Divx and aspect ratio's

[Xymox]

Having troubles showing Divx footage on a regular 16:9 TV i have read many info on divx on the net. I think what the problem is, but i'm not sure it is really the cause.

So here's the problem.

I have a Pioneer DV470 DVD player which plays Divx on my Loewe Nemos 32 TV.
When i watch 4:3 Divx video's (TV shows, etc) the TV shows it in 4:3 mode, so there are large black borders on each side. Normally when i play 4:3 footage from DVD or watch regular TV channels, the TV does use a pan&scan mode for 4:3 which stretches the movie horizontally. But the 4:3 Divx not. Even when i manually change the TV mode to 16:9, panorama, zoom etc the image stays 4:3 or even gets smaller (so even more black border space).

The only explanation i can think of is the TV gets the wrong signal which notifies what aspect ratio the source video is. Right now it seems the TV thinks the footage is in 16:9, so it does not use a special mode. When using another mode, the image gets smaller.

So my question is, how to tell the TV the footage is 4:3 and stretches the video like all other 4:3 sources ?

What about the Divx encoding options 16:9, 4:3 and 1:1 ?
What do those options mean exactly ? Do they add some signal to the video stream so the TV can react on it ?

Most Divx movies are encoded for PC use, so i think most of the people encoding to Divx do not bother those aspect ratio settings. But for TV it may be important.

Has the aspect ratio setting in the Divx encoders some effect on the TV ?
How to re-encode a Divx in another aspect ratio setting without quality loss ?

Can anyone explain more about those settings, when and how to use it when using a (widescreen) TV to show the Divx footage ?

[yoda313]

Assuming this is dvd footage use 720x480 and 16:9. Thats the rating for progressive dvd video. Some divx maybe 640x480 though or 352x480. Use gspot to identify the original aspect ratio of the file. Then you need to convert accordingly. You should specify 16:9 or 4:3 in divx depending on the actual source. Otherwise the borders will be hardcoded and not "unstretch" properly (for lack of a better word).