DVD Maestro and 16:9

[crazeplaya]

Does anyone know how to make DVD Maestro default to 16:9 rather than 4:3 as I keep forgeting to change it and I have to recompile (very annoying!!)

Cheers

[noobee]

you could use ifoedit to patch the aspect ratio of the compiled files to 16:9 instead.

just change the attributes for both video_ts.ifo and the main vtsxx.ifo files.

[THE RIPPER]

at the bottom of the screen where you drag the audio and video.

[jeex]

https://www.videohelp.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=140553

it drove me crazy trying to find this option.. i knew it was there, right infront of my face.. i spent an hour trying to find it. pissed me off

[defense]

None of these responses have answered what crazeplaya asked. He didn't ask "where" he needs to change the aspect ratio. He asked if there was some way to make "Maestro" default to the 16:9 aspect ratio, as opposed to 4:3. The reason for this is probably two-fold. One, forgetting to change the aspect ratio could be a pain in the ass. And two, MOST DVD movies are some form of 16:9 anyway, so it would make more sense having Maestro default to 16:9, rather then 4:3. I have ALSO pondered whether or not it was possible to change the default aspect ratio, so I was hoping to hear from someone that knew.



noobee said:

you could use ifoedit to patch the aspect ratio of the compiled files to 16:9 instead.

just change the attributes for both video_ts.ifo and the main vtsxx.ifo files.

Yes, you could, but it won't always work. I forgot to change the aspect ratio to 16:9 when I ripped Me, Myself, & Irene. As a result, I ended up having a full screen movie which looked "stretched" on my standalone player. I didn't like that, so I re-ripped my DVD-R and changed the .IFO file from 4:3 to 16:9 in BOTH the VIDEO_TS.IFO file, as well as the main movie .IFO file. I thought everything was fine, because I tested the NEW burn in my DVD ROM and sure enough, it played 16:9. But to my surprise, when I put that same disk in my standalone, it STILL showed up as 4:3 fullscreen. I thought that was VERY ODD, and if ANYONE can explain why that is, I'd be interested in reading it.

@ Jeex, it took me awhile to initially find out where to change the aspect ratio as well, but I finally found it right before I went totally nuts.

[noobee]

defense,

did you reencode the movie "me, myself and irene"?. if you did, did you set the aspect ratio of the encoded .m2v file to be 16:9 too? it is possble that the standalone player is taking the 4:3 aspect ratio info from the video stream, instead of from the ifo files.

if you still have the encoded m2v file, you could try running "pulldown.exe ... -aspect_ratio 16:9" to change the pixel aspect ratio in the video stream to 16:9, and then also set the display aspect ratio in the ifo files to 16:9 with your authoring program (or ifoedit).

[defense]

@ Noobee, I saw where you wrote that above, and was going to do EXACTLY that. What I think happened, in all honesty, is that the movie was ENCODED in 4:3 because SOMETIMES DVD2DVDR doesn't read the proper aspect ratio. I think that is what happened, and I didn't notice it because I wasn't aware that DVD2DVDR had that problem at that time. So I thought I would first try changing the .IFO files as you mentioned above. I did that, and when I opened the individual VOBS on my hard drive, they all played at 16:9, and when I played the disk in my DVD ROM, it played it as 16:9. I thought I was fine, until I tried it in my standalone. I am going to do what you said. I will RE-RIP the movie to my hard drive, and then I will run pulldown on it at 16:9. One question, I usually set pulldown to do it's job with NO options checked. I just insert 2:3 pulldown, but in this case, I am guessing I should ONLY check 16:9 in the aspect ratio area, and leave everything else at the defaults? Would that be correct? Thanks in advance

Another thing to note is that I do NOT have the .m2v file any longer, however, If I do a straight rip with NO encoding within DVD2DVDR, then I can allow it to create another .m2v file for me in 15 minutes or so. That will be pie.

[noobee]

sorry, i'm not sure about the graphical pulldown interface, my guess is that if you only set the aspect ratio attribute, then it'll both set the pulldown flag and set the aspect ratio, which might be fine.

i think it is odd that your PC plays the individual vobs at 16:9, this would suggest that the aspect ratio flags are already correct in the video stream, either that or the PC player is ignoring the 4:3 attribute in the stream and locking it at 16:9. could you play a known 4:3 vob file on your PC player?

good luck on your retry! let us know how it went?

