embeded pan&scan flag

[tess]

Hi,

Using a 16:9 video, CCE can create an 4:3 video with a pan&scan embeded flag.

How can i do the same thing without CCE ?

Thanks.

[manono]

Hi-

Are you wanting to take your widescreen source and create a fullscreen Pan-And-Scan version of it? If so, it can't be done, not by CCE and not by you. About all you can do is to crop the sides to make it 4:3, a very bad idea.

[tess]

Sorry burt it's possible.

It exists a pan&scan flag.

[roxas]

Hmm... this will be dependent on your standalone player. CCE will just encode your video, while I think the answer lies in whatever authors your DVD result(ifo's and vobs). Players will also add borders or do a pan and scan based on your settings. You can also create a letterbox vid as an alternative.

[manono]

If what I guessed was correct, that you're thinking you can create a true pan-and-scan by setting the flag, then you're still wrong. All setting the flag does is to prevent letterboxing of 16:9 DVDs, in effect just cropping the video for display on 4:3 TV sets, which is still a silly idea:

For automatic pan & scan mode, the anamorphic video is unsqueezed to 16:9 and the sides are cropped off so that a portion of the image is shown at full height on a 4:3 screen by following a center of interest offset encoded in the video stream according to the preferences of those who transferred the film to video. The pan & scan "window" is 75% of the full width, which reduces the horizontal pixels from 720 to 540. The pan & scan window can only travel laterally. This does not duplicate a true pan & scan process in which the window can also travel up and down and zoom in and out. Auto pan & scan has three strikes against it: 1) it doesn't provide the same artistic control as studio pan & scan, 2) there is a loss of detail when the picture is scaled up, and 3) equipment for recording picture shift information is not widely available. Therefore, no anamorphic movies have been released with auto pan & scan enabled, although some discs use the pan & scan feature in menus so that the same menu video can be used in both widescreen and 4:3 mode. In order to present a quality full-screen picture to the vast majority of TV viewers, yet still provide the best experience for widescreen owners, some DVD producers choose to put two versions on a single disc: 4:3 studio pan & scan and 16:9 anamorphic.

http://www.dvddemystified.com/dvdfaq.html#3.5

You can often set the 16:9 Automatic Pan&Scan flag at the authoring stage, or if not, later on using IFOEdit or PGCEdit.

[Cornucopia]

tess may be wrong, but that's what she wants to do. So...,

I would suggest Restream. Adjusting the "Sequence Display Extension" info should add the equivalent of what CCE is doing. (Actually, you could just open a copy of an MPEG file encoded from CCE with the P&S in Restream and see what extra info it shows you.)

There are also other encoders that can set this: PixelTools MPEGrepair & Heuris MPP2.

However, this IS usually set at the authoring stage. I know Sonic Scenarist & Spruce Maestro can set it--with or without the flags having been encoded. Note that without the flag/info, it will be a static Middle Screen Crop. IOW, the "center of interest" won't be able to move around.

Scott

[manono]

It'll be a "static Middle Screen Crop" anyway. What makes you think that CCE or any other encoder knows how to find the "center of interest" automatically? You need special equipment/programs for that. Read my quotation above, and follow the link for more info.

Yes, Restream can set the flag in the stream after encoding. But, why do it? It's not necessary. The only thing necessary is to have it set in the IFOs. I understand that MPEGRepair can adjust the "Point Of Interest", but it isn't an encoder. I don't know the other 2 programs you mentioned, but from the names they don't sound like encoders, either.

16:9 2.35:1 movies will still have some black bars remaining after setting the flag, when played on 4:3 televisions. It's still a dumb idea, though; much, much dumber than is true Pan And Scan even.

[Cornucopia]

@manono:
"MPEGRepair" is from the company PixelTools, and YES it is an encoder, decoder, and much more. (You must have been thinking of MPEG2repair, a freeware tool)
"MPP2" or MPEG Power Professional (Encoder) v2 is from the company Heuris, and is also a VERY powerful encoder.

Neither is consumer-oriented, neither is cheap. Both allow you to set the P&S vectors, not just the flag. They're examples of the "special equipment" one might use.
No, you're right they aren't as good quality as a direct P&S Film Transfer, but the OP was wanting to do it themselves, not hire a Transfer house.

'nuff with the judgementality. I wouldn't do it either, beyond the scientific desire to see if I could. But I'm still gonna give them the answers to do as they please.

Scott

[manono]

Hi-

Yes, you're right about MPEGRepair. But click on your link in the earlier post and look where it takes you. And I confused it with something I had been reading somewhere else. I apologize, as you were right about the programs.

But I'm still gonna give them the answers to do as they please.

Yeah, but she seems to think she can create P&S just by setting the flag, either in the video stream or in the IFOs, and it's not going to happen.