solution for changing anamorphic flag with my Mac?

[amckinney]

I've got some DVDs of off-air recordings that I recorded and burned on my set-top DVD recorder (Pioneer). The programmes are anamorphic (they contain the full 16:9 picture information), but the Pioneer "squeezes" them to 4:3.

Is there a cheap/easy solution for me to take the discs I burnt on the Pioneer and simply change the flag from fullscreen to anamorphic with my Macintosh, then re-burn? The simplest solution (just changing the flag and burning) is preferable to having to convert to MPEG, re-encode, etc.

I know I can use my HDTV's "side stretch" viewing mode to fix the problem for my own viewing, but I'd like to be able to fix it "on-disc". I'm hoping changing the flag would automatically un-squeeze the image.

Any help appreciated!

[usually_quiet]

myDVDEdit can change the aspect ratio flags in the DVD IFOs. If you are lucky enough to have a DVD player that obeys the IFO aspect ratio flags and ignores the ones in the video headers, that will be enough. I could not find OSX-compatible software similar to DVDPatcher (Windows) that can correct the aspect ratio flag in the video headers.

[Case]

If you are lucky enough to have a DVD player that obeys the IFO aspect ratio flags and ignores the ones in the video headers, that will be enough.

Lucky enough? DVD players should always use the IFO for aspect ratio information (although I admit that I may have read that somewhere on Videohelp), for normally authored DVD-Video. It gets tricky with DVD-VR, as that has a different file structure that only has the a.r. information contained in the .VRO file itself as part of the video stream.

[myDVDEdit]

If you are lucky enough to have a DVD player that obeys the IFO aspect ratio flags and ignores the ones in the video headers, that will be enough.

myDVDEdit change the aspect ratio in the video headers too, each time you change the IFO aspect ratio.

[usually_quiet]

If you are lucky enough to have a DVD player that obeys the IFO aspect ratio flags and ignores the ones in the video headers, that will be enough.

Lucky enough? DVD players should always use the IFO for aspect ratio information (although I admit that I may have read that somewhere on Videohelp), for normally authored DVD-Video. It gets tricky with DVD-VR, as that has a different file structure that only has the a.r. information contained in the .VRO file itself as part of the video stream.

Too bad that what does happen is not always what should happen. I have to change the aspect ratio in both the video headers and the IFOs for my Panasonic DVD recorder to play DVDs it recorded from an anamorphic source with the correct aspect ratio.

[orsetto]

A tutorial on how to embed the "auto-unsqueeze" flag using myDVDEdit with Mac OSX can be found here.

As owner of many Pioneer recorders over the years, I have experienced the same annoying lack of proper anamorphic settings as amckinney. Since this thread involves altering the specs of Pioneer-created DVDs, I would like to add my two cents re an additional obscure issue: you can run into major problems trying to play them in newer PCs running Windows 7 or 8, or playing files ripped from them to a dedicated media player's HDD. Windows will fail to recognize Pioneer-authored DVDs as video DVDs and no Windows software player will play them except PowerDVD. Video data ripped from Pioneer DVDs to several popular dedicated media players will also fail to be recognized or played. This was a headscratcher of a topic on several Pioneer user boards until we traced it back to Pioneer's inexplicable failure to include the standard auto-run flag for either the menu or the first title on the DVD. A disc finalized on a Pioneer does absolutely nothing when loaded into a hardware player: it just sits there playing dead until you press the remote control "Top Menu" or "Play" button. This luckily does not faze hardware DVD or BD players, or Mac OS, but it utterly confuses newer PCs, software players and media players which assume all properly-authored DVDs (or their ripped files) will have an auto-run menu or first title.

I haven't had time or inclination to figure out how to fix this under Mac OSX using myDVDEdit. I prefer not to use my Macs for constant ripping and burning of DVDs, I use a cheap Windows PC with easily-replaceable burners for that task. But just to keep this Pioneer "defect" info in one thread, I am going to post the workflow I use to correct my Pioneer DVDs using the free pgcEdit tool running on a Windows PC (or Windows-On-Mac). There is no re-encoding of video involved, you just need to change some file markers. Perhaps a VH member more familiar with MyDVDEdit on Mac OSX will see this, and follow up with comparable instructions for that utility, in which case I'll come back and delete these Windows instructions:

Using pgcEdit to correct non-standard formatting otf Pioneer-recorded DVDs:

1) Download the pgcEdit tool.

2) Copy the VIDEO_TS folder to your PC hard drive from your original Pioneer-finalized DVD-R, DVD+R, or DVD-RW.

3) Start pgcEdit and File ->Open DVD and browse to the VIDEO_TS folder you just copied. Do not go into the folder, just stay at the top level.

4) Once you open the VIDEO_TS folder you will immediately get this message:

Warning: No First-Play PGC in your VMG!
A new, blank First-Play PGC will be created.

Just click OK: this is the crux of the "manual menu, no auto-run" incompatibility issue.

5) Your Pioneer Menu structure is now loaded. In the left panel click on the top line that reads VMG, First-Play PGC.

6) Now in right panel double click on the line that says (JumpTT) Jump to Title 1

7) This brings up the Command Edit screen.

8) Click on Alphabetically menu at the top of the Command Edit dialog and select JumpSS-VMGM-menu from the left column.

