Keeping widescreen when backing up DVDs

[lourenc2]

The process i have been using is ripping DVD with smartripper 2.41.
THen i create the VOBs to .d2vs via DVD2AVI. From there I have been reencoding the with TmpgEnc to get a smaller .m2v file. Then I simply use Spruce UP to join the m2v and ac3 files with the same name. The quality is great and maintains the dolby digital but it does not maintain the anamorphic widescreen. What settings do I need to set on DVD2AVI and/or TmpgEnc to keep the video the same 16:9 ratio? I checked different guides on this site and the doom9 site with no luck. Any help would be appreciated.

Thank you
Jay

[mikerios]

it's in tmpeg, check for source video aspect ratio, that should be set to 16:9 under advanced tab, as should aspect ratio under video tab, if your movie comes out that way uder dvd2avi, as it being frameserved you see the ratio displayed as it rip, so keep that in mind when rendering as the settings must be the same.

[lourenc2]

I tried changing both tabs to 16:9 and I get a small black strip on the border but not the normal one that I usually get. Also I notice that if I play the VOBs on my software DVD players it does not look the same as far as aspect ratio to just playin my DVD itself using the software. Any thoughs?

Jay

[SLK001]

Spruceup will only handle 4:3 aspect ratios. If you want to use, Spruceup, then you have to "fool" it into thinking that you are feeding it a 4:3 file. This has been discussed at length in this forum before. Use the search function to find out how this is done.

[lourenc2]

The movie loses its 16:9 ratio before I use Spruceup. It seems to lose it right after ripping it with SmartRipper because the VOBs do not have that anamorphic anymore. Maybe it is something I am doing wrong with the ripping. Are there any tricks I need to know about the way to rip it. And thank you guys for the quick responses and helping this newbie out.

Jay

[FiEND]

wish I could help but i haven't figured it out myself yet, at least not to explain it.

I am ripping and encoding Hairy Pothead (4:3), Shrek (4:3), BlackHawkDown (16:9), Dances with Wolves & Highlander (2.35:1)

Not having very much fun either.

I have a hardware based DVD decoder card and 3 different software DVD players and as yet I have not made a movie that looks good or even the same on on Hard or Soft players.

The guides here are all fairly useless as they are about as basic as possible.

My problems are motion ghosting, interlacing, wrong aspect ratios, no audio/sub selections, movies only play to X point and/or searching doesnt work. this is in some players and not in others and usually a combo of these problems in the different players.

BUT I have found the 16:9 input option in TmpgEnc also has a "16:9 Display" setting that can either help or seriously hurt the encoding processing. But, even though it displays in TmpgEnc encoding window as not widescreen, when you play it in 'say powerDVD' and select "do not correct aspect ratio" it will be widescreen.... or sometimes vice-versa.

my suggestion is use select a range in TmpgEnc and work with a 5min clip of the video file and try the different settings. and watch (triple check) TmpgEnc settings before encoding because I have noticed it likes to change settings when you go through the tabs. alot of times it has switched my settings to things like 60fps or PAL or other junk settings when I tab through the options tabs.

The other day I got outa bed and checked my encoding and was 8 hours in, 6 hours remaining and the damn thing was already 6GB... retarded.

[mikerios]

Fiend,

sorry ot say but the guides work well, as I ripped Blackhawk down and succesfully reencoded it to 16:9 mpeg2 file, I just have yet to author it but I have no issue with the ripping process os as long as you pay attention to the window on the left in DVD2AVI with respects to what ratio it is 4:3 or 16:9 ( even it it's really 2.35 : 1 it will report as 16:9 ), SmartRipper and DVD Decryptor will not change aspect ratios, as they do not con vert but decss and rip to the hardrive, DVD2AVI does not change it either as all it does it framserve and extract ac3 or wav file ( depending on what you select ). It's in TMPEGEnc / DVD2AVI that most people screw up as they usally forget to make sure forcefilm is checked, as most of the time that's the setting under DVD2AVI, and then forget what aspect ratio they have to encode under in TMPEGEnc and resulting files are wrong encoded as far as aspect ratio are concerned. And I always make a short 2 min clip ( plenty of action to check for motion blocks ect.. ) to check my render before final rendering on the whole film. This is common sense. Last but not least there will be that occasional DVD that will not framserve correctly, usally it comes up in the form of audio synch, but by testing on a very short clip I can usally pin down the synch gap and correct it and then commit final rendering, This happened to me on Ghost and Darkness, The Fugitive and a hand few of other titles but it's no big deal to adjust it, as for ghosting issue and interlacing, that goes back to the force film option under DVD2AVI and make sure you got swap feild order set under TMPEGEnc. IF you are getting 6GB files then you got your bitrate or CQ level way too high or it's a3 hour movie, as I can usally hit 3.2 to 4.2 gb range for a given movie every single time. With time you will zero in on all the settings ( and that when you make your own template, save it and adjust for a given length of film or high audio bitrate ).

[lourenc2]

fiend - i realized my problem. DVD2AVI said it was 16:9 but in actualilty it was 4:3 in smartripper. but then i did memento and it worked like a charm. for movies that are bigger then 4.7gb even after stripping i find that even after shrinkin video with tmegEnc i still see outstanding quality. i dont fumble around with ifoedit because it is to much for me. just rip movie with smart ripper, change to d2v with dvd2avi and then if needed reencode with tmpgenc. spruce up accepts the ac3 file with the m2v and there are a few options for authoring. go to the doom9 guides bout spruce up very useful. i admit i am stil a rookie but if u need anymore help you can shoot an email to me if u want

jl8580@yahoo.com

Jay

[FiEND]

I think I found my settings as well, thanks to the replies and way way too much playtesting.

force film helped .. well did the trick. I then had to do a 3:2 pulldown, can't remember now if inverse or not, I think so. It's busy encoding so can't check (tmpgenc needs a pause/suspend option).

the good news is I even learned alot about ripping and video methods and how it works... even if I can't remember without looking at the settings options what they are :P

unfortunately my dxr2 decoder card and/or creative dvd software doesn't like tmpgenc/windowsXP very much and this has been 80% of my grief. If i was just watching them on a software player and not svid out, no prob, powerdvd can play pretty much anything I encode correct.

my dxr2 on the other hand doesn't like VBR very much, plays them, but hangs until reboot if I search by time as well as when I stop the playback or close the player. 2 pass VBR it just says the file is corrupt and wont open it.

CQ seems to work fine and looks good, if not a tad larger in filesize.

only problem I have now is video buffer size. hard to tweak because many settings cause scrolling artifact blobs (usually green or black square patterns that flash off and on as they scroll down the screen from left to right and moving down the screen).

so just wanted to reply that I did read and was working on it, not ignoring the replies, and to thank you for the help and suggestions. I'm getting there.... slowly.