Widescreen

[BaDbOy3998]

Is it possible to create a non-anamorphic widescreen movie with TMPGEnc? In case my terminology is wrong, what I want to do is create a movie that is a true 16:9 and doesn't have letterboxes (margins?). I've heard good dvd players and tvs can remove letterboxes if the tv is widescreen, but it'd be a lot easier to just make it a true widescreen. BTW, the source is true widescreen...

[funkguy4]

Is it possible to create a non-anamorphic widescreen movie with TMPGEnc? In case my terminology is wrong, what I want to do is create a movie that is a true 16:9 and doesn't have letterboxes (margins?). I've heard good dvd players and tvs can remove letterboxes if the tv is widescreen, but it'd be a lot easier to just make it a true widescreen. BTW, the source is true widescreen...

In this case, you want Anamorphic widescreen. TMPGEnc can make true widescreen movies.

[BaDbOy3998]

I tried that, but everything I've tried up till now just makes a 4:3 mpeg with letterboxes. Please explain what I need to do in TMPGEnc to make something 16:9 with no margins/letterboxes.

[BaDbOy3998]

I figured out my problem, I think. TMPGEnc locks the aspect ratio at 4:3 in it's templates. If you unlock it, hopefully, you can change it to widescreen...

[poopyhead]

In this case, you want Anamorphic widescreen. TMPGEnc can make true widescreen movies.

i don't think this is the case....tmpgenc will either create a 16:9 or 4:3 video.

16:9 video will NOT be resized to fit on 4:3 TV. hence, NOT anamorphic.

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@BaDbOy3998,

only create 16:9 video if you're gonna watch it on widescreen HDTV or Plasma. keep in mind, it's not gonna be anamorphic, so it won't resize the video to fit on 4:3 TV....this means that you're 16:9 video can ONLY be watched on widescreen TVs properly.

[geek rock]

only create 16:9 video if you're gonna watch it on widescreen HDTV or Plasma. keep in mind, it's not gonna be anamorphic, so it won't resize the video to fit on 4:3 TV....this means that you're 16:9 video can ONLY be watched on widescreen TVs properly.

what?!

of course you can view anamorphic widescreen video on a 4:3 TV. if the stream is flagged as 16:9 and your DVD player is set to 4:3 mode, the DVD player will add widescreen borders on the fly so the picture appears in the correct ratio.

that's the whole point of it being called "anamorphic" video - it's stretchable.

[BaDbOy3998]

Okay, I believe that I've successfully made an anamorphic svcd. I decided not to use the wizard and just did it the old way. I loaded up the SVCD Film Template and then loaded the Unlock template. Sefy's guide said in order to make the movie widescreen you need to change the 'source' from whatever it is to 16:9. Well that didn't help, and it didn't help because it still made it 4:3 with letterboxes. So on the 'first' tab of the settings I changed it there after unlocking the settings and that made a true 16:9 widescreen movie. But, I realized that I still made a bad movie. The source movie is a divX (codec is 3.0 but I don't think it matters) encoded in PAL. To view this on my American TV, it can't be PAL so I tried making it NTSC (FPS = 29.970). What I got was a flickery picture and 'cracking' sound. The last thing that I tried was NTSC Film, and it seems like the picture isn't flickery and the sound doesn't crack, as much (it might be possible that it cracks now because of my computer lagging). Is there a way to fix the cracking?

[Vejita-sama]

You CAN NOT MAKE an anamorphic SVCD. VCD, CVD and SVCD are 4:3 only. Anamorpic DVDs are possible but most have a resolution of 720x480. I think you are still a little confused by how the whole process works. Take a look at:

http://www.doom9.org/aspectratios.htm
http://www.thedigitalbits.com/articles/anamorphic/aspectratios/widescreenorama.html

For more info. Here's an outline:

There are 3 DAR (display aspect ratios) that you normally work with

1:1 PC
4:3 standard TV
16:9 film & widescreen TV

Your (NTSC) TV is setup to ONLY display 4:3 (interlaced video at 29.97fps). But most films are shot at 16:9. So how can we fix this. There are three choices:

Fullscreen - this is where we take the 16:9 film cut off the left and right edges of the film to create a new 4:3 film. Part of the movie is lost thou and what remains can often have a 'magnified' look to it.

