Pioneer DVD player always plays SVCD in widescreen mode

[andrewspd]

I created an SVCD from DivX, using TMPGEnc, chose "Full screen (keep aspect ratio).
Now, the only way I can watch the SVCD without distortion is to set my Pioneer DV-C505 player to widescreen 16:9 mode, but in fact I have a "normal" 4:3 TV, and all other media (DVD's, VCD) should be played using standard settings "4:3 letterbox". So it is very annoying to change settings all the time I have to switch from DVD to SVCD and vise versa.
So my question is: is there a way to "force" SVCD to be recognised as normal fullscreen 4:3 video?
P.S. I also tried to download a sample SVCD image file from this site, and I got same results.
Any help will be greatly appreciated.

[magomago]

In the Video tab for the aspect ratio you ALWAYS pick 1:1 VGA if its a Divx.

[clambert]

It's so funny, I was was just about to post a message for this very problem. Does anyone have a fix? The player is great overall, but having to change the settings every time for a SVCD is somewhat of a pain.

Any widescreen DVD is fine in 4:3. But if you play a SVCD in 4:3, the ratio is screwy and the picture looks squished (yes, that's the technical term).

Does everyone that has this player have the same problem? I can live with it, but I'd like to know if there is something I can do.

Thanks,
Craig

[rkelsey]

I always found that Full Screen(Keep Aspect Ratio) really didn't work with me until I started doing CVD's instead. Now I use the 4:3 NTSC 525 lines (which is for normal 4:3 TV) for the aspect ratio and the 4:3 Display in the other part, and they come out perfect unless there is a really big difference in the length & width. Then I will choose No Margin (Keep Aspect Ratio) That is what I always used with my SVCD's anyhow. It cuts off some of the credits at the beginning but otherwise perfect.

Now my movies aren't squished anymore

[chuckly]

I've got the same player and I have the same problem. Doesn't bother me much because i mainly watch svcds so i don't have to change settings too often.

[jinner]

Help! I have the same problem with my Pioneer 454 S. It will play DVDs in 4:3 fullscreen, or letterbox depending on the DVD.

However it plays my PAL and NTSC fullscreen SVCDs in letterbox mode to they are squashed vertically.

Is this common to Pioneer players only? Anyone know of a fix, either for the player, or for the SVCDs?

Thanks,

Jinner

[jinner]

I have found something about Sequence Display Code and Seqence Display Extention ( SDC, SDE ) that can cause problems on Pioneer players. Apparently most players use SDC to determine aspect ration, but some use the SDE (eg most pioneer)

http://www.pcphotovideo.com/svcd.htm

Sounds like it might be onto something, but is says that later versions of Tmpgenc encode the headers corectly. I tried the patch and got no joy. Any one else know anything about SDC, SDE headers?

Thanks,

Ben

[Rumbah]

Hi!

I have a Pioneer 350 (PAL) and I have the same problem. Every SVCD I tried was played back in 16:9. I tried to set the player to set to 16:9, 4:3 letterbox and 4:3 Fullscreen, but the result is always a wrong aspect ratio.
Does somebody have a solution? Do I have to patch the mpeg files or do I have to set special options? (I encoded with CCE)

Thanks

[jinner]

I have found out that if I burn an MPEG2 formated for SVCD under the VCD template in Nero 5.5 it plays with the correct aspect ratio.

I assume the disc won't be usable on many players.

Does anyone know what might be different in a VCD header as opposed to a SVCD header that might be the problem?

Thanks,

Jinner

(Pioneer 545 S)

[Rumbah]

I think this may work for the DV 350, too, because I remuxed the Film with bbmpeg as a vcd file (I used the original 480*576 PAL mpeg2 film) and then made a vcd2 with vcdeasy. That (s)VCD played with the correct aspect ratio on my 350.

Rumbah