4:3 and 16:9 (S)VCD) making / displaying

[droopy]

@ALL

I have a question for you guys about something I'm not able to test myself, but am very much interested in. I can't find anything different forumes on it either.

It's about making (S)VCD's, their picture format being 4:3 or 16:9, and how they are played on different format TV sets using a stand alone DVD player (I use the well known Yamakawa 715 DYI player). Currently I have a 4:3 TV, and making (S)VCD's is luckily, thanks to different forums on the internet, not a problem anymore.

What I would like to know is following. What process do I follow to make (S)VCD's which play on a 4:3 TV with the well known black borders on top and bottom? But, when played on a 16:9 TV show their normal 16:9 full size (depending upon their aspect ration with some smaller black borders) without the black borders? Or, is this even possible at all?

I think that if it works, the trick is going to be in the encoding of the (S)VCD streams? However, both 4:3 and 16:9 video are captured with 704*576 for PAL? Thus I'm afraid that 16:9 recordings will show up squeezed together on a 4:3 TV set. I've seen some selections in TMPGEnc about the picture format, but I'm not able to test this as I only have a 4:3 TV set.

Anyone has ever tried / thought of it / solved this??????

Thanks for the answers / suggestions provided.

Best regards, Leon

[dZeus]

almost no standalone dvd player can scale back anomorphic svcd contents. So if you have a 4:3 tv, you better not make a 16:9 svcd, otherwise you'll end up with the 'long faces' problem.

If you have a 16:9 tv, you can use anomorphic svcds without a problem, since the player doesn't need to stretch the stream prior to sending it to the tv.

If you make a widescreen letterbox svcd, it will show up ok on the 4:3 tv, and on the 16:9 tv you need to enter the zoom mode, which is used for letterboxed tv broadcasts as well. However, this will look less sharp than a anomorphic svcd on the 16:9 tv.


I think that it's best only to make anomorphic svcd if you plan to use it for provate use with a 16:9 tv only.

[droopy]

@dZeus

Bedankt voor de info.

To be honest, I was already afraid that something like this would be the answer . The Yamakawa though has an option where you define what kind of TV set you have. I think I have to investigate some more and try to find someone with a DVD player and a widescreen TV set.

In the mean time, if someone has any ideas / tricks / workarounds? I'd appreciate them.

If I find something myself, I'll post it here.

Thanks and best regards, Leon

[dZeus]

the zoom function I'm talking about is in the TV set, not in the player. The only way to check wether your player can scale down anomorphic SVCDs for 4:3 television (which is the only potential problem when you're using them for private use), is to run one on your DVD Player with a 4:3 tv hooked up (and of course the player configured for 4:3 output).

You can easily make such a SVCD yourself.. convert a DVD with anomorphic contents without downscaling vertically (of course you have to set the aspect ratio flag to 16:9 in the resulting video stream)