URGENT! 16:9 (Widescreen) anamorphic SVCD

[Helder Conde]

Hi,

I am working on a SVCD that has to be in 16:9 (widescreen) format. My original footage is already in 720x480 in 16:9. The audience will have both widescreen and regular TVs.

Considering that the video resolution for SVCD is 480x480 (for NTSC), can I simply convert my 16:9 720x480 footage to 480x480? Will it be anamorphic 16:9 this way?

I've tried creating a SVCD doing this conversion in TMPGEnc, but the result (in a regular TV) is NOT a letterboxed image (as it should be if the video was really 16:9 anamorphic).

The 4:3 parameter on the DVD player is set to letterbox, instead of Pan and Scan. But still I get no letterbox. This leads me to think the in fact, the video is NOT in 16:9 format.

Is there a way I can create anamorphic 16:9 in SVCD?

Please keep in mind that I am using TMPGEnc and Nero.

Thanks in advance.

Helder.

[Faceman101]

Did you do a search, this has been discussed many times before. SVCDs are not meant to contain anamorphic properties.

[LeeBear]

The problem isn't your encoding, it's the DVD Players. Most DVD Players do not handle 16:9 display aspect ratio when playing back (S)VCD. So if you encode your (S)VCD with a 16:9 display aspect ratio it'll look fine on a 16:9 TV but on a normal 4:3 TV it'll look stretched or cut off on the sides. DVD players tend to not add the black bars on the top and bottom of the screen to maintain the aspect ratio when playing back 16:9 (S)VCD like they do when playing back 16:9 DVD disc. The only think you can really do is encode it as 4:3 letterbox, then when you watch it on a 16:9 TV use the TV's zoom (or theatre) feature to get rid of the black bars. Of course the image loses a bit of sharpness when you do this but it's the best solution if you want both 4:3 and 16:9 TV's to be able to watch your (S)VCD properly.

-LeeBear

[guitar_george_skank]

Does your 4:3 TV not have an option to display 16:9? My TV (and most others I've seen) has a button which will add black borders and make the screen look like 16:9. So if you have a SVCD encoded at 4:3 from a 16:9 source it will look squashed (the egghead effect) but let the TV add the borders and hey presto!

Of course if the TV does not have this feature then ignore everything I've just said. lol

[energy80s]

Does your 4:3 TV not have an option to display 16:9? My TV (and most others I've seen) has a button which will add black borders and make the screen look like 16:9.

Never heard tell of this! The only way to do this is to collapse the picture in the tube and although this can be done (if you are an engineering type) is it not switchable by users.

[sterno]

Does your 4:3 TV not have an option to display 16:9? My TV (and most others I've seen) has a button which will add black borders and make the screen look like 16:9.

I've seen people on here say things like that before, but I have never seen any television that had such a thing.

[guitar_george_skank]

I've got a 25" Sony Pro-Logic TV model no. KV-25F2U. I just press a button on the remote and black borders are added to the picture, squashing it down into 16:9. Of course if I do this with a normal 4:3 signal then things look squashed, but when i do it with a VCD/SVCD that has been encoded in 4:3 from a 16:9 source then it works just fine. I can then play it on my sony 4:3 or my Hitachi 16:9 TV. As far as I know, most TV's on sale at the moment (well i'm taking about mid to high end TV's here) have this feature. I live in the UK although i don't think that would make a difference to the TV features.