getting my avi to display on my tv. in proper AR

[Lola Marigold]

I am really new at this people...
I download movies, put them on a USB stick and watch on the TV through a stand alone DVD player that has a USB port.
Some movies are obviously made to be widescreen so when I view them on VLC they look fine but when I watch on the TV, it stretches to fit my screen and everything looks bizarre....
I don't understand aspect ratios and all the tech lingo..Is there a simple way to fix it before I put it on the USB stick so that it will look right on my TV....
I appreciate any help.
I have Prism video convertor, not sure if that is useful or if I can use VLC to fix them..

[guns1inger]

It depends on the file, but most are encoded with a 1:1 (i.e. square) Pixel Aspect Ratio, to the stretching is most likely coming from your player setup, or the way your player and your TV are talking.

For example, my DVD players are connected to my TV via component cable, and are setup to output 16:9 material to a 16:9 TV. 16:9 material displays fine (in fact, all widescreen material displays fine), but 4:3 material appears stretched widthways. The PS3, on the other hand, is connected via HDMI, and displays all material correctly.

If I am using the DVD player then I have to use the TV 'Picture Size' option to adjust for 4:3 material. Changing the files is not the solution.

In your case, check the set up of the player first. Make sure it outputs correctly (16:9 widescreen if you have a widescreen TV, Widescreen Letterbox if you have a 4:3 TV). Assuming this is all correct, start investigating the file. Use mediainfo to see what the files are like internally. Post a Tree output here if you want help reading them.

[Lola Marigold]

I wouldn't have the faintest to know what my player or tv output is...I have an old square tv....and I do know that on the player, if it is a dvd I can choose the display..just not an option when reading off a usb stick...thanks anyway...I'm just having a hard time getting my head around all the tech lingo...