Quote: Thank you contributors for trying to help me. My non-tech program person simply tells me "it must be 4 x 3" and gives me this attached sheet. But my question is, WHICH format is best, since the film is presently h.264.

I don't think a black box is a nice enough presentation... but I don't want a squished look. HELP! Thanks again.

Hi, Angela!

You won't get a "squished" look, but I'm afraid you're stuck with black vertical bars either side of the image if you happen to be able to view your production through the station you're submitting to, as they are only transmitting analogue, and analogue is firmly tied to 4:3 aspect ratio. As it happens, a lot of flat-screen sets have digital AND analogue TV reception capabilities so you'be be able to see your work broadcast if you lived in that station's service area, but because of the analogue standard, them ol' black bars are the price one must pay..... such is the "nature of the beast", I'm afraid!

Cheers!

Neil.

Neil, in US there is no more analog TV signal... From June 12, 2009 for all big stations and from March 29, 2016 for the remaining Low Power TV Stations.

Quote: wow Tomasc that explains it! I always wondered why my peg2 never had images...and, I didn't know that Pd14 had that creative workaround. Many thanks.

Don't you love Microsoft and their great wisdom?

You can install a player that does play DVD's and Mpeg-2 videos.

VLC is free, I am pretty sure VLC will play DVDs and Mpeg-2 videos. Carl312: Windows 10 64-bit 8 GB RAM,AMD Phenom II X4 965 3.4 GHz,ATI Radeon HD 5770 1GB,240GB SSD,two 1TB HDs.

Quote:

Quote: wow Tomasc that explains it! I always wondered why my peg2 never had images...and, I didn't know that Pd14 had that creative workaround. Many thanks.

Don't you love Microsoft and their great wisdom?

I guess some of that is partially correct. To my knowledge WIN10 offered for free a DVD player for MPEG2 DVD playback as part of upgrade for those with a qualified platform. MPEG2 files will playback fine with MediaPlayer. The Windows Media Center which several utilized and liked as part of earlier WIN packages was uninstalled to the dislike of many.

Attached pics of both playback options in WIN10. Pure WIN10, no added 3rd party codec packages. Windows10 DVD player playback a DVD created by PD and MediaPlayer playback of a MPEG2 produced by PD. Yes, pic and audio playback fine in both.

Jeff

I have confirmed what angela123 see with her win 10. The wmp plays back audio with no video. This is not a pc where win 7 is upgraded to win 10 that Jeff has. This is a win 10 pc upgraded from win 8.1. This is not my pc.

Opened PD12 in the win 10 pc and produced the sample file Nature.wmv to mpeg-2 720x480/60i 8Mbps for dvd. See the playback result of the same produce.mpg in each of the 4 players screenshot on this pc.

wmp.jpg – No visible playback of video. Audio playback is heard.(win 10 supplied)

Mtv.jpg - Movie & TV player with popup message Can’t play.(win 10 supplied)

Vlc.jpg – Video and audio playback is fine.(3rd party)

Pmp.jpg – Cyberlink Power Media Player plays the video and audio just fine.(3rd party)

It looks like none of the two supplied win 10 players will play the produce.mpg. Both vlc and cyberlink Power Media Player is okay playing that mpeg-2 file just fine.

According to the win 10 forum mpeg video files do not play. A workaround is to install codecs: http://www.tenforums.com/general-support/4334-playing-mpeg-file.html . Same here: http://www.dslreports.com/forum/r30223265-WIN10-WIN10-No-Longer-Plays-mpg-files-Help .

I am almost sure that if I ever upgrade my pc from win 7 to win 10 within a limited time then the result would be what Jeff found. Others are not so lucky.

This is the 4th player in the win 10 pc tested.

PowerDVD from Cyberlink will play DVDs, BluRay, and many Video Files. It is not free.

Here is a list of current players for Windows 10. Many are free.

http://www.5kplayer.com/video-music-player/top-5-media-players-for-windows-10.htm Carl312: Windows 10 64-bit 8 GB RAM,AMD Phenom II X4 965 3.4 GHz,ATI Radeon HD 5770 1GB,240GB SSD,two 1TB HDs.

Quote: I have confirmed what angela123 see with her win 10. The wmp plays back audio with no video. This is not a pc where win 7 is upgraded to win 10 that Jeff has.

Sorry tomsac, this was not a WIN7 upgrade to WIN10, nor did I say or imply that it was. It was however a WIN8.1 to WIN10 update, and done recently, yesterday in fact. My understanding for this to work is one simply needed Media Center loaded and functional on the box prior to updating to WIN10. Yes new installs of WIN10 a different story, I understood this player was a MS bone for old Media Center users.

angela123 did a full WIN10 reinstall here http://forum.cyberlink.com/forum/posts/list/47368.page#246724 and probably lost that capability then, if she had it, depending on approach taken for full WIN10 reinstall.

From what I've understood, one can have native WIN10 playback with no 3rd party packages as long as you had the capability previously via Media Center in WIN7 or WIN8 approved packages and do the upgrade.

