Aspect ratio confusion with .avi on standalone.

Make sure the DVD player is set to output widescreen to the TV, not letterbox 4:3.

Post a mediainfo Tree view of one of the problem videos.

Most DVD players have three output settings

4:3 fullscreen or PS
4:3 letterbox
16:9 or widescreen

The first two settings will give you the borders you are seeing to some degree. The last one should give you a better fit to your screen. You should not be using a 4:3 output at all for a widescreen TV.

Originally Posted by Nocontact

It's happening with all the avi files I try. For example, if I'm trying to watch a recent episode of SNL which has been capped in HD it is boxed all around. But the same thing happened with an AVI of any resolution. So it's not just one file, it's any file I've tried.

I bought this thing so I wouldn't have to convert everything to a DVD. This is very frustrating.

By the way, all these files look fine when played on my PC

How did you cap this HD SNL file?

That player won't play anything larger than 720x480 so how did you convert it for playback?

My guess is you or someone else is capturing HD 16:9 from a cable box S-Video port which letterboxes to 4x3. When you play 4x3 to a 16:9 monitor you get pillarbox left and right. Result is black on four sides.

Originally Posted by Nocontact

Would that explain all the other files being stretched also?
Because no matter what the aspect ratio is (except 4:3) unless I set the DVD player settings in a peculiar way, the best I can come up with is the black on four sides. That's the only way I'm getting the proper image.
It's an upconverting player so I thought it was supposed to output in 1080p.

I tried it with a few documentaries that are in different ars too so it's not just the one type of file.

How are you capturing?

A capture file like this is letterboxed 4x3.
On a 16x9 display, it will display with black pillars left and right for black on all four sides .


This is what a 16x9 "wide" frame looks like when sized to DVD 720x480.
It is horzontally compressed and flagged as wide.


When set for 720p or 1080i out, the DVD player will rescale 720x480 to square pixels for 16x9 output.
When set for 480i or 480p wide out, the DVD player will pass the flagged 720x480 version and the TV does the 16x9 rescale.

You still haven't explained how you are capturing your video.

The thing is that, as adDV pointed out, IF these videos are encoded as letterboxed 16:9 (i.e. a 16:9 shaped rectangle inside a 4:3 rectangle with black bars at the top and bottom) unless you zoom in you're always going to see black on all four sides if you're using a 16:9 TV. That may also explain why 4:3 videos are displayed correctly as you say.

Originally Posted by Nocontact

The 640x480 filled the screen but the square was a stretched to a rectangle. The only way I could make it a square was to set the DVD player 4:3 output to 'Normal' in which the case the image appeared correctly but it was letterboxed on the sides and on the top and bottom.

If you set the DVD player to 4:3 "normal", you are sending 4:3 and the TV compensates with side bars.

If you set the DVD player to 4:3 wide stretch, the DVD player stretches the picture horizontally and sends that as 16:9.

If you set the player to 16:9 wide out, and play a 16:9 file you should fill the screen. If you play a 4:3 file, the player adds the side pillars.


What model number is the TV?

The TV needs to be set to 16:9 to accept the above.

Originally Posted by Nocontact

It's a Sony KLV-S26A 10

Check out page 38 of your manual for all the TV mode settings for 4:3 or 16:9 source.
http://www.docs.sony.com/release/KLVS26A10_W_OM.pdf

Test Jagabo's source files with the various DVD player and TV mode settings.

Originally Posted by Nocontact

Thank you. But none of these examples show the issue I'm commonly experiencing which is black bars on the sides AND on the top and bottom.

That is because your source is letterboxed like my top picture above.

I think I know what is going on. Your friend is recording off a Roger's etc. Motorlola HD cable box S-Video out and the result is exactly what I'm showing on that top picture (recorded from a Comcast Mototola HD cable box).

Put that picture into this and you have black on four sides.



and you can zoom it to look like this



A full 16:9 picture needs a different capture method.

You can crop it back to 16:9 and re-encode it. That would solve your problem.

Or get it from a different source.

The TV is not the issue. The image above is a 16:9 image recorded as a 4:3 recording with letterbox bars. Some recorders do this with widescreen material.

Originally Posted by Nocontact

Originally Posted by edDV

Put that picture into this and you have black on four sides.

So the picture of the lake is from a 4:3 tv?

Sorry if I keep covering the same ground, I'm just trying to keep track of everything that is being said.

Nothing to do with a TV. That is what gets captured off the S-Video port of a Motorola HD cable box to a VCR or file. The black bars top and bottom are in the source. Left and right black pillars get added by the DVD player or TV depending on settings.

Originally Posted by Nocontact

So basically there is no solution to this then other than watching it with the picture in the center and letterboxing on all four sides, if I want the original AR?

You would capture from the analog component or IEEE-1394 ports on that HD cable box like I did for pictures 2 and 3. Or capture from an ATSC or QAM tuner.

Or you can cut the center 16:9 picture (~704x396) out of the letterbox and resize it to 704x480 and flag it wide. It will then display 16:9 on the TV.

If you just hit zoom on the remote, you get a vertically cropped 16:9.

Watch my 16x9in4x3.avi sample on your HDTV. It will be immediately obvious to you why you have black bars on all four sides. Your source video has black letterbox bars as part of the picture because it was a 16:9 broadcast captured in a 4:3 frame:



I've replaced the black bars with cyan bars to make so it will be obvious what happens in the next step. To properly display that 4:3 frame on your HDTV it adds black pillarbox bars on the sides: