Anyone else finding that when ConvertX automatically converts to widescreen, the aspect ratio isn't correct? Either the left/right edges are cut off, or the picture is stretched out a little widthways. It's noticable because instead of widescreen, you actually end up with something that looks a little panned and scanned pulled into a widescreen box. I can make my TV adjust the aspect ratio, but you've still lost part of the picture. This has ruined several conversions.

I have exactly the same problem. I've posted it on cdr-zone and they told me it was a problem with my dvd player. I'm trying to adjust the settings, but even the menu picture is cropped!

I don't think it is a problem with my player as both the older 1.xx versions of DivXToDVD got it right, and Avi2DVD gets it right. I think ConvertX is not getting it right when you have a movie that is in a widescreen format, but is not fully widescreen and so has bars at the top and bottom. Instead of leaving the bars at the top, and showing the full width, ConvertX will chop the sides off and stretch what's left out to a widescreen format.

Almost looks like ConvertX is only considering the movie part of the stream, and not counting any black bars that are part of the picture, so it's getting size/aspect ratio wrong.

I've actually remembered last time I saw this kind of behaviour. It was in Nero Vision Express when converting to SVCD. Instead of putting the width to SVCD size and then putting black bars into the top and bottom, it would strech the height to SVCD height, make the width the correct aspect ratio, but outside the SVCD width limit, thus making a taller picture, but cropping the left and right.

Obviously the correct thing to do is not to expand the picture so far that the sides get cropped.

log files please

They don't show any problems:

12/02/2006 19:33:48 info ********** Report session closed ***********
12/02/2006 19:32:40 info New media inserted. Burning layer is ready to write
12/02/2006 19:17:48 info Conversion completed in 00:58:38
12/02/2006 19:15:44 info Chapter #19 start at 89:59.640
12/02/2006 19:12:54 info Chapter #18 start at 84:59.640
12/02/2006 19:10:00 info Chapter #17 start at 79:59.640
12/02/2006 19:06:56 info Chapter #16 start at 74:59.640
12/02/2006 19:03:35 info Chapter #15 start at 69:59.640
12/02/2006 19:00:22 info Chapter #14 start at 64:59.640
12/02/2006 18:57:01 info Chapter #13 start at 59:59.640
12/02/2006 18:53:40 info Chapter #12 start at 54:59.640
12/02/2006 18:50:33 info Chapter #11 start at 49:59.640
12/02/2006 18:47:25 info Chapter #10 start at 44:59.640
12/02/2006 18:44:13 info Chapter #9 start at 39:59.640
12/02/2006 18:41:06 info Chapter #8 start at 34:59.640
12/02/2006 18:37:51 info Chapter #7 start at 29:59.640
12/02/2006 18:34:32 info Chapter #6 start at 24:59.640
12/02/2006 18:31:29 info Chapter #5 start at 19:59.640
12/02/2006 18:28:29 info Chapter #4 start at 14:59.640
12/02/2006 18:25:29 info Chapter #3 start at 9:59.640
12/02/2006 18:22:10 info Chapter #2 start at 4:59.640
12/02/2006 18:19:09 info Stream #2 Sync. delay : 0.00 ms
12/02/2006 18:19:09 info Stream #1 Sync. delay : 0.00 ms
12/02/2006 18:19:09 info Stream #0 Sync. delay : 0.00 ms
12/02/2006 18:19:09 info Output Stream#2 - External subtitle (en)
12/02/2006 18:19:09 info Output Stream#1 - Audio: ac3, 48000 Hz, stereo, 192 kb/s
12/02/2006 18:19:09 info Output Stream#0 - Video: mpeg2video, yuv420p, 720x576, q=2-31, 6135 kb/s
12/02/2006 18:19:09 info Video Stream #0 framerate : 25.00 Fps, no pulldown
12/02/2006 18:19:09 info Padded source image : Left 0, Top 64, Right 0, Bottom 64
12/02/2006 18:19:08 info Video source original frame rate: 25.00
12/02/2006 18:19:08 info PAL 25 FPS output format set automatically
12/02/2006 18:19:08 info Widescreen (16:9) set automatically
12/02/2006 18:19:08 info Video bitrate 0/6135/8308 Kbps (min/avg/max)
12/02/2006 18:19:08 info Converting "F:\Documents and Settings\John\My Documents\My Videos\test\test.avi"
12/02/2006 18:19:08 info ----------------Title #1----------------
12/02/2006 18:19:08 info Project size 4.3 Gb. (128 Mb. audio - 4.17 Gb. video)
12/02/2006 18:19:08 info Stream #1 - Audio: mp3, 48000 Hz, stereo, 96 kb/s
12/02/2006 18:19:08 info Stream #0 - Video: mpeg4, yuv420p, 592x256
12/02/2006 18:19:08 info 2 Stream(s) found - est. duration 01:33:26.880
12/02/2006 18:19:08 info Opening file "F:\Documents and Settings\John\My Documents\My Videos\test\test.avi"
12/02/2006 18:19:08 info [ ] Engine Log
12/02/2006 18:19:08 info Encoder quality: 50%
12/02/2006 18:19:08 info [ ] Menu
12/02/2006 18:16:38 info User default language : 2057 (0x0809h) - English (United Kingdom)
12/02/2006 18:16:38 info System default language : 2057 (0x0809h) - English (United Kingdom)
12/02/2006 18:16:38 info Version 2.0.4.104
12/02/2006 18:16:38 info ExeName : "C:\Program Files\vso\ConvertXtoDVD\ConvertXtoDvd.exe"
12/02/2006 18:16:38 info OS : Microsoft Windows XP Professional Service Pack 2 (Build 2600)
12/02/2006 18:16:37 info ******************** Report session started ********************


