how does a 4:3 encoded VideoCD playback on a 16:9 tv?

[randallc]

I'm trying to find out how a 4:3 encoded VideoCD will playback on a 16:9 tv.

Does it display the picture at full width and now display the letterbox bars?

Does is display the picture at less than full width with the full bars?

Thanks,

Randy

[staind_96]

sorry i dont have an anwser but i have a question on the same topic. i was thinking about getting a hdtv but ive heard that vcds look really bad on them. is this true? would it be better to get a regular big screen to watch vcds?

[kinneera]

If your widescreen is set to handle it as 4:3, it should letterbox it on the side...otherwise it will stretch it.

As for VCD, it probably isn't a great idea to play it on ANY big screen TV, but most definitely not on an HDTV. To give you some idea, an HDTV can theoretically go to a resolution of 1900x1220 (or something close to that), whereas the VCD resolution is 352x240. I imagine you can do the math. It would be like watching the VCD on a computer monitor, which looks bad enough, except it would be a really large, good computer monitor.

[randallc]

I said VCD loosely, I actually do all my encoding in SuperVideoCD mode.

Do you have first hand experience on how SVCD looks on an HDTV rear projection TV?

SVCD rivals DVD on my 35" tv.

Randy

[kinneera]

No, but odds are it will still look fairly bad. There is a huge difference between a standard 35" TV and any HDTV. A good litmus test of your own quality standards is to try playing your SVCD on a computer monitor. If it looks OK to you up close, then you may be happy with it on an HDTV from typical TV viewing range.

[double07]

vcd's look good on my 65" hdtv

[double07]

svcd's look great

[shochan]

I was going to get the rca 42inc 16:9 hdtv and it can play 4:3 and crop off the black bars. There should be a option in the setup for it.