Wrong aspect ratio in Windows Media Player...

[Cobra]

Hi

I am trying to play an SVCD (from the CD) using Windows Media Player and the Elecard software which enables WMP to recognise and play MPEG-2 files.

When I try to play it, however, the widescreen aspect is crushed sideways into a 4:3 aspect. Is there any way I can persuade WMP to use the correct aspect?

Thanks for any advice!

CobraDMX

[snowmoon]

WMP does not respect aspect rqatios on any file and is more than likley playing it back as 1:1 not 4:3. You need to download one of the alternate MP programs that will allow you to manually change the DAR to see the video as it was inteended ( Zoom player, sasami, ... ).

[Cobra]

The only problem with using those players is that I put the CD in and open the MPEG file up, the CD spins up and the read light comes on, but the players don't display anything/output no sound. They just crash. The Elecard player is the only one which I have managed to get to work.

Do you know how to cure this, or if there's a more reliable freeware player out there? Could I get an extension for Quicktime which would allow it to play SVCD?

Thanks,

CobraDMX

[snowmoon]

You still use the elecard mpeg decoder, you are just using a diffrent fron end... that's all. Sasami2k has a menu option to select output aspect ratio. So if your .mpg is 480x480 it will resize it up to 640x480 so that it looks correct.

sasami2k can be found in the tools section under SVCD playback.

[Cobra]

Samasi2k is unstable. I have tried the latest build and it spins the CD up, reads the CD but doesn't output anything, just freezes with the Samasi2k logo in the window. It's probably just something to do with my computer, so I'll need to try poking about to see if I can get it working.

Does anyone have any suggestions?

Thanks

CobraDMX

[snorkel]

CobraDMX -

if it's feasible for you to dump the mpeg2 to the hdd, modify and re-burn to a fresh disc, then you might be able to get away with forcing an aspect ratio change on the video file.

this may or may not work as I'm unfamiliar with Elecard's mpeg2 drivers. the Elecard drivers may simply refuse to respect the new aspect and instead calculate its own. (I use the mpeg2 drivers from PowerDvd3 and they hardly ever give me a problem).

here are two utilities that can force an aspect ratio change on an mpeg2 file:
DvdPatcher http://mitglied.lycos.de/dvdpatcher/ will work work with muxed mpeg2 streams whereas ReStream http://shh.dvdboard.de/ works only on a demuxed mpeg2 video stream and gives a warning as to why it would not be wise to patch a muxed mpeg2 stream.

DvdPatcher allows for choosing 4:3 or 16:9 ascpect ratio. ReStream allows more ascpect ratio choices of 1:1, 4:3, 16:9, 2.21:1.

-s.