This is the same file I posted in the other thread as it is also showing this issue. However I have older logs (from the previous 2.xx versions) that also show no problems but can't get the aspect ratio/cropping correct. I also think this "over stretching" is causing an unessessary loss of picture quality, as well as losing the full picture.

There's definatly something broken in ConvertX - if I playback something that (say) should have the word "uni***sal" across the start, you can't see the U or the L in any aspect ratio. I think it's doing what I suggested above. It's scaling up the height to the widescreen DVD pixel height standard, then making the width match in the correct aspect ratio, and my player or TV is chopping off the sides because ConvertX is putting the edges outside of the standard DVD width limits.

This is why I think the IQ has gone down - I'm losing picture width and what's left is then being unessessarily stretched to fit.

BTW, I can play these disks back okay on my PC, but not on my standalone, even though DivXToDVD 1.99.xx created perfectly working disks in the exact same way.

Okay, more info. I went back and reinstalled the last 1.99.xx I had, and re-encoded some content I still had. 1.99 gave me the perfect aspect ratio, full picture width in a 16:9 ratio with small black bars at the top and bottom. Subs still don't appear though.

I went back and checked some of the other stuff I'd done with 2.04, and it looks terrible in comparison, with about 12 percent of the picture cropped off the left and the right of what should be widescreen, and then expanded to fill the widescreen format, causing lots of artifacts and a distorted picture. I checked some TV shows and they looked even worse - as bad as VCD done with Nerovision, with even bigger (relative to the content) crops on the left and right. I can fiddle with my TV's aspect ratio to get something semi-watchable, but I lose content from all edges by blowing up the picture to the middle only. I didn't buy a widescreen TV in order to expand wide-screen content.

I don't know what more to say really. 2.04 just produces fine results on my PC, but is absolutely atrocious on my standalone, whereas DivxtoDVD 1.99 is great. Given that the whole point of ConvertX is to produce a playable, compatible disc for your standalone player, 2.04 has some major bugs that ruin the picture quality, crop out content, and get the aspect ratio wrong.


It would be really nice to have a VSO rep acknowledge the problem (this is after all listed at the VSO site as a VSO support forum) and give me some hope that there will be a fix in the future.

I have to agree with you, I have been unable to make this software convert run of the mill .avi TV rips into viewable DVDs. This should be really easy.
Even providing some documentation on the choices available might be helpful. I don't really understand the support model for this company.
I had heard good things, but I now regret the time and effort spent.

I see your thread below mine. The answer is "use 1.99 versions". 2.xx never, ever gets the aspect ratio or scaling right and crops the picture. Looks fine on the PC, unusable on the standalone.

I'm having the same problem, i just purchased this software and its my first conversion. I'm using a 4:3 tv with the a new sony dvd player set to 4:3 letterbox mode. When I play the dvd produced by convertx the left and right sides are slightly cropped. I tried both 4:3 and automatic format modes and they both produced exactly the same results. Does anyone know where to download the previous version? Thanks.

Well, I had the same problem, I burned a DVD converted from divx by ConvertXtoDVD and, as always, I tried it in the PC, everything was perfect, I liked the menu and I liked the new capability of the subtitles processor to convert adequately the italics.

But in my main DVD player the image was stretched and badly cropped (and don't start with the configuration of the player, is not the first anamorphic DVD that I try to see in it).

The thing is, when my son was viewing the DVD on his DVD player... everything was right!!!!

Now I am confused...

I think some players, especially the more recent ones, will have workarounds in the firmware for non-compliant DVDs. If you have an older player, or strict player, whatever is broken in ConvertX is confusing your player and it's not getting the correct aspect ratio info from the ConvertX generated file.

Well, sounds logical, I can only hope that VSO has now enough knowledge of the problem to correct it...

Hello,
resize problem is a pretty tough one.

ConvertX doesn't consider the insight of the video, only its total size as it is provided by the input decoder.

