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  1. Hello guys ,

    The movies i have work just fine with VLC since it has built-in aspect radio changer , but when i view some of them (720p / 1080p releases) on my widescreen lcd TV , i get black bars most of the time. I know they are done with much higher ratios , and i want to change that , so that it fills my screen.

    Know any good and free programs to permanently change the aspect ratio of .mkv / .mp4 files to 16:9 or even 16:10 ?
    Eventually something that doesn't require 1-2 hours per video re-encode to achieve (if it's possible).
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  2. Maybe h.264 AR Changer. But why would you want to ruin your movies like this? ~2:35:1 movies are intended to be viewed at 2.35:1, not 1.78:1 or 1.6:1.
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  3. Originally Posted by jagabo View Post
    Maybe h.264 AR Changer. But why would you want to ruin your movies like this? ~2:35:1 movies are intended to be viewed at 2.35:1, not 1.78:1 or 1.6:1.
    Well , i hate black bars and want to get rid of them
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  4. Changing the aspect ratio is a particularly horrible thing to do to video.

    Maybe see if your TV/Player has a zoom function. I'd much prefer to zoom in instead and fill the screen that way. My TV does, but it seems to also stretch the picture a bit so I don't use it. It might be less horrendous than simply changing the aspect ratio though.
    You'll lose some picture on the sides when zooming but most of the time you won't miss it (well, I don't).

    My PC is connected to my TV and I use MPC-HC as my media player. Tapping the 9 key on the numeric keypad zooms in (no stretching). The 5 key resets it.
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    Here's some examples. Original, full cropping to fit (maintain A/R), stretch to fit (no cropping), some cropping and stretching.
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  6. Unfortunately on my TV i can't zoom / stretch movies on USB stick , i only have the option "full image" or "original image" (which most of the times is the same as full , or even smaller). Zoom or aspect ratio change only works with cable view not USB.

    I don't use HDMI , my pc is in another room so i would need a much longer wire.

    Usually play only 720p / 1080p BRRip movies , extensions .mkv and .mp4 , and most of the times i get an image such as picture nr. 1 from davexnet's post , but i would like to have it looking as picture nr. 3 ....no cropping , don't want to miss any details.

    In my case , changing the aspect ratio would help me adjust the video to fit my entire screen and eliminate the black bars.
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  7. Originally Posted by MisterNewb View Post
    Well , i hate black bars and want to get rid of them
    It's not funny, just ignorant.
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  8. manono , thanks for being such a cool and friendly individual.

    Decided to use re-encoding with different resolution height , takes more time but the results are pretty much what i needed.


    Consider this solved.
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  9. Originally Posted by MisterNewb View Post
    manono , thanks for being such a cool and friendly individual.
    Look, lots of people just don't know any better. This kind of question pops up here all the time. People think it's okay to 'improve' a movie to fill a widescreen TV set. At a place like videohelp.com we try to educate as well as provide answers. I couldn't care less what you do with your movies; I'll never be in your home to watch them. However, I won't watch television at a son-in-law's home because he does the same as you (although not for the same reasons). People that know about these things want to view them as intended, and not with everyone in the movie being too tall and too skinny. Everyone that answered tried to tell you what you want to do wasn't such a good idea. But you weren't understanding what was being said to you. You were ignoring good advice. Maybe I was more blunt than the others but at some point ignorance crosses over to stupidity.
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  10. I'm a Super Moderator johns0's Avatar
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    You could put curtains that covers the the top and bottom black bars and pretend you're in a movie theater.
    I think,therefore i am a hamster.
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    It'd help if we knew what type of TV you're using, MisterNewb, and what aspect ratio you're hoping for.

    I've found that doing a little math and using AVIDEMUX allows me to make .mp4 files be just what aspect ratio I want the video to be.

    To start out, it'd help if you could tell us what the left to right number is for your TV's aspect ratio. That'd be a good start. (I've found that .mp4 files processed by AVIDEMUX seem to pay more attention to the height x width numbers than they do to the aspect ratio the software's controls are set for.)

    Ball's in your court now...

    EDIT:

    Ooops! He says it's solved.
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  12. I'm a Super Moderator johns0's Avatar
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    The op has a regular 1920x1080 screen and wants to watch movies with out black bars even if it means it removes the action from the sides,why people want to do this i will never know.
    I think,therefore i am a hamster.
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  13. Originally Posted by johns0 View Post
    The op has a regular 1920x1080 screen and wants to watch movies with out black bars even if it means it removes the action from the sides,why people want to do this i will never know.
    I'll defend a straight "zoom", even though I know others don't approve, but I often watch wide aspect ratio movies zoomed in until the height fills the screen, and it's pretty rare I feel like I'm missing out on anything.

