Why isn't SVCD anamorphic?

[strongbad]

How come an xvid/divx can be anamorphic but not a svcd?

[guns1inger]

because the svcd spec does not support it, so playback devices can't adjust for it. I have a 4:3 TV with 16:9 switching, so I can manually switch for it if I wan't to.

Question is, why the hell would anyone want to use SVCD in this day and age ?

[DRP]

Question is, why the hell would anyone want to use SVCD in this day and age ?

Because with the prevalence of undesireable aspects of OTA broadcasts and the ridiculous costs of pay alternatives, the fact remains that downloading is by far the most appealing way to get things to watch today. The resolution of downloaded material lends itself to being converted to SVCD better than any other format because it requires the least amount of resizing.

If your DVD supports reading DVD-SVCD (as most modern ones do) then that is the format to be using for download conversions.

[guns1inger]

two - 3 disks per movie versus two movies per DVD if you use half-d1 (comparable in quality to SVCD). Most downloaded material nowadays is higher res than SVCD, so you are in fact throwing away information downsizing for it. It's not that big resize in most cases to go to 704 x whatever your format needs, and you then have 16:9 as well.

[Cole]

Question is, why the hell would anyone want to use SVCD in this day and age ?

Each to their own I suppose.

I still use VCDs for off-air documentaries and chatshows, mainly because I don't want to use a DVD for a half hour programme which doesn't really need to have that much bitrate. These things are then usually watched on a 14" portable Telly, so it's Horses for Courses really.

I haven't moved over to DivX as I don't have a standalone DivX player.

Edit: although I can see that there isn't any point these days to have films spread over two/three CD-Rs. That, I wouldn't bother with.

[DRP]

two - 3 disks per movie versus two movies per DVD if you use half-d1 (comparable in quality to SVCD). Most downloaded material nowadays is higher res than SVCD, so you are in fact throwing away information downsizing for it. It's not that big resize in most cases to go to 704 x whatever your format needs, and you then have 16:9 as well.

This talk of SVCD requiring 3 discs/movie is rubbish. Before I got my DVD burner, I watched all my downloaded moofies in SVCD format and I can tell you from great personal experience that 90% of popular movies fit quite easily on 2 overburnt 80min discs with a VBR bitrate > 2000kbps with audio @ 224 or 192 if required to get the video bitrate up above the mental 2000kbps barrier.

Only about 9% of moofies are long enough these days to stretch to 3 discs. Only one moofie I ever watched required 4 discs - Apocalypse Now Redux - which was almost 4 hours long from memory.

D2 DVD (CVD resolution) is not comparable to SVCD. SVCD resolution is 36% bigger. That makes a difference.

It is always better to downsize than upsize. You can downsize an image without interpolation. You can't do that upsizing.

[guns1inger]

I can't take anything you say seriously if you use the word moofie

[DRP]

Fair enuff

[manono]

The SVCD specs support 16:9 encoding. As I understand it most players don't support it. However, because of the higher active pixel count (less black bars), you might have to go to that 3rd CD that you are so much against.

http://www.mir.com/DMG/aspect.html#reftable

[adam]

There may be a practical reason why SVCDs can't be anamorphic beyond the fact that the feature just wasn't included in the specs. It may have something to do with the lower than D1 (720x480/576) resolution. After all, DVDs don't even support anamorphic video at anything less than 720x480/576.

As for divx/avi, are there even any hardware players that support anamorphic divx? I have no idea. If you are talking about playback on pcs then there is you answer, you are no longer dealing with any kind of standard that hardware must conform too. Most of the more sophisticated software players will properly display anamorphic SVCDs too.

[adam]

manono I purchased the SVCD specifications some years ago and the format definitely does not support 16:9 encoding. A few players do play it properly however.

I read that link of yours as saying that SVCDs use mpeg2 therefore you can set the 16:9 flag if you want to, and you can...but there is no formal support for it listed in the specifications.

[manono]

Gee, and here I thought the information in that link was taken from the specs. OK, thanks Adam. My player plays 16:9 SVCD OK, although I agree with guns1inger that there's not much point to making SVCD anymore. I made my last SVCD maybe a year and a half ago.

Glad to see you're back posting in "regular" threads again, Adam. Keep it up, and don't let the blue boys get you down.

[vitualis]

Yep, the reason SVCDs don't support anamorphic encoding is simply "because it doesn't".

Short-sighted? Perhaps. But then the specs for SVCD (or the original variants) were written a decade ago and years before DVD.

Regards.