Resolution issues with VirtualDubMod 1.5.1 and DivX 6

[Sgaileach1]

Hi everyone. I just registered here so this is my first post, though I have been using this site for many years now.

I recently acquired the DivX Pro 6 creation pack, and I am currently attempting to use it in conjunction with DGIndex 1.4.1 b4 and VirtualDubMod 1.5.10 to compress an AVI of an anime I have worked out an extensive subscript translation for.

I ripped the main angle VOB from the DVD (which I own) without problems, and used DGIndex to create a project file and demux the video and audio to assure I don’t end up with frame drift during the encoding process.

Next I opened the demuxed .m2v in VirtualDubMod and added the .ac3 audio as a stream. Everything worked fine up to this point. Next however is where the glitches begin.

Looking at the input and output windows in VirtualDubMod, the resolution just seemed wrong. Trying to check file information from the file menu results in a crash every time, which I figured must just be a bug in this version of VDub, however it appears the input resolution of 720x480 is being interpreted somehow as being 720x540.

Next I attempted to compress using the new DivX 6 to verify this, and checking the file properties in Media Player Classic it is indeed showing a resolution of 720x540 for the output. The strange thing is, I actually tried telling the Divx codec to manually resize to 720x480 using bicubic resampling, as well as experimenting with just about every other available option, and it still ends up vertically stretched one way or the other. Most times it stretches the horizontal to fit a larger resolution of 540, and sometimes it actually sizes the video itself down horizontally to 400 and inserts black space to accommodate that oversized 540 resolution, depending on whether I force a resize or set a width and tell it to keep the aspect.

The only thing I can figure is that VirtualDubMod 1.5.10 doesn’t really handle .m2v that well yet in spite of being able to open them. As I understand it this is mainly a version designed to handle Matroska files, which I am not currently using.

Is there a way to get VirtualDub 1.6.1 to handle .m2v and .ac3 acceptably, and might this fix the problem?

Any other ideas would be very much appreciated.

[Sgaileach1]

OK, I know for certain now that it is an issue with VirtualDubMod and not DivX, because I just ran a test compression on a small chunk of my .m2v with the trial version of River Past Video Cleaner Pro 6.5.2 using the same DivX 6 codec and the output resolution was correct.

This program is not designed to handle external sound streams however, though I suppose I could attempt reloading it with VirtualDub standard now that it is AVI and just do a direct stream copy while adding the recompressed audio track. Still this is a few extra steps, not to mention I would have to purchase this additional software pack in order to do so.

Besides I really enjoy the VirtualDub interface. Does anyone know of a way to get this to work in any version of that software?

[Sgaileach1]

OK, sorry to keep posting like this, but this is really strange. As I said, output from VirtualDub shows 720x540 in media player properties when played while the same output from another program shows correctly ay 720x480. However, I just noticed that when played in the DivX player, both versions show the correct resolution.

Also, media player cannot seem to handle the 16:9 aspect while the DivX player does, and when set the display is correct. The idea however was for this to be a transport-friendly output, so if people have to go downloading a particular player and toggling aspect settings it sorta defeats the purpose.

Why media player chokes on this is beyond me. The only thing I can think of is that it simply doesn’t recognize that particular resolution and is attempting to compensate, which would be strange since it should be seeing all the codecs I have installed like any other player.

Actually, the VLC player shows the correct resolution in properties but also resizes the display with no option to force 16:9 aspect...

[Sgaileach1]

Heh, nevermind, I think I finally managed to figure it out.

So that this isn't a total waste of forum space, I'll explain what seemed to do it for me.

First off I seem to get better results by converting the .ac3 audio output from DGIndex to a wav using PX3Convert, then compressing that to a 192kbps constant bitrate MP3 using LAME. The .ac3 was just too quiet.

OK, everything else is just about the same. I open the .m2v in VirtualDubMod and add the MP3 as a stream. Before encoding however, I first go to the video menu and select filters, and add a resize filter. I then tell it to resize to 720x480, check the box that says "expand frame and letterbox image," and set that resolution to 720x540, using black as the fill color.

The output seems right in just about everything, though the encoded file size will be a bit larger to accomodate that extra "wasted" space. Oh well, it sort of looks cooler now with the subtitles added anyway.

OK, one more question for anyone who is actually reading this:

How can I force an AVI to report 16:9 aspect to video players like VOB files do?

[anonymez]

simply resize to a 16:9 resolution, such as 672x368, 720x400, etc

[Sgaileach1]

Hey, that works great. Thanks!

Sometimes it’s the obvious answers that prove the most elusive.

I just finished running the whole thing through a 2-pass encoding at “insane” quality, 2000kbps. Took it a while, but the results look awesome!

[anonymez]

glad to be of help