Burned BD plays back in 4:3 only outside of computer/PowerDVD

[Adler000]

I've created a BD Disc using BDStudioLite and I am attempting to burn it to a 25GB BD-R.

I am able to successfully burn a disc, both from the BDMV/CERTIFICATE folders and from an ISO created from those folders (I've done both as tests). In both methods, the disc burns successfully, verifies, and plays back perfectly in 16:9 on PowerDVD on my computer as it should. However, when attempting to play it on my TV on both a Sony 4K Blu-Ray player and on an Xbox One S, the disc plays back in 4:3 and the image is horizontally squashed. I have triple checked the device and TV settings and there is not an issue there. I have also checked the streams in MediaInfo and they display as 16:9, so I don't know where or why this issue is arising. Other BD discs play perfectly on my Sony player and Xbox.

I'm very intrigued as to why this would be the case, especially since the finished disc plays back perfectly on PowerDVD.


For reference if needed:

BD Discs: 25GB BD-R Verbatim (https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1)

Authoring Software: BDStudioLite, muxing with tsMuxeR

Burning Software: Imgburn

Drive: Alphami External Blu-Ray Drive (https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1)

All video streams on disc are in a 1920x1080 container.
Disc plays successfully in correct aspect ratio (16:9) on drive above on PowerDVD and VLC Media Player.
Disc plays in incorrect squeezed 4:3 aspect ratio on Sony UBP-X700 4K Ultra HD Blu-Ray Player and Xbox One S.

[Deadend45]

You mean this software?
https://www.videohelp.com/software/Blu-Disc-Studio

[Katatonia]

It sounds like the ratio got somehow improperly flagged during the encode. That happened with DVD-Rs once in a while even when they had 16:9/Anamorphic flagged, but I've never heard it happen with a Blu-ray burn.

If your TV has separate ratio or zoom functions, it might be possible to "unsquish" the image so it would basically play back in the correct ratio.

[apollo828]

I'm assuming the video is MPEG-2. There's chicanery there that can make AR stuff weird if you're not careful. Granted, I've never heard of it happening with Blus, which I could've swore I read had added flags making the issue moot. (DVDs are a different story.)

[Adler000]

Thanks for the input, everybody.

@Deadend45 - Yes, I am using the discontinued Lite freeware version of that software.

@apollo828 - Yes, they are MPEG-2. I am re-encoding in MPEG4-AVC to see if that solves the issue. I ran a couple tests by re-authoring the initial MPEG-2 in MultiAVCHD and that causes the AR issue to occur on the re-authored BDMV folders even on my computer. An initial test with a MPEG4-AVC stream instead of an MPEG-2 stream fixed the issue, so I'm hopeful that it will solve it across the board.

[apollo828]

Cool. That should fix the issue. MPEG-4/H.264/AVC doesn't have this problem. MPEG-2 is ancient and less efficient, and shouldn't be used if at all possible. I refuse to touch it for my own video projects, or at the very least, I re-encode to H.264 before I edit the video. It's not worth the headaches otherwise.

EDIT: In case anybody's in a position where they must author a disc with MPEG-2, and they're having this issue, DVDPatcher can be used to correct the AR. I've used it before when I've encountered janky MPEG-2 videos. It works fine.

[Adler000]

Update:

Issue was caused by the videos being MPEG-2. Once re-encoded to MPEG-4 AVC, it worked like a charm.

Also a note if it helps anybody: I would advise against using PCM/WAV for your audio on Blu-Disc Studio Lite or it causes an awful popping/clicking sound when the stream goes to loop. Use AC-3 and it should work great; it did in my case.

Thanks again for your input, everybody!

[BijouMan]

Some earlier HD camcorders, at least at lower quality settings, actually shot anamorphic widescreen video at 1440 × 1080 as opposed to 1920 × 1080 and expected you to play back such video using the anamorphic widescreen technique.