Anamorphic playback

[latchkey]

I know that Quicktime, and thus iTunes and the other applications/devices powered by Quicktime, won't play files with the new Anamorphic encoding and that instead you need a recent version of mplayer or vlc. But I don't think I've seen anywhere, just how recent your version needs to be.

Are these latest binaries good for playback? And has anyone tested with earlier versions?
mplayer 1.0rc1: http://www.mplayerhq.hu/design7/dload.html
vlc 0.8.6a: http://www.videolan.org/vlc/

[jbrjake]

Are these latest binaries good for playback? And has anyone tested with earlier versions?
mplayer 1.0rc1: http://www.mplayerhq.hu/design7/dload.html
vlc 0.8.6a: http://www.videolan.org/vlc/

The latest releases should be fine. I imagine older ones would be too. I don't like to keep old copies of VLC around, though, because when you get too many on one hard drive they tend to fight to the death for supremacy.

[latchkey]

Ok, I'm having some playback problems all around then.

I've done test encodes with two different anamorphic DVD's and so far the only one I can get correct playback with is actually quicktime.

VLC plays all clips, though sometimes crashes when I try and scan through them, and mplayer reliably plays the first few seconds of audio only and closes, not attempting to handle the video at all.

I've tried encoding with constant quality, average bitrate, and target size, all with x.264 single pass. I'm using the 0.8.0b1 binary on a ppc mac.

Screenshots of quicktime and vlc playback of same clip:

Quicktime:
http://i153.photobucket.com/albums/s239 ... orphic.png

VLC:
http://i153.photobucket.com/albums/s239 ... orphic.png

[jbrjake]

Ok, I'm having some playback problems all around then.

Could you provide a screenshot from within VLC, please? That would give me the actual storage dimensions of your output. It's hard to tell with the black bars. Why are the black bars there, anyway? You did leave the cropping alone, right? Also, what is the aspect ratio of the film?

[latchkey]

Screenshots as requested.

vlc, not full screened: http://i153.photobucket.com/albums/s239 ... erinfo.png

quicktime, not full screened:
http://i153.photobucket.com/albums/s239 ... erinfo.png

I did indeed leave the cropping alone. If it is of any help, even when my dvd player is doing anamorphic corrections there are still some black bars on the screen. In fact it looks exactly like the bars in the quicktime shot.

The DVD is widescreen format. I'm not sure how to get more detailed aspect ratio info than that. I ran one of the vobs through mplayer and have included the output below. If there is a better method, please let me know.

-----mplayer output from original vob playback------
Playing VTS_05_1.VOB.
MPEG-PS file format detected.
VIDEO: MPEG2 720x480 (aspect 3) 29.970 fps 9800.0 kbps (1225.0 kbyte/s)
==========================================================================
Opening audio decoder: [liba52] AC3 decoding with liba52
Using AltiVec optimized IMDCT transform
AC3: 2.0 (stereo) 48000 Hz 192.0 kbit/s
Checking for AltiVec resampler : 0x00000002, 2
Using AltiVec optimized resampler
AUDIO: 48000 Hz, 2 ch, s16be, 192.0 kbit/12.50% (ratio: 24000->192000)
Selected audio codec: [a52] afm: liba52 (AC3-liba52)
==========================================================================
==========================================================================
Opening video decoder: [mpegpes] MPEG 1/2 Video passthrough
VDec: vo config request - 720 x 480 (preferred colorspace: Mpeg PES)
Could not find matching colorspace - retrying with -vf scale...
Opening video filter: [scale]
The selected video_out device is incompatible with this codec.
Also try adding the scale filter, e.g. -vf spp,scale instead of -vf spp.
VDecoder init failed
Opening video decoder: [libmpeg2] MPEG 1/2 Video decoder libmpeg2-v0.4.0b
Selected video codec: [mpeg12] vfm: libmpeg2 (MPEG-1 or 2 (libmpeg2))
==========================================================================
Building audio filter chain for 48000Hz/2ch/s16be -> 0Hz/0ch/s8...
AO: [macosx] 48000Hz 2ch s16be (2 bytes per sample)
Building audio filter chain for 48000Hz/2ch/s16be -> 48000Hz/2ch/s16be...
Starting playback...
VDec: vo config request - 720 x 480 (preferred colorspace: Planar YV12)
VDec: using Planar YV12 as output csp (no 0)
Movie-Aspect is 1.78:1 - prescaling to correct movie aspect.
VO: [quartz] 720x480 => 854x480 Planar YV12
A: 0.7 V: 0.7 A-V: 0.053 ct: 0.043 17/ 14 62% 11% 6.4% 0 0
demux_mpg: 24000/1001fps progressive NTSC content detected, switching framerate.
A: 29.6 V: 29.7 A-V: -0.090 ct: 0.279 1133/1130 14% 19% 3.7% 63 0
A: 42.0 V: 42.0 A-V: 0.016 ct: 0.179 1191/1188 8% 11% 5.0% 0 0
===== PAUSE =====

[jbrjake]

Screenshots as requested.

Err...not exactly. Please give me a screenshot from within VLC. You choose "Snapshot" from the "Video" menu to do this. It also has to be full-sized.

All I can tell you right now is that either QuickTime is distorting it in a way I cannot reproduce on my computer or you've changed the display size away from its actual size, because it should never be wider than 854 or taller than 480 for an NTSC DVD, and what QuickTime displays here is 720*480, the storage dimensions.

I did indeed leave the cropping alone. If it is of any help, even when my dvd player is doing anamorphic corrections there are still some black bars on the screen. In fact it looks exactly like the bars in the quicktime shot.

There are no bars in the QuickTime shot...you mean the VLC shot?

I'll say it again--the VLC shot is the one that looks correct me...that holds true for both you've provided.

Also, you can look up the film's aspect ratio at the iMDB or on Amazon. That would be very helpful. I'm working under the assumption it's 2.35:1 because that's what it looks like to me...

[latchkey]

You are correct, it does look like a quicktime preset somewhere is distorting the video. Both the dvd in question and the other one I have been testing with are 2.35:1 aspect, as you surmised. Interestingly, Quicktime is distorting it in exactly the same way as my dvd player, which had fooled me into expecting less letterboxing from this ratio than appears physically posible.

VLC anamorphic snapshot:
http://i153.photobucket.com/albums/s239 ... 086239.png

and the same film without the anamorphic option

VLC w/out anamorphic snapshot:
http://i153.photobucket.com/albums/s239 ... 099115.png

If you open the actual files next to each other it is clear that the anamorphic snapshot is both taller and wider.

As far as the Quicktime playback, I had stretched the playback window trying to get it to the point of displaying black bars, they basically only appear closer towards full screen sizing, as in the original http://i153.photobucket.com/albums/s239 ... orphic.png When I open the file in quicktime initially it is at '712 x 364 pixels' for both 'Normal Size' and 'Current Size'. I can't find any setting that changes the playback stretching; everything seems to be at the defaults for the version, which is 7.1.3.

Sorry for causing any concern.