So if you have a source in pan-scan but black bar are part or the video, when you convert that to 16:9 for convertx source is 4:3, so will add 2 black bars at left/right, and the result is that you have a tiny image with 4 large black bars on every edge of the video.

We need to provide an extra setting to decide if the video must be resized to fully fit the screen, or cropped then resized to fully fit. More control on resize/crop is in the task list, expect this in a near future version.

But this cropping/stretching problem wasn't happening in DivxToDVD, can't you just reset that part of the code to the previous version?

Well most of the files I have are TV rips with VBR audio... Imagine my disappointment when I first tried ConvertXToDVD: with DivXToDVD I couldn't get audio and video synchronized; with ConvertXToDVD I get a stretched/cropped picture...

I'm also seeing widescreen sources getting chopped left and right as above when going to 16:9. It's like you take the widescreen source and crop it into 4:3 and then stretch it up to 16:9. This is either a severe bug or a real problem in the logic of how ConvertX is working.

DivxToDVD seems to manage it with no problems though, what's the problem with ConvertX? Why can't you incorportate the methods that DivxToDVD used to decide how to scale files into ConvertX?

My main worry is that if you add loads of manual options for this, there will be a lot of wasted time converting files, burning them to disc and then finding they are wrong and having to go and redo them with different settings. I don't want to have to experiment manually with every file to find the optimum settings, maybe wasting hours for something the older software managed to do with no problems. This would make ConvertX extremely unfriendly to use.

The problem is that software players have obviously had enough workarounds built in to handle the incorrect files that ConvertX is creating, so you can't even see what the result is on your PC. It's only when you burn to disc and test on a standalone you get a full, strict test of the conversion.

It's extremely frustrating to go from a really good DivxToDVD to ConvertX with nice extra features like menu creation, and then find that ConvertX can't even convert files properly. I think this is a major problem that should be addressed immediately, because right now you are cropping out content and degrading picture quality even when going from 16:9 to 16:9. This shouldn't be a "nice thing to have" option for some time in the future, this is basic functionality that just isn't working right at all. ConvertX is currently completely useless for me and the others that have posted into this thread.

Sorry to sound so annoyed, but I've wasted a lot of time and effort over the last week and trashed a lot of discs, and you don't seem to see the seriousness of the changes you have made in how ConvertX scales compared to DivXToDVD, and how you've basically destroyed what used to be a great product. It's like you've taken two steps forward and ten steps back.

I totally agree with you. Since I bought ConvertXToDVD I've wasted a lot of time (and disks) trying to figure out was going wrong.

I still think that this problem can be fixed in an easy and fast way, since it should be a matter of reverting to the original code right?

I don't think it will be that simple because ConvertX is supposed to use a completely new transcoding engine. We don't really know how much of the old code was reused. However, DivXToDVD obviously uses techniques, logic and algorithms that work correctly. Those same techniques (that work correctly) and the code that implements them could be implemented in the new engine.

The question is really how seriously VSO takes these problems. Certainly from my point of view it should not be "something for a future version" type of fix, it should be an immediate major bug fix pushed to the top of the list of things to do. Right now the program is worse than useless to me, because it produces files that a software player can workaround, that then do not work on a strict standalone. It seems to create a perfect file, but then you find the file is mangled when you try to use it as intended on a standalone.

If ConvertX can only make files that can be viewed on a PC, but not on a standalone, then what is the point of ConvertX at all? Why convert if you can only see things properly on your PC that can handle Xvid or Divx natively anyway? I really just want something that works like DivxToDVD but with the menu handling of ConvertX. I'd also like working subs, but that's another problem.

The question is really how seriously VSO takes these problems. Certainly from my point of view it should not be "something for a future version" type of fix, it should be an immediate major bug fix pushed to the top of the list of things to do. Right now the program is worse than useless to me, because it produces files that a software player can workaround, that then do not work on a strict standalone. It seems to create a perfect file, but then you find the file is mangled when you try to use it as intended on a standalone.


I could not agree with you more.
It is unacceptable that I have to waste hours doing conversions and burning DVDs to see if it 'works'.
It is silly to have to post concerns like this on these forums.
WHat a joke.
Waste of money.
Time to try another solution.
Good bye VSO.
Next time try customer service.

Well, personally, I don't think they would write the conversion engine from scratch, specially if we think of the great qualities DivxToDVD had. Anyway, by adding (changing?) that resize/stretch thing, VSO introduced a major bug on their software.

This problem HAS TO BE their top priority right now! There are a lot of great aspects about this program, but everything is absolutely useless if you need a "special" dvd player for it to work properly!

Don't forget the VBR audio support, which most tools don't have.

I still think this is the best tool for converting videos to DVD. However, if they don't fix this problem fast, I think we should all ask for a refund...

I'm having the same problems as all of you above. Does anyone still have a link to the 1.99 old version? I upgraded to 2.04 and cannot find my old version?