CVD (352 x 480/576) compatibility issue to be aware of

[VidGuy]

I love CVD resolution for low-action stuff on DVDs, but one thing to be aware of - at least Pioneer 333 and Apex 3201 will not do "automatic letterboxing" if you try and set it up for 16:9 video.

I author with DVDMaestro and have not been able to make either of these players "letterbox" an anamorphic video. For Anamorphic, I end up having to do full D1 (720 x ).

[SatStorm]

If you encode with tmpgenc, there is an alternative:

Set: setting/advance/Source aspect ratio to 4:3 or 16:9 depending your source
then set Video arrange Method as: Center (custom size)
Now, go to "clip frame" option and choose Arrange Setting
There is "arrange method" choice again there. Set it "Center (custom size) and then set manually the values.
A preview window on the half top of the screen gonna show you what you are doing.
That way, you correct the aspect ratio manually.
Now, go to settings/video, and get sure that the option "Aspect Ratio" is displayed to 4:3

As I said before, you have to master SVCD and be an advanced user to create CVD. Don't forget that nothing is optimised for this format, anything have to be done manually....

[offline]

This is not an "issue" with CVD but rather your approach. If you had set
your own borders under tmpegenc or cce (via avisynth or v.dub) you
would not have had a problem.

[VidGuy]

This is not an "issue" with CVD but rather your approach. If you had set
your own borders under tmpegenc or cce (via avisynth or v.dub) you
would not have had a problem.

If you set your own borders, then it's not anamorphic. Anamorphic gets automatically letterboxed when you show it on a 4:3 TV set. I know how to convert anamorphic to widescreen, but given a choice, you get better resolution with anamorphic.

[DJRumpy]

Even animorphic has letterboxing. Someone correct me here if I'm wrong, but the specs for SVCD/CVD do not support 16:9 do they? Every SVCD I own is actually encoded as 4:3, with bigger borders, which I in turn have to stretch on my Widescreen HDTV.

[DJRumpy]

Actually, that's not quite true. If my source is 1.85:1, I can resize to a full 720x480 without any letterboxing and get the correct aspect. 2.35:1 requires it though.

[vitualis]

Actually, neither VCD or SVCD support any aspect ratio other than 4:3. Thus, if you try to make an "anamorphic" S/VCD and set the aspect ratio flag to 16:9, you are in essence making an X-disc.

Don't be surprised if it doesn't work on some players.

Regards.

[snowmoon]

Um people he is refering to DVD's with half-d1 DVD compliant video.

Good to note, as I was about to do some work which might have me capturing letterbox and converting to half-d1 anamorphic ( I have a DV-333 ).

Have you double checked the VOB's themselves ( ifoedit ) to make sure they are really being tagged 16:9?

[vitualis]

Whoops!

Regards.

[DJRumpy]

That does makea difference doesn't it?

VidGuy, can you open the final IFO of your project, and look at the DAR with IFOEdit? It should have the option set there to be either Pan & Scan ,Letterboxed, or in your case, it may not have any options set. I'd be curious to see what's in the IFO. Make sure your looking at the actaul video, and not the menu DARS's

[VidGuy]

Yes - I did check the VOBs with IFOEdit - Everything was tagged 16:9. I saw no mention of 4:3 anywhere in the information (except for the menu)

I should perform the experiment again though just to make sure that the video itself had 16:9 on it - it's possible CCE didn't set it even though I had it set in the menus...... I'll report back shortly.

(Probably should have said 1/2 D1 instead of CVD in my initial post).

I also should mention I don't know what happens if you have a 16:9 TV in this case, since I don't have one yet (soon, I hope). I just know on my poor 4:3 TV everybody was stretched :>(
Cheers.

[DJRumpy]

I can only tell you what 4:3 looks like on 16:9, as the 16:9 just look normal for lack of a better word. If an mpeg is encoded for 4:3, but letterboxed as a widescreen (common for many of the SVCD's floating around), it shows up as too short (it can be streched via TV settings).

The DVD player should make no modifications to a 16:9 stream as far as letterboxing/pan & scan, if your DVD player is set to output to a 16:9 TV. It should only look at the secondary options if the TV is set to 4:3.