[MPlayer-users] AVI->DVD: Problem understanding expand and scale

[Thomas Heuving]

Hello,

I'm new to mplayer and have a problem in converting from AVI to DVD.
I've read
http://www.mplayerhq.hu/DOCS/HTML/en/menc-feat-vcd-dvd.html
and afterwards tried to convert a AVI (640:368, ratio 1.74:1) to PAL-DVD.
Here's my commandline:
  mencoder -oac lavc -ovc lavc -of mpeg -mpegopts format=dvd -vf
  expand=672:378:16:4,dsize=16/9,scale=720:576,harddup
  -lavcopts aspect=16/9:acodec=ac3:abitrate=192:vcodec=mpeg2video:
  vrc_buf_size=1835:vrc_maxrate=9800:vbitrate=5000:keyint=18
  -o test.mpg -endpos 100 my.avi

This produces an MPG-File in the desired resolution and with correct
aspect-ratio, but there are no borders on the right and left, instead
tiny black-bordered rectangles on the right, which contain some
material of the original video from the left side.

If I do it in two steps, first
  mencoder -oac lavc -ovc lavc -of mpeg -mpegopts format=dvd -vf
  expand=672:378:16:4,dsize=16/9,harddup
  -lavcopts aspect=16/9:acodec=ac3:abitrate=192:vcodec=mpeg2video:
  vrc_buf_size=1835:vrc_maxrate=9800:vbitrate=5000:keyint=18
  -o test.mpg -endpos 100 my.avi

and then
  mencoder -oac lavc -ovc lavc -of mpeg -mpegopts format=dvd -vf
  scale=720:576,harddup
  -lavcopts aspect=16/9:acodec=ac3:abitrate=192:vcodec=mpeg2video:
  vrc_buf_size=1835:vrc_maxrate=9800:vbitrate=5000:keyint=18
  -o test2.mpg -endpos 100 test.mpg

all looks fine.

What's wrong with my approach? What's different in
doing the conversions in two invocations of mencoder?

Best regards
-- 
Thomas Heuving