Resolution Issue Playing AVIs on DIVX-Enabled Player

[OneMustSeed]

Hello,

I've been searching the forums for anyone with this same question but I'm shocked that I couldn't. Maybe I'm more of a newbie than I thought!

I have two DIVX players, one a Phillips DVP-642 (cheapy secondary) and a Phillips DVDR3455H (primary). I have tested playing AVI files on both these players, some downloaded off the net and others I created with Fairuse Wizard. I have had only one file not play at all but I discovered that was a QPEL AVI so that was an easy fix to re-encode.

My question is about resolution and aspect ratio. Most of the files I have tried playing on both these machines are elongated vertically. Unfortunately these files are all kinds of different resolutions so it's hard to know where the problem lies. After researching the net for a while I would guess this is an issue with square pixels (1:1 for pc) vs rectangular pixels for TV viewing. I have tried MPEG4Modifier per other relatable posts to change the PAR but no luck. Strange though that the posts actually suggest to make sure the Dar IS set at 1:1. I would have thought that is what is making these files stretch out on the TV.

I also learned that the native NTSC resolution is 720x480 and that is due in part to the pixel issue. But I was under the impression that AVIs could be played on a capable player at any resolution or aspect ratio and the player should know it's 1:1 and adjust it on the fly. This is obviously incorrect.

I see all kinds of people that have no problems playing AVIs on a DIVX player. They don't mention any resolution issues like this. But I can't imagine this is some unique problem. I've tried changing the display type on the players from 4:3 LB to 4:3 PS to 16:9 but they don't play any differently. I guess that's only for MPEG2 adjustment...

Can someone give me an explanation for why these AVIs appear stretched and possible suggestions on fixing it? Now I did re-encode a few of my AVIs to 720x480 and they looked PERFECT on TV. But do I really need to re-encode all my AVIs to match the TV res? I'd hate to lose some quality. Everyone else seems to say to keep res at "640x480" or "640xwhatever" so I'm confused. I like to think of myself as pretty tech-savvy but this one is proving me so very wrong.

[jagabo]

Square pixel AVI files usually play with the correct aspect ratio on set-top players. That is, a 640x480 AVI plays full screen on a 4:3 TV. A 640x360 AVI plays letterboxed into a 16:9 area of the 4:3 TV. I used to have a DVP-642 and I'm pretty sure that's what it did.

[OneMustSeed]

Jagabo,

Thanks for the response - well I tested AVIs at 640x480 and they do play "fullscreen" under 4:3 NTSC mode but as I said they're elongated more than they should be and I thought maybe it was because the player changes the pixel dimensions for a TV display so instead of a square 1:1 ratio like on the PC it's displaying the same picture on rectangular pixels.

When I test an AVI at 720x480 it looks fine. I know this is the native NTSC resolution despite that it's not 4:3 ratio because of the pixel size. So if I encode to DVD format I've always known to use that resolution. But when I'm dealing with the original AVIs I didn't think I had to resize to the same resolution.

I don't think the problem is getting them to play fullscreen at 4:3. The problem is it seems like 640x480 on a pc is a completely different thing than 640x480 on a tv.

[guns1inger]

Some Divx players will put 4:3 material inside a 16:9 frame if set to 16:9 mode. I know my LG does this. I have a 4:3 TV that has a 16:9 mode, which is great for watching anamorphic DVDs, but for Divx/Xvid material I have to switch the player to 4:3 mode for 4:3 source. If I just switch the TV to 4:3 mode and not the player I get an elongated image.

[OneMustSeed]

Well the TVs definitely don't have a 16:9 mode, it actually doesn't have any modes (it's a little older) so I'm sure it's just 4:3. But I've tried the players at all modes and it doesn't change a thing.