[defense]

@ Noobee, I just used DVD2AVI to clear that up. I re-checked BOTH of my .IFO files w/IFOEdit and they are BOTH 16:9. And then I ran DVD2AVI on the Vob files for "Me, Myself & Irene," and DVD2AVI is showing the movie as 16:9 too! Also, as I said, my DVD ROM plays the movie as 16:9, either from the disk, or from the VOBS. My standalone player, however, plays the movie at 4:3. To answer your question, I can play Vobs which are 4:3 as 4:3 with powerdvd on my computer. I know that with this particular movie though, I either reencoded it as 4:3 or did something that is causing this. Let me know what you think about this now with the information I have given.

[noobee]

this is wierd! your dvd-r is having an aspect-ratio identity crisis, just like the movie

if you want to, here's an experiment:

1. play the original mm&i movie on the standalone, check that it is 16:9
2. use smartripper to rip (and demux) a chapter or two from the movie.
3. author the m2v and ac3 files without reencoding, remember to set the display aspect ratio to 16:9 (in the authoring program).
4. burn the disk and play it. is it still in 16:9?

if the result of 4 is yes, then
5. encode the m2v file
6. run pulldown.exe ...-aspect_ratio 16:9 to set the right attribute
7. goto 3 with the new m2v file.

if the result of 4 is no, then
8. rip exactly only the first movie vob, eg. vts_xx_01.vob or something like that. (no demux)
9. author the vob file using ifoedit this time (create ifo files option).
10. ensure that the aspect ratio is correct in the newly created ifo files.
11. goto 4.

this experiment should give us additional data to hopefully understand the situation a little better.

ps: all these steps is reminding me of a cartoon.. :P
step 1: collect underpants
step 2: ???
step 3: profits

[cellmaniac]

The same weird thing has happened to me a couple times. If I directly rip the m2v and ac3 files and compile with Maestro and set the aspect ratio to 16:9, the playback on my computer is OK but the playback on my APEX is stretched up to 4:3. The only way I've been able to get around it is to re-encode the m2v (using TMPEGenc).

Again, this only happens if I don't have to re-encode the m2v file because it is small enough to fit on a dvd-r. For those DVD5's, I've not had a problem with ripping the entire disc and burning on a dvd-r. So...it sounds like an IFO problem. I'm going to try ifo edit next go-round.

[defense]

@ Noobee,

this is wierd! your dvd-r is having an aspect-ratio identity crisis, just like the movie

..lol..yea, that's a good one..about the same as the movie. My standalone has a split personality for aspect ratio's, but ONLY on that movie. ...DOOOOBIIEEE DOOOO...lol....I think I am going to try and just reencode the entire movie over because that is a little simpler then going through steps. However, if I get the same result, I will definitely test with your methods. I appreciate all of the help on this. I really do believe that EITHER one of two things happened though. One, DVD2DVDR didn't detect the correct aspect ratio of that particular movie, and I let it encode at 4:3. Or two, (and maybe even BOTH of these happened) I didn't change the aspect ratio to 16:9 in Maestro. Even though pulldown may of done it's thing, with these two problems, or ONE of these two problems, there was still some conflict, because why would my .IFO files by 4:3 otherwise? Even though it is corrected now, my standalone is getting 4:3 from somewhere, and I'm still curious AS TO WHERE. Even if I did follow your steps, I think it would still be very difficult to find out where I initially made the error, and why my standalone is playing it as 4:3. Thanks again for your help though.


@cellmaniac,

Again, this only happens if I don't have to re-encode the m2v file because it is small enough to fit on a dvd-r. For those DVD5's, I've not had a problem with ripping the entire disc and burning on a dvd-r.

You contradicted yourself there. I assume you mean that this has ONLY happened on movies that you have HAD to reencode and author. Right?

[cellmaniac]

defense:

I really didn't contradict myself. For DVD5's I can just rip and copy onto a DVD-R and there is no aspect ratio issue, plus all of the menus and extras are there. For those DVD's where the movie alone can fit onto a DVD-R...ie; not enough room to fit the menus and extras, that is where I've run into the aspect ratio problems. I end up having to re-encode the m2v to get the correct aspect ratio.

[defense]

@ Cellmaniac, I understood EXACTLY what you were saying and what you meant, but read the quote. Here it is again.

Again, this only happens if I don't have to re-encode the m2v file...

Notice in your quote you were talking about WHEN this problem has occurred for you and you said it only happens if you "DON'T" have to re-encode. What you obviously meant was that this ONLY happens if you "DO" reencode. Anyway, with your response, I know for sure that it happens with reencoded movies sometimes.

