Anamorphic vs. Full Frame

[FoxGarrison]

Has anyone converted a DVD to an anamorphic aspect VCD and when viewing the movie let the DVD player do the squeeze? I was reading somewhere that the quality is much better than say ripping the movie to full frame instead.

What I'm talking about here is the final VCD burn will contain the movie as anamorphic and not full frame.

[vitualis]

I'm not sure if you are confusing terms but "anamorphic" refers to filling the frame with the picture and setting a display aspect ratio flag to 16:9 (so that the player knows how to restretch it back out). This yields superior picture quality, especially for widescreen TVs as you've actually preserved more pixels of the movie in the frame.

The other way is to create a "letterboxed" film (i.e., the picture contains the top and bottom black bars as well) but stick to a DAR of 4:3.

As VCDs and SVCDs only support ONE DAR FLAG (that of 4:3), you can't actually make a "compliant" anamorphic S/VCD. You can make one of course, but it is then up to the player to actually play it.

For example, on my DVD player, "anamorphic" SVCDs don't get restretched to the correct aspect ratio, even when you set the DAR flag to 16:9.

Unless you are happy making XVCDs with a DAR of 16:9 (that don't work on many players), you should stick to letterboxing and a DAR of 4:3.

Regards.

[FoxGarrison]

Thanks, Michael. I've tried something else instead. I've converted the DVD to VCD and now manually make the DVD player do the squeeze for me. What a difference! The image is much more sharper without little "jaggies" getting in the way. In effect I don't let TMPGEnc convert to 16:9 but to 4:3.

Thanks again!

[tonyp12]

DVD player do the squeeze for me

A VCD does not have a flag for "letterbox", so I do not really know
what you are talking about.

As have a 16:9 TV ,
In tmpgenc I just use 16:9 ->16:9 and it comes out perfect.

Using 4:3 -> 4:3 will have the same result
even from an Anamorphic DVD.

But playing this VCD back on a regular 4:3 TV would create
9feet tall people.

Some new 4:3 TV now comes with enhanced 16:9 viewing mode,
it squeezes the lines tigther and center them in the middle.

You could do this yourself by adjusting the vertical size,
if you can find the secret remote commands for that.

[katchupoy]

Ok, I am using smartripper->DVD2AVI->Tmpgenc...

Question is... if I have a 16:9 movie... what setting do i use in Tmpgenc?

Video Tab / Aspect Ratio = 16:9
Advance Tab / Source Aspect Ration = 16:9

Is this right?

[FoxGarrison]

As have a 16:9 TV ,
In tmpgenc I just use 16:9 ->16:9 and it comes out perfect.

But playing this VCD back on a regular 4:3 TV would create
9feet tall people.

Some new 4:3 TV now comes with enhanced 16:9 viewing mode,
it squeezes the lines tigther and center them in the middle.

I don't think I explained it properly. I'm converting them from 16:9 to 16:9. On a regular TV the people do look 9 feet tall. I used to let my DVD player do the squeeze, but now I let my TV do it instead (since it has 16:9 enhanced viewing built in). The picture looks sharper and clearer.

I guess when I said anamorphic I really meant 16:9 aspect ratio.