Automatically play (only) DV-AVI files with 15:11 DAR, possible?

[blubb444]

And here we go again... as the title says: Is it possible with a media player like MPC-HC (or others) to automatically play DV-AVIs with 15:11 DAR? Because that's the correct AR, and not 4:3 (at least for my old camera, I measured it by recording a square and calculating it). This is also what VirtualDub suggests which made me check it in the first place.
It should be possible I guess because AFAIK unlike all other AVI files which have a SAR of 1:1, DV-AVI files (PAL) are automatically played with a 16:15 SAR (or 4:3 DAR) in (almost) all players I've tested in. If it were 1:1 SAR, then 720x576 should lead to a 5:4 DAR, which to my knowledge it does with any other AVI file that isn't DV-AVI.
So, is it possible to play only DV-AVI files with 15:11 DAR/59:54 SAR? And if yes, how can it be done? Found nothing helpful on Google. I know it's not that much of a difference between 4:3 and 15:11 but if it can be improved, then why not?

[hello_hello]

If the correct aspect ratio is being written to the video stream (MediaInfo (http://mediainfo.sourceforge.net/en) should tell you) then MPC-HC should obey it (at least of you're using it's internal filters). To check, right click on the video somewhere and select "Video Frame/Override Aspect Ratio" and make sure "Default" is selected. While you're there, make sure "Video Frame/Keep Aspect Ratio" is checked, or try it unchecked. I think "keep aspect ratio" gets MPC-HC to obey the container aspect ratio if one is specified, whereas if it's unchecked it'll obey the aspect ratio written to the video stream (don't quote me on that but I think that's how it works).
If it still displays using the wrong aspect ratio you can manually use the "Video Frame/Override Aspect Ratio" menu to set it to 4:3.

Failing the above, if you don't particularly need AVIs, you can use MKVMergeGUI (part of MKVToolnix (http://www.bunkus.org/videotools/mkvtoolnix/)) to resave the AVI as an MKV while setting the correct aspect ratio in the process. There may be a way to resave an AVI with a different aspect ratio but it's not something I've ever had to do as I just remux them as MKVs if necessary.

[TheSkiller]

If the correct aspect ratio is being written to the video stream then MPC-HC should obey it.Yeah but the thing is, it's a DV-AVI. Just like a DVD being played back on a PC there is just those two flags for DV-AVI, which is 4:3 or 16:9. But if we play that thing on a PC with the whole frame of 720x576/480 being displayed (instead of only the inner 704) we need to compensate for that by making the whole frame wider which would give us a 15:11 frame (DAR) for DV-AVIs marked as 4:3.

That being said, the only thing I can think of is doing it via ffdshow. It allows to set different profiles that can be chosen automatically depending on the codec needed, so that should work.
But, if it hasn't been fixed, the downside of the DV-AVI decoder in ffdshow is that it passes the YV12 color untouched which means the chroma sampling points are not in the expected MPEG2 sampling positions but in DV sampling positions which will give incorrect display of the chroma (albeit not very noticeable).


Edit: I have never tried to put DV-AVI into an MKV but I see no reason why it should not work.

[blubb444]

OK, thanks for the replies so far.
Remuxing is not an option for me because we're speaking about 1273 files / 264GiB, so that would take forever... And even though I have a Full HD 50p camcorder now (Panasonic HDC-TM700), I'm still occasionally using the old one (a NV-DS12 from 1999) because it has that nice IR mode which is useful in low-light situations and because it has no rolling shutter which is useful with fast motion.
That being said, the only thing I can think of is doing it via ffdshow. It allows to set different profiles that can be chosen automatically depending on the codec needed, so that should work.
But, if it hasn't been fixed, the downside of the DV-AVI decoder in ffdshow is that it passes the YV12 color untouched which means the chroma sampling points are not in the expected MPEG2 sampling positions but in DV sampling positions which will give incorrect display of the chroma (albeit not very noticeable).

Could you or someone else give me instructions on how to do that? I'm very new to all of this (that's why I posted here)... I can open the ffdshow configuration and there is an AR filter which I can activate, but how can I limit that filter so that it only works for example if the FourCC is "dvsd"? (So that other AVI files with 1:1 pixels aren't being stretched) Here's what it looks like (in German):

http://s1.directupload.net/images/120406/temp/ivngbb6t.png (http://s1.directupload.net/file/d/2852/ivngbb6t_png.htm)

And concerning the subsampling positions: Doesn't DV-AVI have the chroma "in the middle" while h.262 has it "to the left"? So if it sends the YV12 picture to the player with that correct position, why should there be a problem? Or do you mean that the player always assumes an incoming YV12 as having the colour position "to the left"? If that's the case, can I set it to only assume "DV 4:2:0" when the codec is DV and "h.262 4:2:0" else?

[hello_hello]

Yeah but the thing is, it's a DV-AVI. Just like a DVD being played back on a PC there is just those two flags for DV-AVI, which is 4:3 or 16:9. But if we play that thing on a PC with the whole frame of 720x576/480 being displayed (instead of only the inner 704) we need to compensate for that by making the whole frame wider which would give us a 15:11 frame (DAR) for DV-AVIs marked as 4:3.

Yep, I get the silly of the day award. I guess I read the OP incorrectly and thought blubb444 was wanting to change the display aspect ratio to 4:3, not the other way around.

Unless I'm missing something though, I don't think there's a way to get ffdshow to automatically resize according to the codec being used. Maybe there's a way to batch remux all the files with a new aspect ratio?

Edit: It's not exactly "automatic" but tapping the "6" key on the numeric keypad while MPC-HC is playing the video will stretch it to 1.36, which is pretty much the desired aspect ratio. I think you should be able to open different AVIs using the same instance of the player and it'll stay stretched each time (at least it seems to when using the "skip" button), resetting only if you tap the "5" key or close the player. Without remuxing, that may be as close to "automatic" resizing as you'll get.