OSDev.org

What is the standard 16:9 (PAL) resolution used for DVD's?

Non-widescreen PAL DVD's are 720×576. Do 16:9 DVD use the same resolution and stretch it to the desired ratio?

Nevermind.. I opened a DVD in VideoLAN, set zoom to 1:1, screenshoted the window and measured the window. It's 1024x576.

ah, but you cant be sure if the program you use did any stretching

Zacariaz wrote:ah, but you cant be sure if the program you use did any stretching

It's working just as I wanted to. I've told the ripping program to stretch the vertical res from 720 to 1024.

I wish there was a video format where I could rip it in it's native resolution (to save space), but tell the video player to stretch it to 16:9.

All resolutions for PAL, NTSC are 720 pixels wide unless they are HD. Vertically it is based on the line system which is NTSC 525(480), PAL 625(576), HD 1125(1080) So the height of 16:9 PAL is 576 .
Widescreen just uses black bars above and below the video. But the visible lines or are (576/16) * 9 = 324

os64dev wrote:Widescreen just uses black bars above and below the video. But the visible lines or are (576/16) * 9 = 324

Isn't that just what DVD players use when using letterbox?

Anyway, after a lot of researched I've found out all PAL DVDs have the video stretched to 720x576 regardless of their aspect ratio. I'm guessing the DVD video file's header has information about its aspect ratio and it's up to the DVD software/hardware to determine if to add black bars to the sides or top/bottom.

It annoys me when a 16:9 image has been pre-formatted with the bars on top and bottom and then saved as a 4:3/5:4 image. Then when you actually play these on a 16:9 television you have black bars at the top, bottom and sides. It's called the windowbox effect (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windowbox_%28film%29).

Anyway, after a lot of researched I've found out all PAL DVDs have the video stretched to 720x576 regardless of their aspect ratio. I'm guessing the DVD video file's header has information about its aspect ratio and it's up to the DVD software/hardware to determine if to add black bars to the sides or top/bottom.

576 lines, that is what i said above. Everything is based on the line system. Well actually the aspect ratio information is send to your TV set, i think by pulling one of the scart pins high or low. The TV set will then do a vertical compress according to 4:3 or 16:9 and add blackbars to hide the garbage above or below the video.

It annoys me when a 16:9 image has been pre-formatted with the bars on top and bottom and then saved as a 4:3/5:4 image. Then when you actually play these on a 16:9 television you have black bars at the top, bottom and sides

Yeah, most people are pretty clueless regarding video formats, etc. I have been working in the TV industry for 5 years and still have to think about how it all works.

i am currently having the same problem only in reverse, I'm trying to burn a dvd from a 16:9 xvid, when i encode the mpeg2 all the encoders add bars and my dvd burner software ads pillarbox effect to the final dvd

GLneo wrote:i am currently having the same problem only in reverse, I'm trying to burn a dvd from a 16:9 xvid, when i encode the mpeg2 all the encoders add bars and my dvd burner software ads pillarbox effect to the final dvd

maybe you should use virtualdub to do the video processing

I'm not very video savvy, I'm using Windoze XP and have tried avstodvd and other simple open source dvd burners but all use slooooowwww encoders ( like QuEnc, I tried encoding the video with HcEnc and it only took 35Min, then the program automatically uses QuEnc to encode the video's audio and it was working on it for TWO DAYS before i stopped it ), back to the point how do i quickly go from avi to burned dvd? ( with aspect in tacked, any fancy commands? )

thx for your time!