Avidemux is giving me 5:4 instead of 16:9

[pooksahib]

Hi. I have a DVD (PAL 16:9 progressive) which needs no special filters, I just want to edit and compress it. As it's a concert, avidemux would be the ideal editor as I can hear the edit. Unfortunately, avidemux is giving me a 5:4 output. Any idea why this is and what I should do to get 16:9? See attached pic for more info. Thanks for your time.

[manono]

Any idea why this is ...

Because 720/576=1.25=5:4.

...what I should do to get 16:9?

Have you played it in any players? And none show it as 1.78:1? Are you sure that 64:45 is written into the headers? Have you checked in MediaInfo?

Or do you want to resize it to square pixels, to something like 1024x576?

[LigH.de]

The content of a DVD Video is always skewed. Always. There is no DVD Video with square pixels. The player will always deskew the video to the flagged aspect ratio during playback (provided it respects the aspect ratio flag).

Avidemux should flag the copy created by x264 with a similar aspect ratio so that players should know to deskew the video during the playback as well, with the settings you show us in your screenshot. If there is any player which does not show the video deskewed, ignoring the aspect ratio flag, please tell us which. If this happens inside Avidemux, then it is intentional, it wants to show you the true material to be encoded.

P.S.: Of course, as manono suggests, checking the header flags with MediaInfo should always be your first idea.

[pooksahib]

Thanks guys. Mediainfo calls it 5:4 and potplayer has it as 1.25:1 (same thing). I've put the avidemux produced vid through toolnix – specifiying 16:9 for the video stream – and the resulting file is fine. Does that seem like the best solution (apart from using a different editor/converter)?

[manono]

Does that seem like the best solution (apart from using a different editor/converter)?

Hehe, you ask the question and then provide your own answer. To me, 'fixing' it afterwards seems like wasted time and effort when you could just as easily have done it right the first time by using a different encoding program.

[pooksahib]

Yeah, I know. It's just that I love how you can immediately see/hear your edits with avidemux.

[LigH.de]

Well, if it is indeed a bug (result not flagged correctly), the developers must get notified...