Mainconcept aspect ratio for XSVCD's and Nero help please.

[Patriots]

Thanks for the help in advance.

I have been using TMPGENC for a while to make XSVCD's and decided to try Mainconcept for the faster encoding speed.

This is in regard to avi's with black borders on the top and bottom. When using TMPGENC I just select Fullscreen keep aspect ratio set the desired output ratio to 640x480 for my standard TV set so the image isn't stretched to heck. This always gives me a movie looking the same as the source with black borders and then I burn it with Nero.

When using Mainconcept I select MPEG2, change the vbr bitrates to what I desire, where it says aspect ratio I select keep aspect ratio which is 720x272 for this avi, and crop and scale are unchecked . After the movie encodes I play it in Windows Media 9 with mpeg2 plugin and it looks the same as the source, same with MP Classic. After burning to disc with Nero, I played it in my dvd player and the whole movie was stretched out to full screen. No matter what I do I cannot get it to keep the black borders. I did notice the Mainconcept Preview shows the movie without the borders while it is encoding.

I can't figure how to keep the encoded movie looking the same as the original. I have even applied the aspect ratio math based on Sefy's guide but I guess I'm missing something.

Any easy setup configuration help would be appreciated.

[SITH]

after you load the movie into mainconcepts, set the output, svcd or what have you, then you click on the details. then click on advanced. to the left hand side there is an aspect ratio box. its default is 4:3. you want to change it to 16:9. then encode about 3 mins of the movie. take a look and see if it has a good aspect ratio. if not then go back and try croping it as you did before. this should fix your stretch look on your tv.

[Patriots]

Thanks Sith.

The thing is I started out by selecting 16:9, thinking this would not eliminate the boarders and keep the source original, but after popping it in my dvd player, the result was a stretched movie without boarders. The thing is it looks fine in all of my software dvd players. If I add Sefy's math based on actual screen size the movie is stretched more.

If the aspect ratio is 722x272 is it possible the dvd player doesn't understand that ratio and blows it up or

1: should I keep Crop and scale unchecked and add to the actual hight for boarder
2: keep it checked and add for boarder.

I've messed with it for hours and all results end up with no boarders and thin head actors.

[Patriots]

Ok I've tried it again and still the output on a standalone dvd player is stretched.

If the movie is 640x352 avi with small black boarders on top and bottom and it is converted, it looks perfect in Media Player. As soon as Nero burns it and it's played in dvd player, it's full screen.I just tried to reduce the hight from 352 to 312 and uncheck keep proportions to see if it would shrink the video but still no workee.

I'm not dumb but for the life of me I don't understand why this just won't make an exact 1:1 ratio, especially since I don't want to cut the boarders, but want them the way they are.

I'm starting to think that Nero doesn't like Mainconcept encoding

[adam]

Ok, first of all you can't use the 16:9 aspect ratio in a SVCD or VCD. Its non-compliant so on the vast majority of hardware players you will get distorted playback, or no playback at all.

I can see where your confusion is coming from. mpeg does not work like avis do. Avi's do not typically use aspect ratio flags (I think some codecs can support it but anyway...) so what you see is what you get. If you want a clip to have a 16:9 aspect ratio then you use a resolution with an actual 16:9 ratio. With mpeg, there are various supported resolutions for the different standards (VCD, SVCD, DVD) but none of them have an actual 16:9 or 4:3 aspect ratio. Instead an aspect ratio flag is embedded in the stream which instructs the DVD player to display the signal in its proper aspect ratio. So if you, for example, view a properly encoded SVCD in media player then it will actually look very bad because the aspect ratio flag will not be parsed and you will get an image that is squished horizontally.

In short.... stop trying to encode to the proper aspect ratio. SVCD has two supported resolutions, 480x480 for NTSC and 480x576 for PAL. Simply choose the applicable one and that is the resolution that you MUST use. Then choose the applicable aspect ratio flag, which is 4:3. Other then that you just have to set the source aspect ratio correctly. Does MainConcept have a 1:1 aspect ratio setting like TMPGenc does? This is best to use with avi's because it just gets the source aspect ratio from the actual resolution itself.

I've never used MainConcept so I really can't help you there, but I'm sure your distorted playback was a result of your using very non-standard resolutions.

[Lord Rakim]

I dunno how u feel about frameserving BUT I came up with a way to frameserve using AviSynth and VFAPI codec to MainConcept..... mainly cuz I wanted to keep the aspect ratios and letterboxing like u seem to....

The link is....

https://www.videohelp.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=234037&highlight=

Hope that helps!

[Patriots]

Thanks again all for the help.

When making an xsvcd, proportions should be viewed as they are encoded. TMPGENC does exactly that no matter what resolution I pick, the output is exactly as it is set. Mainconcept seems to remove the aspect ratio no matter what resolution I set. If a 720x272 movie, which I just did to xsvcd in TMPGENC set to 4:3 display, plays like a letterboxed movie on a standard tv, Mainconcept should not stretch the heck out of the image if I am picking another ratio without removing any boarders that are already in the movie.

I have played with this for hours in Mainconcept and found that if I reduce the resolution of a 640X480 letterboxed avi to 640X272, the image is natural and the letterboxed screen area is intact. Not sure if I stumbled on this by accisent or not yet.

There has to be a clear way to resolve this as I am making XSVCD's and not standard svcd's that have to meet 480x480 standard.

My 2 dvd players play all kinds of stuff I throw at it.