    Stretching it though..... that's just horrible.
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  14. Normally i play 1080p with standard res 1920x1080 , but recently i haven't been paying attention and it seems that a few of the movies i have use 1920x808 .....what's up with that ??
    For those who know YIFY releases , some have wrong resolution height.

    Why do they catalogue it as such if it doesn't respect the standards ?
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    Wide screen tv's have been in stores since the late 1990's. But this forum and others still get posts from cave dwellers who have no concept of aspect ratio. Seems like few folks realize that Hollywood never made 16:9 movies. They never even made 4:3 movies. 16:9 and 4:3 were used only for TV shows and tv films. Hollywood has used every aspect ratio in sight, except 16:9 or 4:3. They use 2.35:1 (CinemaScope and wide Panavision), and others like 2.5:1, 1.85:1, 1.65:1, and 1.37:1. The last is what folks like to call the old 4:3, but it's a little wider than 4:3.

    1920X808 is ~2.36:1. But the frame size has to be mod-8 to play correctly, so you can't quite get exactly 2:36:1 that would be 1920 pixels wide. 2.35:1 would be 1920x817. You can't have odd numbers in digital video frames and get away with it. 808 pixels is fudging the height a little so you have a mod-8 frame without losing anything on the edges from TV overscan. YIFY apparently saved some file space by leaving out the black top and bottom borders. Your TV will put them there. You can't fit a 2.35:1 frame (2538x1080) inside a 16:9 (1920x1080) box. Besides, a width of 2538 isn't mod-8. It isn't even mod-4.

    My druthers would be to watch the movie the way its maker intended. IMO filling up every pixel is watching pixels, not watching the movie. But, heck, that's my 2¢.
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  16. I'm a Super Moderator johns0's Avatar
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    Originally Posted by LMotlow View Post
    Hollywood has used every aspect ratio in sight, except 16:9 or 4:3. They use 2.35:1 (CinemaScope and wide Panavision), and others like 2.5:1, 1.85:1, 1.65:1, and 1.37:1.
    What about avatar?
    I think,therefore i am a hamster.
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    And there's always the exceptions, including lots of NYU graduates and small independents shooting 16:9 with SONYs.. What does that have to do with displaying a movie as-is? I'll bet there are folks out there who will even zoom in on Avatar to make it look "bigger", LOL!
    - My sister Ann's brother
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  18. Originally Posted by MisterNewb View Post
    ...it seems that a few of the movies i have use 1920x808 .....what's up with that ??
    It's a Blu-Ray reencoded with the black bars cropped away.
    For those who know YIFY releases , some have wrong resolution height.
    Says who? You?
    Why do they catalogue it as such if it doesn't respect the standards ?
    The standard to which you're referring is for Blu-Ray. The standard for the release groups requires removing the black. If you don't like it you could always buy the retail Blu-Ray and get the black bars back, along with better quality.
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  19. Originally Posted by MisterNewb View Post
    Normally i play 1080p with standard res 1920x1080 , but recently i haven't been paying attention and it seems that a few of the movies i have use 1920x808 .....what's up with that ??
    For those who know YIFY releases , some have wrong resolution height.

    Why do they catalogue it as such if it doesn't respect the standards ?
    It kind of does, once you get your head around it.

    1080p is 1920x1080 (16:9), but it includes any black bars above or below the picture (or at the sides). If they're removed when encoding and the encoded video is displayed on a 16:9 screen, the player will add them back on playback, so the end result is exactly the same. Using your example, whether it's encoded at 1920x1080 with black bars or 1920x808 without, the actual picture area is still 1920x808 each time.

    The alternative would be to label your example as 808p, or you'd see video labelled as 534p or 688p etc and nothing would follow any sort of standard.

    For widescreen video if it's 1080p the width would normally be 1920 (ie 1920 x something) and if it's 720p the width would normally be 1280 (ie 1280 x something). The height depends on whether there were black bars removed.
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  20. I love YIFY releases and will surely avoid making any modification to the videos in the future , especially since it takes considerably more time to re-encode than it does to actually view it as intended , and the black bars don't really bother that much.

    Ok guys , thanks for the helpful information and advice , will take everything into account.

    SOLVED.
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