Video Sizes not agreeing

[wldncrzy14]

I'm assuming I'm just tired and missing something obvious here. I have a video file which Windows and Mediainfo report as 720x480. When I take a screencap in MPC, it comes out a 720x480 (and looks stretched vertically) jpg file. When it -plays-, it's 853x480.

Why is it viewed differently?

[Case]

It this file MPG, MP4, MKV or DV AVI?

As the resolution is 720x480 "Standard Definition" (fixed size) and probably 16:9, the content has to be stretched to fill that area.
This is quite common: DVD, digital television and DV cameras all do this.

The idea here is that movie pixels do not have to be square. A pixel that is 1.2 times wider than tall is perfectly fine (pixel aspect ratio = 1.2). When applied to a 720x480 grid, this PAR nicely fills out a 16:9 rectangle, like 853x480 in square monitor pixels.

(example illustration)

[jagabo]

The media file can tell the player what shape to display the picture. The displayed size doesn't have to match the frame dimensions. Make sure MPC is set to respect aspect ratio flags:
View -> Video Frame -> Keep Aspect Ratio
View -> Video Frame -> Override Aspect Ratio -> Default.