Resolution that is not widescreen?

[Mr. Fido]

Hi there,

I burned a movie (VCD) using TMPGEnc with the original resolution of 352X240. Since I don't have a widescreen TV, when I play the VCD in my stand alone DVD player the picture is obviously squeezed into my (regular) TV's resolution (even the Michelin man is extremely tall and thin now!). What is the correct resolution if I want to play the VCD on a regular TV with black stripes at the top and the bottom of the screen?

Also, the frame rate is always automatically set at 23.**. Should I always set it at 29.97 (I'm NTSC) or is 29.97 only in MPEG 2?

Any help will be greatly appreciated!

Daniel

[DEmberton]

352x240 is the correct resolution, but what you want to do in TMPEng is set the source to 16:9, and set the arrange method to "full screen keep aspect". Then TMPEng will put in the black bars for you. What you have is an anamorphic widescreen VCD whereas you want letterboxed widescreen.

Not sure how the frame rate works for VCD, but for SVCD you want the option that's something like 23.976 (29.997 on playback).

Dave

[Mr. Fido]

Thanks for your reply. I thought the source always had to be 1:1 VGA and I only had to adjust the aspect ratio of the output file (4:3 NTSC...).

I tried something last night: 1:1 VGA for the source, 4:3 NTSC for the output, full screen (keep aspect ratio), frame rate of 29.997. First try with those settings I get a black screen in the preview pane. I aborted the encoding, went back to settings, didn't change anything, started encoding again (over the first .mpg file) and it worked! I did that with two files last night. It gives me the right resolution for my good ole TV, with the black stripes. I wish I understood why but hey, it works!

As for the frame rate, it doesn't seem to make any difference to the output file (except to the size of the file obviously). But then again, I don't care if it's VCD or SVCD, as long as the picture is clear enough. I watch the movie, erase the CD-RW and put another one on it.

I'll try your suggestion about the source aspect ratio though and see what happens.

Daniel