[cellmaniac]

Again, this aspect ratio issue only happens when I do not have to re-encode the m2v file. If I do re-encode any m2v file, the aspect ratio is fine.

[defense]

@ Cellmaniac, then that really is weird and I've never heard that. Why would you reencode a movie that would fit onto a DVD-R otherwise? Just to get the correct aspect ratio? That's very odd and it must have something to do with one of the programs you are using. I am virtually certain that this problem has occurred because of something I did incorrectly, whether it be encoding or authoring.

[noobee]

cellmaniac's observations are:
1. orig IFO + orig m2v = 16:9 (OK)
2. authored IFO (16:9) + orig m2v = 4:3 (HUH?)
3. authored IFO (16:9) + encoded m2v (probably 16:9) = 16:9 (OK)

@defense: cellmanic essentially did the first four steps of the experiment i was describing earlier but did not end up with the expected result (2), even after setting the aspect ratio in the authoring program to 16:9. if possible, can you try the same on a couple of chapters of mm&i, just to see if the results are consistent?

@cellmanic: could you rip the vob files (what movie is this?) and author using ifoedit instead of maestro and see if that works. also, you can try to compare the ifo files from the original, maestro-authored and ifoedit-authored set, something must be different. you could also try "pulldown -aspect_ratio 16:9" on the source m2v to see if that helps with your authored ifo files.

THANKS, hopefully we can collect enough data points to figure this out.

[defense]

noobee said:

@cellmanic: could you rip the vob files (what movie is this?) and author using ifoedit...

I don't know if you are aware noobee, but the LAST thing anyone would want to do with NTSC is to author ANY .m2v file with IFOEdit. There is a MAJOR bug in the program which will play frames faster then they should be played, resulting in your video ending 25% faster then it should. Meaning, if you author an NTSC .M2V file with IFOEdit, you will NOT notice ANY difference in quality or sound, HOWEVER, your film will go from, let's say, 2 hour, down to 1 and 1/2 hours. I know subtitles are easier in IFOEdit, and I hope you haven't authored too many movies in IFOEdit. If you have, then you won't be too happy when you check the total length of the authored film. Anyway, I will try some experiments of yours and mine, to see what caused this, but I am almost 100% positive, it has to do with leaving the aspect ratio at 4:3 during the encoding with CCE and/or not changing the aspect ratio within Maestro to 16:9 before authoring.

The one thing that COMPLETELY baffles me though, and the one thing I would like to find out is HOW my Standalone player can play this film at 4:3. I changed the .IFO file and the video in the vobs is 16:9, so WHERE is my standalone getting this information from to play the movie at 4:3 but my DVD ROM is playing it at 16:9. Even with the tests I do, this question won't be answered, and I'm hoping someone will come by that knows and answer it, because it is very odd. I was under the impression most standalone players take the information from the .ifo files and use it accordingly on the film. i.e, if the .ifo says 16:9, the standalone plays the film at 16:9. Very, Very, weird why mine isn't ONLY on this particular film.

[joepic]

The one thing that COMPLETELY baffles me though, and the one thing I would like to find out is HOW my Standalone player can play this film at 4:3. I changed the .IFO file and the video in the vobs is 16:9, so WHERE is my standalone getting this information from to play the movie at 4:3 but my DVD ROM is playing it at 16:9.

This is an excellent question.

I would also like to know where the 4:3/16:9 information is that effects playback.

Anyone care to enlighten us?

Thanks

[noobee]

noobee said:

@cellmanic: could you rip the vob files (what movie is this?) and author using ifoedit...

I don't know if you are aware noobee, but the LAST thing anyone would want to do with NTSC is to author ANY .m2v file with IFOEdit.

just to clarify, i was trying to suggest to author the vob files, not the m2v files (no demux), using ifoedit and the "create ifo files" option. so we rip the vob, leave it at vob, and author with ifoedit.

just curious, what brand/model is your standalone?

also, apologies to crazeplaya, we seem to have hijacked his post! :P

[defense]

noobee, I don't think there is a way to make Maestro default to 16:9, so crazeplaya is just gonna have to remember to change it every time he opens it up. I have it embedded in my head now. Anyway, I understand what you are saying now as far as testing it. I will do the tests, but even after, I won't get the answer I am truly looking for, which is why my standalone is playing that movie at 4:3. Anyway, my standalone player has got to be the best on the market. I did about five hours of research on THIS site before I bought it and it plays EVERYTHING. When I say everything, I mean EVERYTHING. It would play a pancake if I put it in there. It's the Philips 724 AT31, and It is a BADDDD BOY!