Actual format PAL??

[KingBongo]

My stand-alone DVD recorder records PAL into 720x576. Strange thing is that I did the math and it turns out that the corresponding PAL size would be 720x540.

WHY does the stand-alone DVD recorder have more lines than the PAL std actually prescribes? Are some of the lines just empty or what? Why?

Because of this, I rip everything into XviD at 720x540. Am I doing the right thing? I actually played the source files and the resulting files and it turns out that if I do not scale it down to 720x540 the visual sizes of these do not compare.

Can anybody explain this to me please. Is it a good idea to scale down to the correct PAL size?

[AlanHK]

https://www.videohelp.com/dvd

Technical Info for DVD-Video
PAL Video:
Up to 9.8 Mbps* (9800 kbps*) MPEG2 video
Up to 1.856 Mbps (1856 kbps) MPEG1 video
720 x 576 pixels MPEG2 (Called Full-D1)

[KingBongo]

Thanks! So I am doing it all wrong when coding the mpeg2 stuff, I should NOT rescale.

But I can swear that I found some other std for PAL somewhere, larger than 720x576! I scaled the first one down to 720, and it turned out that the second one should be 540. Is there some other PAL std for computer screens?

And WHY do the sizes not compare visually? If I put the recoded one on top of the source file when viewing, it turns out that if I use 576 the decoded one has a different size than the source file! But why? That was on the computer using different players though...

Edit:
Ahhh... Here it is! Here it is claimed that PAL is 768x576, which is equivalent to 720x540! What is wrong here???

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Video_Standards.svg

[mats.hogberg]

Some players just assume square pixels, some take a look at the DAR and resize output accordingly.
For PAL DVD, there's no higher resolution than 720x576, and this goes for both 4:3 and 16:9 DAR.

PAL

Video:
Up to 9.8 Mbps* (9800 kbps*) MPEG2 video
Up to 1.856 Mbps (1856 kbps) MPEG1 video
720 x 576 pixels MPEG2 (Called Full-D1)
704 x 576 pixels MPEG2
352 x 576 pixels MPEG2 (Called Half-D1, same as the CVD Standard)
352 x 288 pixels MPEG2
352 x 288 pixels MPEG1 (Same as the VCD Standard)
25 fps*
16:9 Anamorphic (only supported by 720x576)

/Mats

[KingBongo]

Thanks a lot! That explains it all,

No more rescaling from now on... I already f* up a lot of files, but no more,

[AlanHK]

Ahhh... Here it is! Here it is claimed that PAL is 768x576, which is equivalent to 720x540! What is wrong here???
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Video_Standards.svg

Who knows? It's Wikipedia, people make mistakes and they stay there till someone notices.

See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dvd#DVD-Video

most consumer DVD-Video disks use either 4:3 or 16:9 aspect ratio MPEG-2 video, stored at a resolution of 720×480 (NTSC) or 720×576 (PAL).