Looking for a good 352x480 DVD conversion guide

[Idioteque74]

I have some TV episodes that are in SVCD format (16:9 reso.) and I'm looking for a good guide to convert them into DVD compliant Half D1 resolution. Can someone please point me in the right direction?
Any help would be greatly appreciated...thanx in advance.

[johns0]

http://www.dvd-guides.com/guides.php?category=othertodvd&name=tmpegencvcdtodvd

[toronto098]

All the guides here are extremely good guides

[gonzalimator]

Hey

The way I see it, you need to resize and re-encode the video. There are many ways to do this. The simplest one step way would be to load the mpg from your svcd into TMPG Encoder. You can resize your video to 352x480 and encode to mpeg2. Try loading a DVD template and.....

Nevermind. johns0 beat me to it.

[FulciLives]

Just so you know 352x480 cannot be 16x9 anamorphic. That can only be done with 720x480 (and I think also 704x480).

So if you want to use 352x480 you must resize from 16x9 anamorphic to 4:3 widescreen.

- John "FulciLives" Coleman

[SatStorm]

@FulciLives: I don't understand: What has the aspect to do with the framesize?
I have plenty 352 x 576 with 16:9 picture, don't mention the countless DVB channels in Europe which transmits at 352 x 576 and they are 16:9 picture (all the PPV channels of the scandinavian Canal Digital service for example, so the Sky Italia movie ones)
And I don't talk about letterboxing here, I mean true interlace 16:9 transmissions on various framesizes beyond 720/704 x 576/480

Or you mean something else? Can you clearify it?

[ronnylov]

I agree with SatStorm. I have made several 352x576 anamorphic DVDs captured with my DVB-C card and they play fine on my DVD-player. But maybe they don't follow the DVD-standards but still works (just like you can make DVD with non-standard resolution like 528x576 which works on some players)? But it's of cource easier if ypu don't have to reencode. Your DVD-player may play SVCD-resolution on DVD and no reencoding of the video is needed then (only audio must be reencoded if not 48 kHz sampling frequency). But some players does not play non-standard DVD.

If you must reencode it, you may just as well letterbox it to 4:3 if you have a 4:3 TV. You can use a lower bitrate with letterboxed video beacuse of less active pixels to encode. By the way, does the SVCD format support anamorphic 16:9?

[Gazorgan]

Only full D1 supports 16:9 or anamorphic resolutions. Numerous Authoring applications won't let you use the video if you try otherwise, not all, just most. I have never ever seen an SVCD that was 16:9. I've seen plenty that are letterboxed, but never a true 16:9. Are you sure your not confusing your DVDPlayer settings (Pan/Scan/Full Screen/Widescreen settings).

[SatStorm]

No, I don't confuce something...


If 352 x 576 @ 16:9 Aspect isn' t on the DVD standards, then I'm a lucky person, cause all my (x?) DVDs with 352 x 576 and 16:9 aspect, play just fine on all the DVD standalones I have try them...

[FulciLives]

When I say you can't do 352x480 in 16x9 anamorphic my reasoning behind saying so is this:

It is not supported by the DVD spec so most stand alone DVD players will not correctly resize 16x9 352x480 to a widescreen 4:3 ratio as all stand alone DVD players do with 16x9 720x480

So yes you can do 16x9 352x480 but don't expect it to look proper unless you have a 16x9 widescreen TV because chances are your stand alone DVD player will not resize properly (or at all) if you only have a 4:3 TV

Now maybe some stand alone DVD players will properly resize 16x9 352x480 to 4:3 widescreen but that is NOT the norm!

It is out-of-spec.

- John "FulciLives" Coleman

[flaninacupboard]

of course if you only have widescreen TVs or TV's with a 16:9 button, anything can be 16:9. 16:9 VCD, yep, done that. 16:9 VHS, yep done that

[SatStorm]

Thanks FulciLives, I didn't know that 16:9 is not an official feature for half d1!

It seems that I'm really lucky on this: I grabb (capture direct the stream) plenty 16:9 DVB channels with 352 x 576 framesize and burn the filese direct to DVD-Rs. Never had a problem to play those discs correct, and I have test those projects with really picky standalones, like those from Philips and those older Sony ones!

It seems that in practice, the DVD standalones in Europe are very flexible on this issue!

[flaninacupboard]

just to clear it up satstorm, do you watch on a 4:3 TV and your player has to resize, or do you watch on a 16:9 TV so the player doesn't have to do anything?

[SatStorm]

Both with no problems!

Believe me, if I count only my experience on this, then 16:9 and 352 x 576 isn't an issue!

If FulciLives wouldn't mention it, I wouldn't even notice it that this is out of the DVD specs!