How to get rid of pillarbox?

[uranometria]

I'm playing a 1920x1080 video with VLC, but the aspect ratio of its actual content is only 4:3.
I tried enforcing aspect ratio (32:9) by doubling the width, hoping that the black pillars on both sides would go past the edges. However, that didn't work; it just shrank the height instead.

Do you have any idea how to tackle this?

Thanks.

[davexnet]

Right click the vlc screen. Video/aspect ratio / 16:9

[manono]

How to get rid of pillarbox?

Why would you want to?

[hello_hello]

Stretching 4:3 video to fill a 16:9 screen is a fairly horrible thing to do to it.

[jman98]

How to get rid of pillarbox?

Why would you want to?

I agree, but I've learned to stop asking this. Americans in particular (and I am allowed to say this as I am an American) seem to have some kind of weird aversion to pillarboxing and there's no point it trying to knock some sense into people who feel that way.

[pandy]

nonlinear scaling should help - eventually blurred ambient video like (ambilight)

[LMotlow]

How to get rid of pillarbox?

Why would you want to?

I agree, but I've learned to stop asking this. Americans in particular (and I am allowed to say this as I am an American) seem to have some kind of weird aversion to pillarboxing and there's no point it trying to knock some sense into people who feel that way.

I agree, too. Sad but true.

1920x1080 is 16:9 anyway. I take it that the 1920x1080 video has a 3:4 1440x1080 image inside it, with black pillarbox in the frame. You could crop off the black borders and play it as 1:1 aspect ratio. But if you hit "full screen" in any media player it will still pillarbox full screen on a 16:9 monitor or TV. In that case the monitor or TV put the black borders back up there.

Stretching, no. Jennifer Lopez stretched to 220 pounds? Not for me, thanks.

[manono]

I agree, but I've learned to stop asking this.

I haven't. Speaking as an American, we've been force-fed panned-and-scanned movies all our lives so that many today think it's normal. Now many channels pan-and-scan (or crop) 2.39:1 films to 1.78:1, something only slightly less disgusting. The upshot is that people get this warped idea that all films should fill their television screens. They don't know any better. And it's our duty to point out that people who actually know something about the subject violently disagree and those people that think otherwise are misguided and should want to view a film at its original aspect ratio. We point out the correct way to view a film and then if that person still wants to view it in fat-o-vision, that's up to him. Then, in a month/a year/5 years he'll come to his senses and have a whole bunch of ruined movies to toss out in the trash.

[netmask56]

I think a lot of this can be traced back to the days of Plasma when burn ins were more of a problem and of course a simple lack of visual awareness. You find this in many countries.

[Noahtuck]

I think a lot of this can be traced back to the days of Plasma when burn ins were more of a problem and of course a simple lack of visual awareness. You find this in many countries.

Nope.....
Way before anyone even heard of Plasma or LCD screens/tv's.

Back when everyone was still using good ol CRT's there used to be Eyeon video & blockbuster stores within a mile of me, I have always despised blockbuster and one time I went into Eyeon to rent a movie and noticed all their dvd's were full screen I asked the manager why they didn't have
any widescreen versions as they were the correct way to watch the movies and he said, the majority of customers complained because they did not
have a full video on their TV's
Of course referring to their 4:3 CRT's

So I never rented from them.

Thank god they put up a FamilyVideo a couple blocks down the road from me and blockbuster went away a short time later, and that was year ago blockbuster went bye bye, and Eyeon went away even longer ago than blockbuster

I have always preferred the widescreen versions but I did hate the fact that it was a smaller video on your tube tv and you had to sit closer to the TV but then again, this was back when 27" CRT's were the largest tube TV's and were pretty much the largest TV 99% of people had in their homes.

Regardless of where they are from, the clueless just prefer to have their screens full regardless of the size or shape of their tv.
I see so many people that set their WS LCD TV's to display full screen regardless of the videos actual AR!!!
Be it a movie, TV broadcast, etc.

OY VEY!!!!!!!!