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More => Old Versions => JRiver Media Center 18 for Windows => Topic started by: 6233638 on March 07, 2013, 01:57:07 am

Title: Overriding Aspect Ratio?
Post by: 6233638 on March 07, 2013, 01:57:07 am
Hi, I have a batch of videos here that are encoded as 1280x720, but are actually supposed to be displayed as 4:3.

How can I override the aspect ratio for them all at once? I have tried filling out the "Aspect Ratio" field with "4:3" "1.33" and "1.33:1" but the files are still playing as 16:9.


If I manually set the aspect ratio to 4:3 during playback via "Window > Override Aspect Ratio" that setting seems to be remembered, but I can't see where, and it doesn't fill out the "Aspect Ratio" field.
Setting aspect ratio this way is fine for playback of a single file, but not a large group of them.
Title: Re: Overriding Aspect Ratio?
Post by: marko on March 07, 2013, 02:14:19 am
The information is stored in the [Playback Info] field, in an MC friendly format that's not easy for users to decipher.

You could try the following:

Right click the tag action window, from the menu, choose "Also Show > Playback Info"
Select one of the files for which you have already overridden the aspect ratio, copy the contents of the Playback Info field, select the other files you wish to set, paste the playback info for those files.

Test.

If it did not work, reset the playback info, post again, and we'll see if we can't come up with something else.

-marko.
Title: Re: Overriding Aspect Ratio?
Post by: jmone on March 07, 2013, 02:34:40 am
As Marco says, any custom playback info is written to the "Playback Info" Field and you can just copy this info all all other similar files.
Title: Re: Overriding Aspect Ratio?
Post by: 6233638 on March 07, 2013, 03:04:39 am
Thanks, that works. Any reason it's not paying attention to the Aspect Ratio tag though? That seems like it would be a much simpler solution.
Title: Re: Overriding Aspect Ratio?
Post by: Cmagic on March 07, 2013, 03:11:14 am
Hi folks,

BTW how the [playback Info] field gets filled?
In my lib (essentially mp4(h264/aac) files) it is empty for nearly all files. Update library (from tags), does not seem to populate it.
I only have a couple of files with [playback Info]
The other day I was casually looking at a way to create a DAR (Display aspect ratio) field and I thought I would create an expression based on [playback Info], but since it is generally empty, I thought: maybe later!......

thanks and have a good day,

C.
Title: Re: Overriding Aspect Ratio?
Post by: Cmagic on March 07, 2013, 03:38:22 am
After a quick experiment...

BTW how the [playback Info] field gets filled?

Looks like I answered myself. The [plaback info] field seems to be populated when manually selecting an AR setting in Player -> Display Options -> Window, while the video is playing back. It does not seem to be filled automatically. Am I correct?
And, well, decrypting this Info in order to produce a human readable DAR (4:3, 16:9) seems beyond the possibilities of an expession, or more exactly beyond my own capabilities!

cheers,

C.
Title: Re: Overriding Aspect Ratio?
Post by: jmone on March 07, 2013, 04:03:14 am
It is populated whenever you set any of the playback settings manually so it can be remembered for next time.
Title: Re: Overriding Aspect Ratio?
Post by: Cmagic on March 07, 2013, 04:52:22 am
alright then, it confirms my litle experiment.
Thanks,

C.
Title: Re: Overriding Aspect Ratio?
Post by: 6233638 on March 07, 2013, 04:00:53 pm
It's a minor thing, but it would also be nice if the thumbnails reflected the aspect ratio that you set. While I was able to set those videos to play back in 4:3 by default via [playback info], the thumbnails for them all remained 16:9.

Seems like it would be easier if we could set the Aspect Ratio tag (which is actually human readable) and doing so would set the default for playback and change the thumbnails.
Title: Re: Overriding Aspect Ratio?
Post by: marko on March 07, 2013, 04:10:57 pm
If you select the files, right click, cover art, rebuild thumbnail, are they 4:3 or still 16:9?
Title: Re: Overriding Aspect Ratio?
Post by: 6233638 on March 07, 2013, 05:18:05 pm
If you select the files, right click, cover art, rebuild thumbnail, are they 4:3 or still 16:9?
It's still a 16:9 thumbnail.