Video only plays in 4:3 fullscreen not 16:9 widescreen Options

[peteyb]

I have a DVD that when played in my DVD player will be in 16:9 and fit my whole widescreen TV.

However, I have tried messing around with the settings but can only get this DVD to play in 4:3 (No matter if the video is .vob, .mpeg, .mkv)

Can anyone help?

Thanks in advance.

[WDUser]

Set the aspect ratio to widescreen under Video Settings. Also check your TV since many have their own normal/widescreen/letterbox etc. settings as well.

This happens only with the one DVD? How did you rip the DVD BTW?

[peteyb]

Thanks for the help.

My settings are already on widescreen on both the WDTV and my TV. Yes this is the only DVD that does this. It is a futurama season 1 disc from 1999.

The DVD plays on my computer in fullscreen 4:3 as well, only my DVD player plays in 16:9

I can't get WDTV to play my VOBs correctly, so I usually convert them to seperate MPEG files using VOB2MPG v3, and the MPEGS play in 4:3 as well. I have also tried MAKEMKV to turn the DVD into an MKV file but that also plays in 4:3

I used DVD Decrypter to create the VOB set. I don't know what else to try. Any suggestions will be appreciated. Thanks.

PS - Is there a difference in the quality of converting VOBs to either MPEG or MKV? I know MKV is generally a better quality since it can support HD, but when it comes to a standard definition DVD is there any difference between converting MPEG and MKV?

[WDUser]

Since VOB is a subset of MPEG, and DVDs use either MPEG-1 or more commonly MPEG-2, you aren't really 'converting' VOBs to MPGs/MPEGs as much as simply renaming them (or possibly apps make some simple modifications to the file headers). As for MKVs, as long as it's a lossless conversion, the MKV is no better obviously compared to the VOB/MPG. You cannot increase the quality after all.

Both the player and the TV are set to widescreen? Did you try various combinations, such as setting one to widescreen and the other to normal and so on? In any case, since other DVDs are fine, your settings must be ok I guess. No harm in trying various combos though. Also, since the DVD is 4:3 on your PC as well (using which software?), I'm not too sure the WD TV can be blamed. Maybe some setting in your DVD player is stretching the image? Are you absolutely sure the DVD is widescreen?

Last thing you can try is use AnyDVD + CloneDVD2 (both SlySoft products) to rip the DVD and see. If the VOBs still play back as 4:3 on the WD TV and your PC, then possibly something's up with your DVD player.

[peteyb]

Okay thanks alot Im just gonna stick with converting to MPEG

Ive tried different combinations but nothings worked.

I think the problem is just the DVD, on the back of the case it says " Full Frame Aspect Ration 1:33:1 "

I figured that since the DVD is playing in full screen on my dvd player, that it was capable of being projected in widescreen.


While your helping me out, I had one other question.

I have been looking into changing the firmware on my WDTV Player Gen2 and was wondering what exactly the custom firmware can do?

I have looked on B-rad's site and saw the list of enhancements, but do not understand what most of them are or do.

What is the optware package and what kind of apps are there?

Thanks again

[WDUser]

Ah, that clears it up I guess. Full frame or 1.33:1 is 4:3 (4/3 = 1.33). So the PC and WD TV are fine, and if your DVD player is stretching the video, it is doing so incorrectly in this case and you'll probably end up seeing abnormally (horizontally) yanked images (or if a 4:3 image is zoomed in to fit the entire width of a widescreen TV, the top and bottom will get chopped off).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aspect_ratio_%28image%29
http://www.thedigitalbits.com/articles/ana...creenorama.html

As for your second query, here are some links that should help get you started:

http://b-rad.cc/wdlxtv-live
http://b-rad.cc/optware-for-wdtv
http://b-rad.cc/wdtv-optware-tips
http://b-rad.cc/wdlxtv-app-packs

If you have any further questions regarding custom FW, do post them in the correct section.