What, exactly, does the Cinema Plugin do? According to Archos it will (amongst other things) play VOB files. Now in order to play those files correctly, the plugin will have to understand anamorphic files as that is how most widescreen DVDs are formatted.
Anamorphic support has been occasionally discussed on this forum and the general consensus has been that Archos do not support any video files with a non-square pixel aspect ratio. I even remember reading one post (can't find it atm) where Archos were quoted as not knowing what anamorphic videos were!
If the cinema plugin doesn't support anamorphic files then all VOB files would appear as squashed 4:3 videos with black pillars. I can't believe this is the case.
The big question is: if one has the cinema plugin on a 605, will that anamorphic support be extended to other file types other than just VOB? If so then that would be fantastic news and I would certainly be snapping up a 605 right now.
Is there anyone out there with a 605 and the cinema plugin who would be able to test this and enlighten the rest of us?
Cinema plugin = anamorphic file support?
Personally, I don't think most here know what animorphic widescreen is. Some think that if there are black bars that's bad... but that MEANS NOTHING (sorry to shout, but some people have no clue).
I have the cinema plugin on a 504, widescreen movies look fine (mpeg2 rips straight from dvd).
Now with that said, there's still the file size issue of course (4GB max). So you'll need dvdshrink even so.
I have the cinema plugin on a 504, widescreen movies look fine (mpeg2 rips straight from dvd).
Now with that said, there's still the file size issue of course (4GB max). So you'll need dvdshrink even so.
Why would you need to shrink anything when the maximum size of a VOB is 1gb?cjcox wrote:Personally, I don't think most here know what animorphic widescreen is. Some think that if there are black bars that's bad... but that MEANS NOTHING (sorry to shout, but some people have no clue).
I have the cinema plugin on a 504, widescreen movies look fine (mpeg2 rips straight from dvd).
Now with that said, there's still the file size issue of course (4GB max). So you'll need dvdshrink even so.
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smallman28
- Archos Guru
- Posts: 483
- Joined: Tue Oct 24, 2006 3:14 pm
I think it makes more sence to keep the 1GB vob files cause once you use DVD shrink it will work on encoding for over half an hour and the quality will be lower since it by default uses a low complexity mpeg2 encoding mode.
So I'd say no matter the DVD, just rip all the 1GB vob files in one video_ts folder, which you can rename to the movies name when you copy that onto your Archos, which will play one file after the other and I think it shouldn't have a gap, and should play one file after the other. If it doesn't then I think a firmware update could fix that.
So I'd say no matter the DVD, just rip all the 1GB vob files in one video_ts folder, which you can rename to the movies name when you copy that onto your Archos, which will play one file after the other and I think it shouldn't have a gap, and should play one file after the other. If it doesn't then I think a firmware update could fix that.
Sorry.. my bad. Normally I just rip to an entire mpeg2 file. However, I do mistakenly refer to that as an unencrypted VOB file.... which is wrong. Sorry for the confusion.Fred Kite wrote: Why would you need to shrink anything when the maximum size of a VOB is 1gb?
My tests have been with ripped mpeg2's from the original DVD. I usually don't author unencrypted DVDs... just haven't had the need. As for what the Archos does with a directory that looks like a DVD, I don't even know.
Sorry to drag the conversation back on topic 
Anyway, that's not really the point I was making.
You could convert one of your VOB files to another format, while preserving the 720x576 (if you're using PAL) resolution and the anamorphic flag. When played back on the Archos it will either look exactly the same as the VOB or be displayed as a 4:3 picture with everything squashed up.
I'm not really sure what you're saying here. I only mentioned black pillars as a symptom of an anamorphic file being displayed incorrectly. By pillars I mean black vertical bars either side of a 4:3 image (a.k.a. pillarbox), not to be confused with letterboxing where the image will have a variety of aspect ratios.cjcox wrote:Personally, I don't think most here know what animorphic widescreen is. Some think that if there are black bars that's bad... but that MEANS NOTHING (sorry to shout, but some people have no clue).
Anyway, that's not really the point I was making.
Since you have the cinema plugin and seem to be someone who does know what anamorphic widescreen is, would you be able to test whether an anamorphic video file in any format other than VOB (e.g. MOV) is displayed correctly on the Archos or not?cjcox wrote:I have the cinema plugin on a 504, widescreen movies look fine (mpeg2 rips straight from dvd).
You could convert one of your VOB files to another format, while preserving the 720x576 (if you're using PAL) resolution and the anamorphic flag. When played back on the Archos it will either look exactly the same as the VOB or be displayed as a 4:3 picture with everything squashed up.