Hi, newbie here. Forgive me for asking what may be stupid questions.

I’ve been trying to convert some .avi files to XviD or mpeg4 (leaning towards mpeg4. No watermark) but virtualdub would not load the files. It was the “Couldn’t find decompression for format 'dvsd' (unknown)...” error message. So I downloaded the Panasonic VFW DV codec, and then I could load the .avi’s into virtualdub. But when I convert the .avi files using virtualdub, the aspect ratio comes out wrong.

When I open the original .avi files in Windows Media Player or WinDVD they play in full-screen (Yes, I have the preserve aspect ratio option on, in WinDVD). But when I play the new (converted using virtualdub) files using Windows Media Player or WinDVD, there are black bars on the top and bottom of the screen, and the video is slightly vertically squashed. The black bars are not actually being rendered, when WMP or WinDVD is windowed, its just a wider aspect ratio. It looks about 1.50:1, but thats just a guess.

I went to the properties of both the converted files with the incorrect aspect ratios, and the originals with the proper aspect ratios, and it says they are both 720 by 480.

I thought it was a problem with virtualdub, but I went and used an editing program to edit one of the .avi’s. It’s a Ulead editor that I used to edit the .avi’s before I installed the new codec, then have the program re-render them back out to .avi files, and it worked fine before. But this time, when I looked at the new edited .avi that I had just created using the Ulead program, it also had the black bars, just like the files virtualdub gave me.

So I’m getting the exact same problem with 3 different compression formats (mpeg4, xvid, .avi), using 2 different programs (virtualdub, VideoStudio 8 SE), being viewed with two different programs (Windows Media Player, WinDVD). Remember the .avi’s that I haven’t done anything with since I installed the codec still display with the proper aspect ratio.

I was thinking it had to be a problem with the codec, but I am a newbie, so I wouldn’t know. Or could it be a NTSC vs PAL thing? I only think of that because of the aspect ratio difference. The .avi’s are NTSC in origin. Anybody have any ideas?

It should be noted that I tried all of this twice using two different PC’s, and I got exactly the same results.

I’m sorry if this question has been asked already. I searched the guides and forums as thoroughly as I could, but (I think) my problem is strange, so I really didn’t know what to search for!

Thanks!