9) Click OK and now it should say (JumpSS) Jump to VMGM Title Menu

10) File ->Save DVD

11) Open the now-updated VIDEO_TS folder and delete the "Backup pgcEdit" folder. For reasons known only to the developer, pgcEdit defaults to storing its temp files in the very VIDEO_TS folder you are modifying. So you must remember to delete these files prior to burning the new DVD or archiving the modified VIDEO_TS folder to your media player's hdd.

12) The newly-updated VIDEO-TS folder will open normally in any software player. If the new VIDEO_TS folder is used to burn a new dvd, the new dvd will be recognized as a normal DVD with auto-run of its menu.

Using pgcEdit to add auto-unsqueeze widescreen flag to Pioneer-created 16:9 dvds:

First follow above instructions to repair the auto-run commands. Then, before burning the new dvd:

Open the disc VIDEO_TS folder you previously ripped to your PC hard drive.
Right-click the title you want to change
Select "Domain stream attributes"
Change to widescreen
Repeat as necessary
Save the changes

Open the VIDEO_TS folder and delete the "Backup pgcEdit" folder (if you see one).

Burn the new dvd, or copy these updated files to your dedicated media player hard drive. The updated dvd will have correct anamorphic playback, menu auto-run, and be recognized as a proper DVD by anything you play it in.

[rumplestiltskin]

This may not conform exactly to the OP's intent but one can convert the DVD to the exact proportions required (and so ignore any anamorphic issues) using Handbrake or any number of other tools. Of course, then it's H264/AAC in an MP4 container (and not a DVD) but a WDTV or similar item can play it w/o issue. Just thinking different...

[amckinney]

I had already tried the MyDVDedit solution. Every time I reach the step where you change the 4:3 aspect to 1:9 auto, the program crashes. Every time.

I noticed when I downloaded it that the download was meant to be compatible with OS10.3 and higher and was last updated in 2009. I'm using a MacBook Pro 2,1 using OS 10.6.8. Maybe the software is out-of-date? I guess I can try to use it on my G4 PowerPC Mac that's still running 10.4.11.....

I noticed in the tutorial about "copying" the Video_TS folder. Since this is a non-copyright protected disc, does that mean I can simply copy the folder, then? I assumed I still had to use a DVD ripper, whether it was protected or not.


One thing: when I open the Video_TS folder that I'd ripped to my MacBook, I get some errors (all of the below had a red "X" next to them), including the following:

Title 1: bad sector number. old=9984, new=58
Title 2: not found (see tab DVD/Titles, or command-8)
Title 3: not found (see tab DVD/Titles, or command-8)
Title 4: not found (see tab DVD/Titles, or command-8)
Title 5: not found (see tab DVD/Titles, or command-8)
Title 6: not found (see tab DVD/Titles, or command-8)

I guess it may be these errors making it crash? Any chance it is because I RIPped the disc instead of just copying the Video_TS folder?

The DVD, incidentally, is six episodes of a TV show, burnt on the Panasonic as a DVD-VIDEO disc.

[myDVDEdit]

myDVDEdit 1.1 is the last version and haven't been updated since a long time because I have other projects I working on. But myDVDEdit is maintained and I verify it continue to run with every last OS version.
You are the first to inform me about a crash on aspect ratio change. It's a pity you didn't post me a bug report on my forum.

Yes, if the DVD is not protected, you can simply copy the folder to your disc. As DVD is a read-only support, your copy is read-only too. So you will have to set the folder (and subfolders) to read-write.

Yes, missing titles could be a problem because myDVDEdit tries to change the stream aspect ratio of every title. I will test that.
The simplest solution is to go to the title table (Cmd 8) and to delete missing titles before change the aspect ratio.

Bad sector numbers are not normal but can be easily fixed by myDVDEdit.
Your DVD comes from a recorder. Are you sure the DVD have been finalized ?

[orsetto]

I've got some DVDs of off-air recordings that I recorded and burned on my set-top DVD recorder (Pioneer). The programmes are anamorphic (they contain the full 16:9 picture information), but the Pioneer "squeezes" them to 4:3.

The DVD, incidentally, is six episodes of a TV show, burnt on the Panasonic as a DVD-VIDEO disc. .

You might want to confirm which brand of recorder created the dvd in question: your initial post said it was a Pioneer, later you said Panasonic. Each of these two brands puts a slightly different set of funky formatting quirks in its finalized DVDs, which require different tool options to correct (i.e., Pioneer adds no widescreen flag at all, while Panasonic can add the flag but screws it up sometimes). So you'll get more useful help if we know for sure which recorder made the dvd.

To your followup question: yes, you would normally copy the VIDEO_TS folder from DVD to your Mac or Windows hard drive. Most dvd utilities expect to modify items in a copied VIDEO_TS folder. Depending on the tool, ripping the DVD as a disc image may prevent it from accessing and re-writing those files properly.

[amckinney]

Hi, I was able to fix the anamorphic issues by simply coping the Video_TS folder rather than using the "ripped' one with myDVDedit, thanks!

Is there a way this application can also be used to insert additional chapter stops? If not, is there any other Mac application that can do this with Video_TS folders?

[myDVDEdit]

You cannot add new chapter, but you can add new titles.
An exemple is given here.
Than you will have to add some commands to play the new title.

Jerome.