Matroska Display Aspect Ratio

[skizm]

Okay, guys. I want to encode some DVDs, and I can't get started just at the moment because... Well...

Okay. I want to keep the highest possible resolution, which I would say is probably 720x480... Obviously, since that's how it's encoded. So I wanted to use MKV and encode to 720x480 and use the display aspect ratio feature to have it display at 16:9... However, it seems that the feature just doesn't work at all. No matter what display aspect ratio I set, it always displays the video in the same way. I'm using mkvmerge GUI to mux these...

Anybody have any guesses as to why it won't work?

Thanks.

[P0l1m0rph1c]

Are you using ffdshow with overlay mixer checked, for decoding the video? That works for me.

[filewalker]

Just crop the black borders and don't use a resize filter.

In MKVMerge use "2.35" from the AR-dropdown-list.

Use the latest Matroska Splitter,

You don't need to use the overlay mixer in ffdshow, because it's independent now.


If you use Zoomplayer, set Aspect Ratio to "Derived" (i don't have experience with other players...)

ready!

Cu filewalker

[mikeX]

well since i just happened to spend my whole night experimenting with that nifty AR feature here's what i came up with:

somethings is wrong somewhere!!

i'm encoding a PAL anamorphic source (720*576 @ 16/9 --> 1024*576)

i crop via avisynth at (0,8,0,-8) and resize with lanczos(480,384) which equals to 720/1.5 and 576/1.5 in order to get a higher bits/pixel*frame ratio based on this thread: http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?s=&threadid=67007

the target container is avi via virtualdubmod 1.5.10.1
codec is xvid 1 beta3

later on i mux it to a matroska container using mkvmerge gui 0.7.9 setting either the aspect ration @ 16/9 or setting my desired movie size directly (682*384)
[note: the 16/9 AR actually gives 683*384
[note: you can never resize to a bigger vertical resolution
[note: that's just one of the resolution combinations i've tried, but the results apply to all

i tried to play the various files on two pc's:

the first one running winxp sp1a with matroska splitter 1.0.1.9 installed & default wmplayer
the second running winxp with matroska splitter 1.0.2.0 installed & latest wmplayer

both had bsplayer 1.00RC1 build 803 and media player classic 6.4.7.3

on the first pc all the mkv files played with the desired (anamorphic) AR on bsplayer & mpc. they certainly did not play right on wmplayer :D

on the second pc though the mkv files played correctly only on bsplayer, neither mpc nor the latest wmplayer could display the right AR

now isn't that weird or what??(not the wmplayer part offcource)

i tried every setting i could imagine on mpc but nothing seemed to fix the problem :( (disabled built in matroska splitter, tried all the different directshow outputs, disabled/enabled 'keep aspect ratio'), nothing worked

i also messed with all the mpc settings on the first pc and the AR remained correct regardless of any changes (edit: actually i found out that when i start the video with 'keep aspect ratio' unchecked it plays it wrong and if i check it then, AR gets corrected)

offcource i could always set the AR manually in mpc using the pan&scan tools

i think i used the 2003.08.05 muxer

i don't think it has to do with the splitter 'cause bsplayer uses whatever splitter is installed each time (ie it has no built in matroska splitters), well at least that's what it says, and it played the clip correctly on each occasion

messing around with the pixel AR setting in the xvid configuration didn't seem to have an impact on anything

[ChristianHJW]

You know you need ffdshow installed to get the AR correction in MPC ? Only Zoomplayer, BSplayer and TCMP can make use of the AR correction without ffdshow , the alpha from 23rd may or later ....

[skizm]

I have the absolute latest version of ffdshow... I've tried enabling/disabling overlay mixer in ffdshow, and enabling/disabling keep aspect ratio in MPC.

There are no black bars on the video, it's 720x480 and the DVD's aspect ratio is set so that it displays correctly by stretching the video. That's the same functionality I'm looking for.

[Nibor]

Just a note:
In many ffdshow versions _after_ 2003-05-23, the 'Use overlay mixer' option is broken.
Don't know if this is the case in the most recent versions though.

[Esc]

I have spent two evenings on the problem of mkv aspect ratio and now want to post here my solution for future generations.
Nothing worked for me until I had checked "Use overlay mixer" in ffdshow. I have MPC 6.4.8.2, Matroska Splitter 1.0.2.4 (built-in splitter in MPC disabled), and ffdshow build from Feb 4, 2005.

[celtic_druid]

XviD's decoder should also resize correctly, also if you set the PAR in XviD's config when encoding then I am pretty sure that MKVMerge auto detects and sets it.

Also what about ARCorrect?
ARCorrect - DirectShow filter to add ar correction to video streams for video decoders that don't support it

This is a semi-working version of ARCorrect.