Pan-scan - like full screen you cut off the right and left edges to create a new 4:3 video, but sometimes you cut off more of the right and sometimes more of the left. You do this so that the images that are lost don't look 'quite as bad' as full screen. But it's like re-directing the film and parts of it are still removed.

Letterbox - Here we take the 16:9 source and use it's full horizontial resoltion then add black bars to the top and bottom of the screen to GENERATE A _NEW_ 4:3 video. Letterboxed videos have a DAR of 4:3 (this is important to remember).

Letterboxing was the prefered method for people that like movies because it keep all of the original movie on the screen. However, with the introduction of widescreen TVs a problem developed.

On a 16:9 TV you can display a 16:9 film without any changes (in theory). But if you try to view a 4:3 source on a 16:9 tv (eg. normal TV broadcast) because of the different DAR you have to letterbox the 4:3 source. This is done by using the full vertical resolution of the 4:3 source, and adding black bars to the right/left of the video.

That's ok for a 'true' 4:3 source, but what about a 4:3 source with a letterboxed filmed. Now you end up with black bars on the left/right (because the source is 4:3) and the top/bottom (those bars are PART OF the 4:3 letterboxed source). So you'r movie is surronded by black. Plus if I own a 16:9 tv why should I watch this 4:3 crap.

The solution was to put out two copies of each movie. A 4:3 (letterboxed) verison and a 16:9 verison. This was expensive and rarely done. But digital technology saved us again.

What happens now is DVDs are encoded at 720x480 (they use the full resolution). They are tend flagged as either 4:3 or 16:9. You then set your DVD player to either a 4:3 or 16:9 TV.

If you play a 16:9 flagged DVD on your DVD player set to 4:3, then the DVD player will leterbox your video on the fly.

If you play your 16:9 flagged DVD on your DVD player set to 16:9 then it does nothing to the video.

And vice versa for 4:3 flagged video.

Now as I said DVDs are the only media that is supported for this. VCD, CVD, SVCD, and VHS are 4:3 ONLY. You can make a xSVCD that's anamorphic and it might just work, for you. But it's not supported and most standalones will have no idea what to do with it. Remember that anamorphic DVDs are only supported at 720x480 (by the DVD standard, some players can handle 352x480 anamorphic most can not).

Please read the widescreen-o-rama link above for pictures and a better explaniation.

[funkguy4]

In this case, you want Anamorphic widescreen. TMPGEnc can make true widescreen movies.

i don't think this is the case....tmpgenc will either create a 16:9 or 4:3 video.

16:9 video will NOT be resized to fit on 4:3 TV. hence, NOT anamorphic.

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@BaDbOy3998,

only create 16:9 video if you're gonna watch it on widescreen HDTV or Plasma. keep in mind, it's not gonna be anamorphic, so it won't resize the video to fit on 4:3 TV....this means that you're 16:9 video can ONLY be watched on widescreen TVs properly.

Dude, youu're way off on this one. Most commercial widescreen DVDs come with 16:9 ratio video. It's anamorphic because it's stretched into a 720x480 box and then stretched back at playback. It's not really anamorphic, just an easy way to refer to it. I'm pretty sure all DVD players with Pro-scan let youu tell them what kind of TV you have. The older DVD players w/o pro-scan automatically L-Box for you. Here's proof:

Play a full screen movie on your comp. The box looks almost like a square. Then, play a DVD that says Enhanced for Widescreen TV. The box will be noticeable more rectangular. Use PowerDVD or WinDVD for this test.

