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[Chris Shaw]

I've just bought a plasma TV with a native resolution of 1024x768 but a 16:9 format. This means the pixels aren't square but have an aspect ratio of 1.333333.

Is there any way you could add an option to MC which allows the user to specify their pixel aspect? It would then squash video horizontally by that amount so that it would look correct on the screen. This wouldn't just be useful for me, but for those with TV out and a widescreen TV.

I would be definitely be willing to pay if someone could write this as a plugin or somesuch. If you'd add it to MC9, I could buy a second copy to show my gratitude.

We were promised some aspect ratio control by Matt here
http://www.musicex.com/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.cgi?board=general;action=display;num=1023711829
so consider this your reminder.

Thanks

Edit:
See here
http://www.inmatrix.com/zplayer/options_aspectratiotab.shtml
for a description of how Zoom player handles this. Anamorphic is the mode I need, but all these options would be very useful.

[Matt]

Are you talking about DVD or video file (avi, mpg) playback?

Thanks.

[Chris Shaw]

Video files, mostly. Most of the MPEG2 filters used for DVD playback have basic options for aspect ratio already.

[Matt]

It's there in 9.0.145

[Chris Shaw]

Wow. Now that's a speedy response. Not quite there though. It should actually squeeze or stretch the video to that shape, whereas it just seems to be fitting it into a smaller frame. In this example, turning on Anamorphic mode did nothing.



Also, there's no aspect control for Quicktimes. Is this deliberate?

[PhatPhreddy]

Dont forget when turned on anamorphic needs to stretch and pillarbox 4:3 content to make it appear correct on a 16:9 display... Also having a way to crop and stretch letterbox movies is vital...

Of course then you are on the slippery slope as some of the market share of TT and ZP are running 2.35 screens etc so it gets messy from then on in !!

I am pretty sure my next screen will either be 1:1.85 and I will pillarbox 16:9 stuff or I may go for a 1:2.0 screen and gain more screen real estate for the inevitable compromise between 2.35 and 1.85  

[Chris Shaw]

MJ already pillarboxes video if the window is wider than they are. The aspect ratio code should just modify the existing calculations so this should work fine.

Of course then you are on the slippery slope as some of the market share of TT and ZP are running 2.35 screens etc so it gets messy from then on in !!

The only 1:2.35 monitors I've ever seen have been very specialist ones for high end film work, and they didn't catch on. I've never seen a 1:2.0 monitor. Can you give me any references for these?

Also having a way to crop and stretch letterbox movies is vital...

Very few video files are letterboxed as this is a real waste of file space. I wouldn't worry too much about this. The exceptions are 2.35 movies ripped from DVD, but they are already formatted for 16:9, which is the widest common monitor format (see above). You could always implement Zoom's "Restrict Aspect Ratio Adjustments to Height in Zoom Mode". It provides for exacly this problem.

Thinking further about this, a couple of tweaks would make MC even better at this than Zoom.
- Anamorphic should be a check box, separate from the other ratios. It should apply the 1.33333 vertical stretch on top of any other stretches you have asked for
- Anamorphic on/off should be preserved as a system setting, but the aspect ratio of the video file should be saved as a tag.
- Allow the user to set the background colour for letterboxed video. 50% grey is usually considered the best option for plasmas and projectors as it minimises burn-in