic SW-9581 to a DVD-R

Using PowerDVD XP the images switch just fine. Similarly playback on my widescreen Sony TV using a Philips DVD712 player does do automatic switching. However when playing back this DVD-R on my Panasonic DMR E-50 the aspect ratio stays at 4:3 and I need to adjust it manually.

Here the weird thing though... The when the play menu is called up is DOES switch to widescreen mode

Any bought DVDs switch the set over just fine for both menus and the programmes.

What is it I'm forgetting to do in my authoring?

Thanks for any help and advice offered.

[stevie1877]

Hi, did you ever get to the bottom of this problem? I'm having similar probs myself. I have converted anamorphic DivX files to DVD using DVD2SVCD (with CCE) and my widescreen TV displays the resulting DVD as 4:3 (and squished). I can obviously manually switch to widescreen but all my original DVDs automatically play in widescreen - any suggestions?

[Mishman]

No joy yet.

It's only the Panny E-50 giving me problems with playback.

What machines are you using to capture and reburn? What machinea are giving problems with playbcak. Does the widescreen switch automatically on your PC?

Steve

[stevie1877]

Mishman, I believe the problem is being caused by dvd2svcd - the only aspect ratios offered are 4:3 and 16:9(encoded as 4:3) which isn't proper full-screen 16:9 widescreen, it just puts letterboxes in (I think). I think I will have to revert to using TMPGenc alone, which offers the Fullscreen (keep aspect ratio) option, which solves my problem. Unfortunately TMPGenc is much slower than CCE, I'll see how long my patience lasts and might try and work out how to do this with CCE instead (it seems quite complicated though at first glance)