Serviio

ARRRGGGG!!!!

I can not get DVD (vob) files to fit fullscreen on my LG TV through DLNA. Its killing me knowing how close I could be. Every movie is squished with letterboxing on the sides and a few have letterboxing all around. The TV has only to ratio settings which does not help. LG claims its a DLNA problem but the same files work fine on the USB port. Is there something I'm missing? Should I try to re-encode the DVD (vob) files differently or set serviio up differently? Is it possible without transcoding?

Thanks for any help,
Throck.

You could transcode it into mpeg4 or other format the TV plays natively (almost everything).

You could have a look at this topic where we play with ffmpeg options to change resolution/aspect ratio.

Illico,
I will try that, but dont think LG TV's can decipher VOB correctly.

ZIPs response confirmed what I already suspected. I just did not want to have to take an extra step.

So for anyone that has an LG TV , this is what I had to do to incorporate my DVD (vob) collection with DLNA with correct aspect ratios.
My server is running on Ubuntu 10.4. I use Handbrake to encode the video_ts (vob files) into MKV or MP4. I set Handbrake to encode to the highest qaulity and same aspect ratio/resolution. My LG TV finds it and views it correctly without any sound or video issues. There is no adjustment what-so-ever to the server or TV. All transcoding done before hand using Handrake. An added benefit is now I have the ability to fast forward and rewind. The DVD (vob) did not .

The result is LG needs to upgrade their firmware to accept video_ts (vob,buf,ts) containers. Until then thanks for your help.

Throck

I think the problem may be that the LG TVs don't seem to handle anamorphic video. I've seen it with VOB files; I've also seen it with MKV files generated by Handbrake with the anamorphic option enabled. Basically, anamorphic DVD video uses the standard 4:3 720 x 480 frame, but makes the pixels wider, to fit a 16:9 HDTV screen. If the TV doesn't recognize the flag that says it's an anamorphic image, it just displays it in a 4:3 ratio, and you get black bars on the side.

Info on anamorphic video here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anamorphic_widescreen

Somebody else having the problem on LG TV here: http://forum.videohelp.com/threads/3299 ... -Handbrake

If you re-encode with Handbrake, set the "Anamorphic (PAR)" option off and set the width and height manually to force the output to 16:9 widescreen. Otherwise you'll see the same issue.

The other problem I see (hear) with LG TVs and VOB files and Serviio is that an alternate audio track often gets selected, like the director's commentary or another language. Running it through Handbrake fixes this. (I also think I see better performance with MKV-encoded videos over DLNA than with VOB files).