aspect ratio problems using fairuse wizard with x264

[scarlac]

hi

I'm using fairuse wizard to rip my DVD's to x264, but I'm having some aspect ratio problems

When I encode a movie and play it with mediaplayer, my movie is stretched out. When i look in the movie-properties i get the following:
- video size: 768x352
- aspect ratio: 20:11 actual, 4:3 displayed

Which is very odd, I especially asked a resolution of 720x352

Even more odd, When I try in divx, it looks correct. Is there a problem with the x264, or am I doing something wrong. I have always been told that the x264 codec has a better quality. That's why I'd like to use this one.

[jagabo]

If you resized to 720x352 the video is probably now square pixel (1:1), not 20:11. That is, set the pixel aspect ratio (x264 calls it storage aspect ratio, SAR) to 1:1, not 20:11.

[scarlac]

I looked to the compression options of x264 in fairuse wizard, i saw the SAR option, and it was on 1:1. I tried a new test-render, and again I got a stretched result with 20:11 ratio.

[jagabo]

When you say stretched -- do you mean people look tall and skinny, or short and fat?

Post a short sample video (not a still image) that exhibits the problem. Make sure it contains something where an aspect ratio problem would be obvious. Like a ball, the tire of a car viewed directly from the side, a famous person's face, etc.

[scarlac]

Tall and skinny
Here is also a sample in x264 codec

sample.avi

[scarlac]

damn, iuploaded the wrong sample
Her is the good one.



sample2.avi

[jagabo]

Sample2.avi looked about right to me. The frame size was 720x288 with square pixels. Maybe WMP is displaying it incorrectly on your system? Here's what I saw:



That's with MPCHC but it looked the same in WMP 11 and VirtualDub.

2.5:1 is a little wide (probably a 2.4:1 movie) but many programs distort the picture a tiny bit to maintain mod16 frame sizes.

[scarlac]

Never thought about using another player. Yep this looks perfect too in BSplayer. How is that possible that WMP 11 doesn't show it correctly.

Damn, I lost nearly a whole day making test-renderings and testing this out.

[jagabo]

WMP is a piece of crap. But the problem may lie in how your h.264 decoder is communicating aspect ratios to WMP.

[scarlac]

maybe, how can i check this out

[jagabo]

You can try installing another DirectShow h.264 decoder. ffdshow includes, one. You can get a free trial of CoreAVC. You can use GraphEdit or GraphStudio to see what decoder is being used: