Changing Aspect Ratio?

[hawthorn]

I have a number of wmv files that are 672 x 544 pixels in 4:3 aspect ratio.

When I play them on my laptop in WMP or VLC player , using S-Video out to my TV they show in 16:9 widescreen.

But I want to put them on DVD to watch in an ordinary DVD player; so I converted them to XVID using Riverpast Video Cleaner Pro, and I also tried AVS video converter , both times specifying an output aspect ratio of 16:9.

But when I play them on my DVD player the aspect ratio is still 4:3 with bars down each side.

Any advice appreciated.

[Ranguvar]

I'd use MeGUI, VirtualDubMod, or another GUI, after installing Xvid: http://www.free-codecs.com/download/Koepi_XviD.htm

If you use MeGUI, there's a resize function. If you use VirtualDubMod, you can add a resize filter.

[pelle412]

Does your DVD player support aspect ratios in XviD files?

[kakomu]

Does the codec support anamorphic resizing? I know that MP4 and MKV both support anamorphic resize, however AVI does not.

[Ranguvar]

Does the codec support anamorphic resizing? I know that MP4 and MKV both support anamorphic resize, however AVI does not.
Nope, AVI does. Although I think the info for that is in the actual MPEG-4 bitstream of the video.

MPEG4Modifier can change it.

A lot of programs do ignore AVI anamorphic settings though, more than the others. WMP, for example, plays my anamorphic Xvid AVIs at non-anamorphic, but MPC and VLC do it right.

[hawthorn]

yeah I tried MPEG4 Modifier, but it still didn't work - DVD player ignores it.

Any other ideas?

[kakomu]

Nope, AVI does. Although I think the info for that is in the actual MPEG-4 bitstream of the video.

MPEG4Modifier can change it.

A lot of programs do ignore AVI anamorphic settings though, more than the others. WMP, for example, plays my anamorphic Xvid AVIs at non-anamorphic, but MPC and VLC do it right.

I imagine it's a hack and not natively supported. Whatever programs that "ignore" AVI anamorphic resizing probably don't know what to look for (to be honest, I've not even heard of anamorphic avi files).

Whatever the case, it's better to use a container that is more suited to anamorphic resizing (the aforementioned mkv and mp4) rather than a hack.

[Ranguvar]

Probably, since AVI is so ancient.

But he doesn't really have a choice, since he seems to have a DivX DVD Player, which normally means AVI-only.

I think the hack is that it's written into the video bitstream, not the container. MP4 and MKV use the container.

For an example, just look at a recent Xvid build... go to 'more' next to the profile/level, and go to the aspect ratio tab.


hawthorn, you'll have to re-encode. Refer to my first post. Unless, of course, your DVD player or TV has an option to stretch the video to fill the screen.

[Brother John]

AR signalling is officially defined for both ASP and AVC bitstreams. And it’s totally independent of the container. For containers with their own way of AR signalling that means you could have two flags: one in the bitstream, one in the container.

[smok3]

container level signaling would be weird anyway, since one container can actually contain multiple video tracks...

[Brother John]

I don’t know the specs (of Matroska and MP4) that well, but I strongly assume the container AR flag is bound to a specific video track (and each track can have one of course). Anything else would be really really strange for containers with multiple video track support.

[Ranguvar]

I don’t know the specs (of Matroska and MP4) that well, but I strongly assume the container AR flag is bound to a specific video track (and each track can have one of course). Anything else would be really really strange for containers with multiple video track support.
Oh yeah - that wold explain the aspect ratio setting in mkvmerge :p

Thanks

[hawthorn]

..this is all a bit over my head, can someone give me some step by step guide as to how to recode these files please:confused: