question on XVCD at 352x480 resolution

[ktnwin]

Yesterday, I accidentally burn MPEG-2 files (480x480) as a VCD using Nero software.

When I played that disc in my Pioneer DV-343 player, the video occupies the left half the the TV screen. I am amazed.

This leads me into the questions:

1) can I encode to XVCD (352 x 480) , burn as VCD then play in my Pioneer player to get full screen ?

2) can I encode to MPEG-2 (720x480), burn as VCD then get full screen ?

Can someone answer ? Or do I have to find out the hard way ?

Thanks

[kinneera]

1) Yes

2) Yes

The key is to set the display aspect ratio to 4:3. The DV-343 will play just about everything under the sun.

[Mordant]

If you have made an XVCD at 352x480 that played in a Pioneer 343 please share with me the steps you went through. I haven't been able to make it happen. I can make an xSVCD at 352x480 or 352x240 with no trouble, but when I try to make XVCD's at 352x480 I get the half screen effect. I use TMPGenc and Nero. I've tried VCDEasy to make images first and that didn't help.

Thanks for any ideas you might have.

[kwag]

Most Pioneer models don't like 352x480.

However some do display correctly at 720x480.

If you encode to 352x240 it will work fine.

I can confirm the 352x480 "half screen effect" myself on the Pioneer 333.

kwag

[kinneera]

Hmm, I can't recall if I've tried to make an XVCD at 352x480. One thing you might try is burning a 352x480 MPEG1 as an SVCD. I know for a fact that the DV-343 will actually play MPEG1 in an SVCD disc structure (and vice versa).

[Mordant]

Thanks Kineera, I'll give that a try on my next run through.

[ktnwin]

Thanks so much for all the replies. Very helpful.
I guess this would be the situation:
MPEG-2 720 x 480 burned as VCD: will give full screen (???)
MPEG-2 480 x 480 burned as VCD: >half screen (I got this by accident)
MPEG-2 352 X 480 burned as VCD: <half screen (???)

MPEG-1 720 x 480 burned as VCD: ???
MPEG-1 352 X 480 burned as VCD: ???

I will give this a try, encode a short video clip in the 5 formats above. Burn all MPEG file as VCD (single disc), then play it on my DV343.

The bad thing is my CD burner just quit working yesterday. It caused my system to crash when booting. I disconnect it and the system comes up fine !!!

[kinneera]

MPEG-2 720 x 480 burned as VCD: will give full screen (???)
MPEG-2 480 x 480 burned as VCD: >half screen (I got this by accident)
MPEG-2 352 X 480 burned as VCD: <half screen (???)

MPEG-1 720 x 480 burned as VCD: ???
MPEG-1 352 X 480 burned as VCD: ???

The resolution won't necessarily determine how it displays (although some players will do odd things with resolutions they don't consider legal). The key is to make sure the output aspect ratio is set correctly (for VCD/SVCD it should always be 4:3 to be standards compliant).

Thus, if you have a 720x480 video (MPEG1 or 2) that is set to 4:3 fullscreen, that is how it should play on most players. If you set it to 1:1 (TMPGEnc may do this by default in some circumstances), resolutions like 352x480 and 480x480 may produce half-screen or 2/3 screen effects.

[StephanWolf]

I have the 343, and I finally found out how to create a 352X480 or 480X480 vcd that will fit full screen. Create the xvcd using 352 or 480 horiz res. and then burn it to cd using Nero as a non-standard SVCD instead of a VCD. The 343 will decode the mpeg-1 and fit it to the screen.

[Akai Rounin]

I have been experimenting with 352x480 XVCD for use with the DreamMovie VCD Player for Sega Dreamcast. I have been able to burn these MPEG-1 files to disc using VCDEasy by UNchecking the Perform some MPEG compliance checks" option on the (S)VCD Main page. Then you can add the non-standard files to the compilation without getting an error message that stops you.

HUN-YA!

Akai Rounin