[poopyhead]

@geek rock and funkguy4,

i can see that u guys are new...so i'll let you slide on this one :P

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anywayz.... yes 16:9 WS commercial DVDs are anamorphic and does automatically resize the video to fit on 4:3 TV...

HOWEVER, (S)VCDs are NOT anamorphic. so, your (S)VCD output video needs to be tailored to which TV your gonna watch it on, since (S)VCDs will NOT resize the video.

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@BaDbOy3998,

as mentioned above, you can't make an anamorphic (S)VCD.

YOUR OUTPUT VIDEO SHOULD DEPEND ON WHAT YOUR TV IS. so, if you have a regular TV, your output should be 4:3. if you have a widescreen HDTV or Plasma TV, then your output should be 16:9.

BUT, under the advanced menu in TMPGEnc, for IMAGE POSITIONING METHOD, you should set that to either 1) fit to frame (preserve aspect ratio) or 2) full screen (preserve aspect ratio 2)..... this depends on what version of tmpgenc you have.

[geek rock]

woah woah woah, the term SVCD was never even used in this thread.. and as this is a DVDR help forum, i took that to mean the guy was making a DVD.

i know anamorphic SVCDs aren't possible. in fact if you search my posts you'll see i've posted several replies to people asking how to make anamorphic SVCDs, with my reply being that it isn't possible.

-Mark

[BaDbOy3998]

I think what I can get from this is that (most) DVD Players can't show 16:9 SVCDs on 4:3s correctly? I would've thought that they would be able to just add black letterboxes automatically if the player was set to 4:3 and then if it were set to 16:9 output it wouldn't affect the picture at all. A friend told me that good DVD Players can do that. Anyways, I've made a Layer II Mpeg that follows SVCD Standards except it's 16:9. So would that mean it ISN'T a true SVCD Mpeg?

[poopyhead]

Anyways, I've made a Layer II Mpeg that follows SVCD Standards except it's 16:9. So would that mean it ISN'T a true SVCD Mpeg?

just to be clear....i'm referring to (S)VCDS btw... (S)VCD standards makes no mention of 16:9 or 4:3. again, this is only dependent on what type of TV you're gonna watch your (S)VCD on...that's it

so, 16:9 or 4:3 does not affect whether your (S)VCD will be standard, compliant or not.

keep in mind, if you make a 16:9 (S)VCD, you will have problems watching it on regular 4:3 TV.

only Anamorphic 16:9 DVDs allows resizing of the video for 4:3 TVs. i'm not sure if only available commercially or you can also make your own DVDs anamorphic, but at least with (S)VCDs, you can't make them anamorphic.

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woah woah woah, the term SVCD was never even used in this thread.. and as this is a DVDR help forum, i took that to mean the guy was making a DVD.

sorry if i came out a little bit strong...i was actually referring more to funkguy4 than you.

yes...the overall website is dvdrhelp.com, but this is specifically the newbie/general discussions forum, so it could be anything. however, i took it to assume BaDbOy3998 was making a (S)VCD because he mentioned TMPGEnc without mentioning "burning to DVD".

[geek rock]

I think what I can get from this is that (most) DVD Players can't show 16:9 SVCDs on 4:3s correctly? I would've thought that they would be able to just add black letterboxes automatically if the player was set to 4:3 and then if it were set to 16:9 output it wouldn't affect the picture at all.

that's correct. the black bars are only added to DVD discs - NOT SVCDs. 16:9 and 4:3 image tagging isn't part of the SVCD specification. it IS part of the DVD specification.

-Mark

[funkguy4]

@geek rock and funkguy4,

i can see that u guys are new...so i'll let you slide on this one :P

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anywayz.... yes 16:9 WS commercial DVDs are anamorphic and does automatically resize the video to fit on 4:3 TV...

HOWEVER, (S)VCDs are NOT anamorphic. so, your (S)VCD output video needs to be tailored to which TV your gonna watch it on, since (S)VCDs will NOT resize the video.

I thought you meant that in general. I know that SVCD and VCD ar full screen only.