mkv issue

[rumblylwc]

im having trouble remuxing certain mkv files, they play fine on vlc player and usually when i run them through mkv merge everything is fine, but lately some of them are coming out with the correct screen ratio but the image is still stretched within, ive tried changing ratios, setting the resolution etc but still will not play back properly on my tv..i dont know a lot about this kind of stuff and my needs for this are quite simple so im hoping its not too complicated a fix..any help would be much appreciated

[sneaker]

Post MediaInfo logs of a correctly and incorrectly handled sample ("before mkvtoolnix" and "after mkvtoolnix" each, so 4 logs total). Even better would be actual parts of the files. Also post what settings you used in mkvtoolnix.

Usually these things happen because a player looks for the bitstream AR instead of the AR in the Matroska header. There are ways to change/fix it but they depend on the video format. That's why we need these logs to give you a better answer. (If it's H.264 video try adding "--engange remove_bitstream_ar_info" as an additional option in the "Output" tab of MKVToolNix GUI.)

[ndjamena]

Two possibilties:

1: your TV ignores aspect ratios and just upsizes anything it's given to its own resolution, the only reason some mkvs play back properly is because their AR happens to match that of the TV
2: the AR in the stream is different to the AR in the mkv header. VLC would obey whatever the mkv headers say, but maybe your TV is reading the AR in the stream. If that's the case, assuming this is an MPEG2 stream, you'd need to extract the track, then use restream to correct the stream AR before remuxing the stream back into the mkv.

[rumblylwc]

I'm not really sure what all of that means, like I said I have very little knowledge on this stuff, just the basics really...however I'll look into it when I get in later and see if I can figure it out

[rumblylwc]

i added the "--engange remove_bitstream_ar_info" as an additional option in the "Output" tab but it didn't make any difference to the outcome..however, its the original file thats at fault not the one i tried to remux, ive never watched it on my tv before just through vlc, so i tried the original last night and again although its in a 2.40 window, the actual video is so stretched vertically half the image is missing

[rumblylwc]

ok..so after lots of messing around i still cannot fix this issue..it plays fine still on vlc player but on my tv the aspect ratio is perfect but the image itself is stretched..heres the mediainfo..

General
Unique ID : 217898586694990470419254153172634256612 (0xA3EDBDC58BA139319C92EC3485D344E4)
Complete name : G:\The Matrix - Trilogy\01 - The Matrix.mkv
Format : Matroska
Format version : Version 2
File size : 6.63 GiB
Duration : 2 h 16 min
Overall bit rate mode : Variable
Overall bit rate : 6 962 kb/s
Encoded date : UTC 2017-02-20 23:07:27
Writing application : mkvmerge v9.7.1 ('Pandemonium') 64bit
Writing library : libebml v1.3.4 + libmatroska v1.4.5

Video
ID : 1
Format : AVC
Format/Info : Advanced Video Codec
Format profile : High@L4.1
Format settings, CABAC : Yes
Format settings, ReFrames : 3 frames
Codec ID : V_MPEG4/ISO/AVC
Duration : 2 h 16 min
Bit rate mode : Variable
Bit rate : 5 363 kb/s
Maximum bit rate : 40.0 Mb/s
Width : 1 440 pixels
Height : 600 pixels
Display aspect ratio : 2.40:1
Frame rate mode : Constant
Frame rate : 23.976 (24000/1001) FPS
Color space : YUV
Chroma subsampling : 4:2:0
Bit depth : 8 bits
Scan type : Progressive
Bits/(Pixel*Frame) : 0.259
Stream size : 5.11 GiB (77%)
Title : @5363Kbps High Profiles @L4.1
Writing library : x264 core 116 r2074 2641b9e
Encoding settings : cabac=1 / ref=4 / deblock=1:-3:-3 / analyse=0x3:0x113 / me=hex / subme=9 / psy=1 / psy_rd=1.00:0.00 / mixed_ref=1 / me_range=16 / chroma_me=1 / trellis=1 / 8x8dct=1 / cqm=0 / deadzone=21,11 / fast_pskip=1 / chroma_qp_offset=-2 / threads=4 / sliced_threads=0 / slices=4 / nr=0 / decimate=1 / interlaced=0 / bluray_compat=1 / constrained_intra=0 / bframes=3 / b_pyramid=1 / b_adapt=1 / b_bias=0 / direct=1 / weightb=1 / open_gop=1 / weightp=0 / keyint=24 / keyint_min=2 / scenecut=40 / intra_refresh=0 / rc_lookahead=24 / rc=2pass / mbtree=1 / bitrate=5363 / ratetol=1.0 / qcomp=0.60 / qpmin=0 / qpmax=69 / qpstep=4 / cplxblur=20.0 / qblur=0.5 / vbv_maxrate=40000 / vbv_bufsize=30000 / nal_hrd=vbr / ip_ratio=1.40 / aq=1:1.00
Language : English
Default : Yes
Forced : No
Color range : Limited
Color primaries : BT.709
Transfer characteristics : BT.709
Matrix coefficients : BT.709

[sneaker]

The black bars have been cropped from the movie? If so, the aspect ratio should be (roughly) correct. Maybe your player doesn't like the 1440 pixel width which is usually for anamorphic encoding only. The problem is a sar value representing 1:1 is already default. If writing it explicitly in bitstream will help is unclear to me (or maybe it already is there, I can't tell from the MediaInfo log). Of course we could try different sample files but at the end of the day you would still need to re-encode the file or try to manually set a different AR using your TV's remote.

[rumblylwc]

dunno how else to explain the problem so ive attached an image. as you can see the ratio is correct but the picture is completely missing the bottom half, YET perfect when i play back on my pc.. i have hundreds of films and only this one causing me problems..as you can see, same film, but plays differently on 2 devices..never had a problem like this before