Sure, it looks fine on a 16:9 display if you just set it to fit to the screen so it stretches horizontally, but on 16:10 displays, you have to manually change to height of the video.
I’ve done it plenty, just seems like a weird resolution to release stuff in, especially if it’s actually 16:9 like most things these days.
SD is typically defined as 480 pixels in height. While you’re correct that it would be 640×480 for 4:3 material, you’re incorrect about 704×400 for 16:9 (that’s actually below SD). For 16:9, SD would be around 853×480.
NTSC DVDs (US, Japan) have a maximum resolution of 720×480, which is 3:2. Due to that being neither fullscreen nor widescreen, special flags are set in the video to make it display at the correct aspect ratio. This is typically referred to as an Anamorphic Aspect Ratio.
Why did we use 704×480 for this? Simply put, the DVDs had black bars that had to be cropped off. Instead of stretching the video to make it 720×480 again, or stretching it even further to 853×480, we decided to just keep that resolution but set the video to display at 16:9 anamorphic.
Thanks for the reply and clarification. I figured it was something to do with the 480p vertical resolution, and anamorphic video, but never could get a straight answer until now.
FWIW, such resolutions only display as 16:9 on newer media players, and apparently with systems that have 16:9 displays. Using a 16:10 display, most media players apparently get confused about the flags or ignore them, and just render it in 704 x 480, and any attempt to force 16:9 in settings just stretches the video disproportionately. The only way to get the correct aspect ratio in this case is manually adjusting the height.
I suspect this is why most releases are usually already in a 704 x 400, 848 x 480, etc., resolution, so it renders correctly, no flags necessary, regardless of the player or display used.
I have a 16:9 display that works just fine with such things now, but this issue persists on earlier systems, especially those with 16:10 displays, and is something encoders might need to be aware of and consider. It’s more of an annoyance than anything else, having to manually resize every single episode before you watch it sucks.
Oh, and thanks, Doki and Chihiro. Better late than never. Now if only Dys and Zdm321 could get their act together, and give me my SHUFFLE! and Haruhi-chan batches, then I’d be all catched up with all the things I’ve been waiting for ages for.
Aww, sorry about that. ; D I know you’l do it some day (you WILL, right?). : p And you’re in University huh? That does make it a bit more understandable. I’m in the same situation myself, studying my ass off! I’m really quite sick of school at this point to be honest. What are you studying?
I’m starting my fourth year of Software Engineering. The amount of homework/projects and studying has really picked up over the past year, which has severely cut into my anime time. 🙁
Ah, I hear that. I’m in my sixth semester, studying Language (English) and Literature. My anime, manga, and gaming time has been severly reduced as well…This semester I’m in England for 5 months (I come from Norway) as part of my studies, and there is a shitload of reading and essays….If I can manage it, I still have my Bachelor assignement left after that for a final semester. I am so taking a long break once I’m done with this. My “to watch” list of anime has gotten ridicilously huge at this point…Say, if you’re doing Software Engineering, are you planning on working on games!? : D Because that would be awesome! Certainly a lot more interesting than what Holo is studying (no offence Holo…).
Monday 27th February 2012 
1:17 PM 
wow thanks have been waiting for this one 😀
Stupid question probably, but why is it only in SD?
Probably because this OVA series was only released on DVD.
Thanks, sorry for the dumb question.
While we’re asking dumb questions, why 704 x 480?
704 x 400 is SD 16:9, 640 x 480 is SD 4:3.
Sure, it looks fine on a 16:9 display if you just set it to fit to the screen so it stretches horizontally, but on 16:10 displays, you have to manually change to height of the video.
I’ve done it plenty, just seems like a weird resolution to release stuff in, especially if it’s actually 16:9 like most things these days.
Thanks for the batch just the same.
SD is typically defined as 480 pixels in height. While you’re correct that it would be 640×480 for 4:3 material, you’re incorrect about 704×400 for 16:9 (that’s actually below SD). For 16:9, SD would be around 853×480.
NTSC DVDs (US, Japan) have a maximum resolution of 720×480, which is 3:2. Due to that being neither fullscreen nor widescreen, special flags are set in the video to make it display at the correct aspect ratio. This is typically referred to as an Anamorphic Aspect Ratio.
Why did we use 704×480 for this? Simply put, the DVDs had black bars that had to be cropped off. Instead of stretching the video to make it 720×480 again, or stretching it even further to 853×480, we decided to just keep that resolution but set the video to display at 16:9 anamorphic.
Thanks for the reply and clarification. I figured it was something to do with the 480p vertical resolution, and anamorphic video, but never could get a straight answer until now.
FWIW, such resolutions only display as 16:9 on newer media players, and apparently with systems that have 16:9 displays. Using a 16:10 display, most media players apparently get confused about the flags or ignore them, and just render it in 704 x 480, and any attempt to force 16:9 in settings just stretches the video disproportionately. The only way to get the correct aspect ratio in this case is manually adjusting the height.
I suspect this is why most releases are usually already in a 704 x 400, 848 x 480, etc., resolution, so it renders correctly, no flags necessary, regardless of the player or display used.
I have a 16:9 display that works just fine with such things now, but this issue persists on earlier systems, especially those with 16:10 displays, and is something encoders might need to be aware of and consider. It’s more of an annoyance than anything else, having to manually resize every single episode before you watch it sucks.
Is this 10bits?
It’s 8-bit.
Oh, and thanks, Doki and Chihiro. Better late than never. Now if only Dys and Zdm321 could get their act together, and give me my SHUFFLE! and Haruhi-chan batches, then I’d be all catched up with all the things I’ve been waiting for ages for.
Now you’re just making me feel bad D:
Curse you, university work! *shakes fist*
Aww, sorry about that. ; D I know you’l do it some day (you WILL, right?). : p And you’re in University huh? That does make it a bit more understandable. I’m in the same situation myself, studying my ass off! I’m really quite sick of school at this point to be honest. What are you studying?
I’m starting my fourth year of Software Engineering. The amount of homework/projects and studying has really picked up over the past year, which has severely cut into my anime time. 🙁
Ah, I hear that. I’m in my sixth semester, studying Language (English) and Literature. My anime, manga, and gaming time has been severly reduced as well…This semester I’m in England for 5 months (I come from Norway) as part of my studies, and there is a shitload of reading and essays….If I can manage it, I still have my Bachelor assignement left after that for a final semester. I am so taking a long break once I’m done with this. My “to watch” list of anime has gotten ridicilously huge at this point…Say, if you’re doing Software Engineering, are you planning on working on games!? : D Because that would be awesome! Certainly a lot more interesting than what Holo is studying (no offence Holo…).
Yahoo! The batch is now released. Thanks! 🙂
seed pls D:
almost got 100%
Done.
thanks 😀
my download is finish now :3