Aspect ratio - Autosize?

[Jens Thomsen]

I am currently trying ffmpegX out by converting a DVD to an Xvid .avi file. The DVD source is PAL, 25fps, non-anamorphic with an aspect ratio of around 1.59:1 (at least according to reviews). Now what do I set the Autosize function to? It seems limited to only a few of aspect ratios used in movies: 2.35:1, 1.85:1, and then there are the "video aspect ratios" of 16:9 or 4:3.

The documentation on the website does not really say much, only that you need to choose the aspect ratio of the film. But what if you have a film with with an unknown or lesser known aspect ratio (there are for example literally thousands of films filmed in 1.66:1)?

Also what does the "(keep height)" refer to among the options in Autosize?

Jens

[jagabo]

DVD only supports two aspect ratios: 16:9 and 4:3. Any video that is not one of those aspect ratios is padded with black borders to fill out the frame to make it one of those aspect ratios. If you are not cutting off the black borders you don't need to worry about the AR of the original film.

[rumplestiltskin]

Forget the "Autosize" popup. Just set the desired width and height and let 'er rip.

[Jens Thomsen]

Ah. I tried to set the converter to 4:3 (because the DVD in question was non-anamorphic). So I take it the reason it ended up looking all wrong was that I tampered with the black borders in the 'Crop' field?