VCD picture seems "elongated" when played...

[Limbic]

Ok, this is just a minor glitch, but I'd like to be able to make the "perfect" VCD...

When my VCD's are played on a standalone player (RCA 5240P), the picture seems slightly warped...people and buildings and so on seem "skinnier" than they should be.

I used Smartripper --> DVD2AVI --> TMPGEnc --> VCDEasy --> Nero.

Throughout, I kept my resolution at the 16:9 widescreen.

Is this a common thing? Have I omitted or flubbed a minor detail?

Thanks!

[Tommyknocker]

Your Video Arrange Method in TMPGEnc, was it set to keep aspect ratio?

[Digifreak]

You probably set your output to 16:9. If it is a 16:9 video and you set your source and output to 16:9, it will display appropriately on a 16:9 television but appears squished on a 4:3 television. To make a 16:9 movie display correctly on 4:3 television set your source to 16:9 and output to 4:3.

[Limbic]

Perfect, thanks guys, Ill try that.

An accessory question: Is there a way to encode the mpg so that it'll play on EITHER a 4:3 TV or a 16:9? Or is the common technique to prepare a CD for either a widescreen TV or a normal one?

[TenaciousJP]

VCDs cannot be anamorphic like DVD. So, basically the only way to prepare them would be to have the picture output as letterbox and just use the 16:9 TV's Zoom function to make smaller/remove the letterbox bars.

[Digifreak]

If you have a newer and large (27in+) 4:3 TV you may have a 16:9 enhanced mode that compresses the picture vertically to mimic the result of watching it on a 16:9 TV. In this case, if the movie is 16:9, encode source 16:9 and video 16:9 it will play with the correct aspect on a PC, a 16:9 TV or 16:9 mode on a 4:3 TV. It will appear stretched vertically on a standard 4:3 TV. Problem is many DVD players (including all Apex players I have tried) cannot play mpeg2 with 16:9 DAR (display aspect ratio) flag and will jitter. In this case, encode both source and output to 4:3 and it will play correctly on 16:9 TV, 4:3 TV in 16:9 mode, but will appear slightly stretched vertically on PC as well as standard 4:3 TV. If your 4:3 TV does not have a 16:9 mode, then you have to encode source 16:9 and video output 4:3.

[Limbic]

Great advice, thanks to both of you!