Matroska, WMV9 VCM and anamorphic resize?

[Beastie Boy]

Could anyone tell me if the Matroska container supports anamorphic resize of video encoded using the WMV9 VCM codec?
I've read in the FAQ that ffdshow is required and the 'overlay mixer' should be ticked. I installed ffdshow but could not find the option. The second point is that as ffdshow is for decoding DivX/XviD, will resizing work on WMV9?

Sorry if this is a stupid question but I am struggling to get this to work.

Cheers, Beastie.

[wing1]

try tick "RAW VIDEO": This will insert ffdshow filter into the filter chain before WMV9-VCM render. You can now use all the filters inside ffdshow to do what you want it to do.

[Beastie Boy]

Thanks for the reply Wing1.
I checked 'Raw Video' and this inserted ffdshow into the filter chain, but after the wmv renderer. However, neither MPC or Zoomplayer display the file at the correct AR.
Here is an extract of the text file produced by MKVInfo.

(MKVInfo) | + Video track at 336
(MKVInfo) | + Pixel width: 704 at 338
(MKVInfo) | + Pixel height: 424 at 342
(MKVInfo) | + Display width: 1026 at 346
(MKVInfo) | + Display height: 424 at 351
(MKVInfo) | + Lacing flag: 0 at 356

I'm guessing this means I muxed it correctly, but I can't get it to display correctly.
I there anything else I need to select in ffdshow?

Cheers, Beastie.

[Beastie Boy]

OK, I installed the latest ffdshow alpha and found the 'Overlay Mixer' option.
With this selected, I found that with DivX video, even if ffdshow is not selected to decode the stream but set to 'Raw Video' only then the resizing still works.

This gave me a little hope as ffdshow can be selected to post-process WMV9 video as wing1 stated. After much messing around in Graphedit, I had a stroke of luck. I was selecting various filters into the video chain and for some reason, when I entered the SampleGragger filter, the video displayed in the correct ratio. I then removed the SampleGrabber and it still worked. Now, stupidly, I didn't save the graph and cannot reproduce the effect but this has given me hope that this can somehow be acheived.

I would very much appreciate it if someone who knew a little about filter/splitters etc could have a go at this and try to get the Matroska AR to display correctly.

Yours, very frustrated, Beastie. :confused:

[ChristianHJW]

If using TCMP (http://corecoded.com) is an option for you, its matroska CDL can enforce the correct AR with any codec ...

[Neo Neko]

Switching AR with with ffdshow can be downright annoying especially if you have several videos queued with varrying aspect rations. Because you have to manually change them then re-open the clip to get it to work or create an autoload profile file for each file you load. Using MKVtoolnix at http://www.bunkus.org/videotools/mkvtoolnix/ and the MMG program that comes with it you can set the AR flag in your matroska files among many other things. What this does for you is automatically resizes the video window to the correct size. But when used in conjunction with ffdshow it needs the overlay enabled. Otherwise it will not work. But once you have the files will be self contained and you should be able to play them anywhere and they will play correctly.

It is possible to set the AR in the MPEG4 video stream itself. FFVFW/FFMPEG supports it. And AVI created with it do indeed play back correctly when decoded by ffmpeg in MPLAYER. But there is some issue getting it to work in VFW or directshow. But they are porting MPLAYER to windows. So very soon we may not need WMP at all. :D Infact they have some beta versions that run fine but for some reason ATM can't play full speed 480x480 video on my 2500+ Barton Athlon. I think it might be an issue with directshow overlay problems AKA the biggest problem with porting to windows. :P Because my CPU never goes over 50% with it even when it is the only thing running. :|

[Beastie Boy]

@ChristianHJW, I will try TCMP. I could be the solution I need.

@Neo Neko, I used MKVtoolnix and set the AR in the file and this part seems to have worked. The only problem is getting it to auto resize on playback.
I feel sure this can be made to work as it works OK for DivX even if ffdshow is not doing the decoding and set to 'Raw Video' only.
Using exactly the same settings, I hoped it would work with WMV9 VCM in a Matroska container. I just wish I knew more about how the AR flag is passed via the decoder to ffdshow.
Like I said, I did briefly get it to work in Graphedit but have not been able to reproduce it :(

Thanks for the replies.

Cheers, Beastie.

EDIT. TCMP works great with correct AR as I expect to see it. Is this the only player that can read Matroska info? I've not used TCMP before and I suppose I just need to get used to it.
My MKV file contains chapters. Any idea how I access them? I've tried every menu item and can't find anything. Ctrl+right doesn't seem to work either.
Cheers.