Jeff

Quote: Neil, in US there is no more analog TV signal... From June 12, 2009 for all big stations and from March 29, 2016 for the remaining Low Power TV Stations.

Hello, SoNic67!

For a second, I thought you had me, but I scrolled back to the original post, dated 21st April this year(2016), a month after low-power(including community stations) made the switch from analogue to digital(aside: I'm very surprised here because it requires a heck of a lot more power to cover the same area with digital than it did with analogue transmission).

Angela, it may serve you well to get in touch with that station and find out if their technical needs have changed. Judging though, from your OP, I'm not quite sure anymore. Has this station upgraded(has some benefactor stumped up the necessary "moolah" to buy digital gear?) or are they still plodding along in analogue, in spite of the March 2016 deadline?, Like I said, Angela, get in touch with them and find out what's going on. It's in your best interests to do so.

Cheers!

Neil.

Thanks, I have been in touch with the station contact, but the department assigned to community access is not terribly technical.. For now, I produced, and they accepted, the mpeg format that is standard in the program. I will find out from the viewers how it looks, because the station people can only see it on their computers in another state. Thanks everyone. We can close this post now. Have a great week!

Quote: Thanks, I have been in touch with the station contact, but the department assigned to community access is not terribly technical.. For now, I produced, and they accepted, the mpeg format that is standard in the program. I will find out from the viewers how it looks, because the station people can only see it on their computers in another state. Thanks everyone. We can close this post now. Have a great week!

Hi Angela,

Get someone at the station to record it for you on a VHS machine(modern PVR set-top boxes only receive digital signals) so you'll get an idea of how it looked as it was broadcast. As this station has obviously missed the deadline for switching to digital and are still transmitting in analogue, the old museum-piece technology shall have one last "hurrah"!

Cheers!

Neil.

Public Access TV in the United States is digital and are usually carried on the local cable network. In the past some have tried Ustream and Livestream and others on the internet. I believe that some have tried YouTube for live streaming. Analog died a long time ago for popularity. The few low power analog transmitter for hobby and neighborhood use may not now be operating anymore according to Sonic67.

Try this website: http://streema.com/tv/genre/Public_Access . Angela123 – you might find that station and schedule and possible streaming here.

Thanks everyone. We can close this now.

My computer came with windows 10 preinstalled.

Quote: My computer came with windows 10 preinstalled.

If native WIN10 then you simply need buy Windows DVD Player from windows store or another app free and/or paid that plays DVDs as was mentioned earlier.

Jeff

I do recall the win dvd player available for win 8.1 home premium edition for $10. I just don’t see it available anymore for win 10. Could you supply a working link to it if found in the windows store.

YIKES!

SORRY, IT BUTTON TOO FAST.
YIKES, I just submitted my show and then watched it on my hardrive, and noticed that the mpeg file produced blurry titles.

Quote: SORRY, IT BUTTON TOO FAST.
YIKES, I just submitted my show and then watched it on my hardrive, and noticed that the mpeg file produced blurry titles.

That may be the result of reducing a HD Video to SD quality. You go from 1920x1080 to 720x480 everything will be less clear and sharp.

720 x480 is what TV we had before HD TV came along. Digital Transition happened June 12, 2009 in the United States.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_television_transition_in_the_United_States.

It has been long enough that viewers of TV have forgotten how Standard Definition TV looked on our TV sets. If you have Video tape from your VHS VCR, you can see what it looked like then. VHS Video Tape Recorders, recorded in SD (720x480). Compared to Digital Video Recorders (DVR), they are pretty poor quality. Carl312: Windows 10 64-bit 8 GB RAM,AMD Phenom II X4 965 3.4 GHz,ATI Radeon HD 5770 1GB,240GB SSD,two 1TB HDs.

Quote: I do recall the win dvd player available for win 8.1 home premium edition for $10. I just don’t see it available anymore for win 10. Could you supply a working link to it if found in the windows store.

Here you go tomasc, https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/store/apps/windows-dvd-player/9nblggh2j19w the "Get the app" button will be blue (pic attached) when this app page is loaded on WIN10 platform and will prompt for your Microsoft Store login credentials. I'm simply guessing yours is not active since you specifically ask for a working link, which simply means you loaded the page on a non WIN10 platform. My guess is Microsoft, to appease the lowest common denominator user, appears to try and help them not download an app unsuited for their platform hence the non active "Get the app" button in such instances. This makes it tough/confusing for those perusing.

In the case of a "qualified" platform during a update to WIN10, one should see a KB3081704 update that downloads and makes the the free Windows DVD Player available as I had shown on the other post with pics showing playback. Microsoft has said this is for a limited time, I've never seen a cutoff date advertised.

I'm in no way advocating or promoting the Windows DVD Player, the user has plenty of choices and this is simply one of them.

Jeff

Thank you for the link to the win 10 dvd player. It opens with a price tag of $15. Don’t have win 10 but think that win 10 users might want it. Surprised at the low users reviews.

I don’t feel like giving up the win media center for what users call a rip off and scam, etc. to upgrade to win 10 for this.