Mpeg VS Vcd Aspect ratios

[mb571]

I am capturing most of my home movies to either 320 x 240 or 640 x 480. Both 1.33:1 aspect ratios. I then convert to VCD mpeg (352 x 240) so the files can be played on the relatives computer or dvd player. The problem is that on the computer, the 352 x 240 apsect ratio is different making everyone look chubbier than they are. Is there a way to maintain the aspect ratio for play on both tv or computer?

Mark

[Thorn]

If you're using TMPGenc, you want to set the 'source aspect ratio' correctly so that it knows how to interpret the pixel aspect ratio. The file should look correct on the computer if encoded correctly. If you're making changes to the file specifically for the other player, then maybe isn't playing the disc correctly.

[Spicuzza]

mb571 wrote:

The problem is that on the computer, the 352 x 240 apsect ratio is different making everyone look chubbier than they are.

If you capture at 352 x 240 you will eliminate that problem. Also, capturing at 320 x 240 then encoding to 352 x 240 is going to cause some loss of quality.

[mb571]

Obviously the resolution 352 x 240 (1.46:1) and 320 x 240 (1.33:1) have different aspect ratios. So what happens when you capture from the 8mm camcorder? Is one squished or is one cropped to arrive at the new aspect ratio?

Mark

[sterno]

Is there a way to maintain the aspect ratio for play on both tv or computer?

If you mean one MPEG file that looks right on both VCD and played in some generic MPEG player like Windows Media Player, the answer is no. Computers have square pixels and most players just display the video as-is. TVs have rectangular pixels and set-top players do any conversions necessary to get from MPEG source to TV signal.

You may be able to find a software player that is aware of VCDs and can do the correction on the fly. I'm not familiar with software players in general, though, since I rarely play VCD/SVCD on a computer.

[mb571]

No. I mean if you capture from the same piece of 8mm film, at two different resolution aspect ratios, and then play them both back in Media Player, has one been cropped or distorted? It shouldn't be hard to do the experiment. I just thought someone may know.

Mark

[Thorn]

Wait, are you viewing the files in fullscreen mode on the computer? Some files do not look correct (such as SVCD at 480x480) in windowed mode but expand correctly. Media player should (hopefully) be smart enough to expand to the correct apect ratio at fullscreen, but it can't do so when it's displaying at 100% (because no scaling occurs). I haven't really noticed because the picture is small in windowed mode, but I guess the aspect ratio would have to be wrong until you expand to fullscreen.

[bladestarr]

Hello, I ran a search for my problem on this site, spent about an hour looking for it, and it seems no one else is having my problem, so I've decided to state my problem here, since it's similar.

I am burning a VCD with Nero, and when I play the VCD in my Apex AD-1100W DVD player, the top and bottom of the video gets cut off, and this is bad because I'm watching subtitled shows and the subtitles get cut off!

I thought it might have to do with scaling, so I set the scaling for each of the video files in Nero to "Scale and fit" but that didn't work either. Help please!

[vitualis]

Obviously the resolution 352 x 240 (1.46:1) and 320 x 240 (1.33:1) have different aspect ratios. So what happens when you capture from the 8mm camcorder? Is one squished or is one cropped to arrive at the new aspect ratio?

Mark

You need to learn and understand the concept of display aspect ratio. A VCD is in 352x240/288 but it's DAR is 4:3. That is, regardless of the actually pixel resolution, the video is scaled to fit into a 4:3 display size (i.e., your TV).

In other words, the pixels are NOT SQUARE.

Thus, if you view the video on your PC with a player that doesn't know about DAR (e.g., WMP8), the aspect ratio of the video won't look quite right (as in the PC world, we expect everything to have a pixel aspect ratio of 1:1). However, if you view it on a player that does know about display aspect ratios (e.g., a software DVD player like WinDVD or PowerDVD), it will automatically resize it to the appropriate aspect ratio.

Thus, when you capture at say 352x240, the video from your camcorder (DAR of 4:3) will fill the 352x240 frame. There will be no cropping. Thus, when displayed on your PC, it may look a little bit off. BUT ALL IS OK since you know that the TRUE DAR of the image is 4:3. After you encode it to MPEG and put it on a VCD, it will look correct on the TV.

Regards.