16x9 from DVRaptor Rt2

[Ron Evans]

My normal process for encoding long show ( over 2 hours ) is to output from my DVRaptor RT2 to my Panasonic E15 recording on DVR-RAM then author with DVDLab. To date that has been 4x3 SD. I now have tried the same with wide screen DV, no such luck. Preview monitor in Edius shows wide screen correctly but DVRaptor link to E15 or analogue out to TV monitor show squeezed picture. I expect I have to set up DVRaptor RT2 somehow? This program is now encoding with Procoder Express and showing many hours, over 6 hours if the present progress is any guide as apposed to about 3 hours to output, author and burn disc my normal way!!!!
Maybe I should buy Firecoder!!

Ron Evans

[GrassValley_BH]

DV (and DVD) widescreen output, because it's anamorphic, depends on the receiving device to "know" that the image is supposed to be stretched to widescreen.

In S-Video there's a trigger that some devices can send/detect. Otherwise you'll have to set your display and/or recording device to widescreen mode.

[Angelo]

I have the DVStorm and your DVRaptor RT2 is outputting correctly. Your TV has to be setup to 16:9 in it's setup menu, if it has a setting as not all 4:3 TVs give your selectable aspect ratio. I think some low-end 4:3 TVs from JVC have selectable aspect ratio, but you'll have to look into it.

...Angelo

[Ron Evans]

I will play some more thanks.

Ron Evans

[antonsvideo]

most DVD recorders don't understand 16:9, don't worry

simply do what you do and then patch the resulting m2v with free software called DVDPatcher

it allows you to change 4:3 flag to 16:9 and it only takes a minute to patch the whole file

after that, DVD-Lab will correctly see the file as 16:9

[Ron Evans]

An update. The E15 sees the file correctly but when it is recording it outputs a squeezed picture. On playback it correctly letterboxes the output. I was just watching it as it recorded. The output from the DVRaptor analogue is of course always squeezed.
Anton I also noticed that DVDlab has the utility you mentioned to correct the flag.
Thanks again.
By the way the 5 hours it took Procoder express to encode the output was not as good as the Panasonic!!!!
I had read somewhere that the Firecoder uses the Panasonic encoder chip. Is this the same chip as in my Panasonic E15?

Ron Evans

[GrassValley_BH]

FireCoder doesn't use a Panasonic chip, unless VIXS is owned by Matsushita/Panasonic...

[Ron Evans]

Hi Brandon, looking at the available cards maybe the NX Express would be a good choice for me to upgrade to from my DVRaptor RT2 maybe giving me what I want in speed and the ability to deal with my FX1 and SR7 output to SD DVD?

Ron Evans

[GrassValley_BH]

Hi Brandon, looking at the available cards maybe the NX Express would be a good choice for me to upgrade to from my DVRaptor RT2 maybe giving me what I want in speed and the ability to deal with my FX1 and SR7 output to SD DVD?

It'd be a great upgrade to stay current, but if you're expecting EDIUS NX Express hardware to perform faster/better than your DVRaptor RT2 hardware in DV, it won't. They're perform the same.

However, you get a number of other benefits from upgrading to EDIUS NX Express:

• Analog capture to DV, HQ, Lossless and Uncompressed
• Analog input filtering
• Component video output
• Support for HD resolutions and formats
• Hardware SD MPEG-2/MPEG-4 encoder

IMHO, it's a wise upgrade.

[Ron Evans]

Thanks Brandon
yes I realize that for DV they will perform the same. I am looking at moving to 16x9 as well as editing from HDV and AVCHD then encoding for SD DVD so if my understanding is correct the NX would maybe perform faster than my current approach with SD of using the Panasonic to encode in realtime. With 4.5 appearing soon I may well be able to accomplish everything inside Edius with hardware accelerated encoding?

Ron Evans

[GrassValley_BH]

With 4.5 appearing soon I may well be able to accomplish everything inside Edius with hardware accelerated encoding?

The hardware acceleration from the SD MPEG-2/MPEG-4 encoder on the Expansion board applies only when outputing to compatible formats, of course, but yes.