stretching video resolution

[Enforcer83]

I have a video file with a resolution of 480x480. I view it and everything looks scrunched. How do I stretch the resolution so everything does not look tall and skinny?

[guns1inger]

It depends on the video file.

Some files (and players) support non-square pixels and aspect ratio settings. This means you can set a flag in the video file to have it play back correctly, without having to resize and re-encode.

Use g-spot to determine what the video actually is. If necessary, post a screenshot of the output so we can read it.

[DarrellS]

From my understanding, if it's mpg then you shouldn't have to do anything with it since the aspect ratio is 4:3 and most players should respect the AR flag.

If you are going to convert to AVI then you'll need to resize to 640x480 or another 4:3 resolution (480x360, 512x384) since AVI uses square pixels (1:1).

I could be wrong on this though.

[guns1inger]

Actually, both mpg and avi can gave non-square pixels and aspect ratio flags. Not all players respect them, however, which is a problem. I have several avi files that have been (wrongly) encoded with non-square pixels. I have used mpeg4modifier to change the aspect ratio flag to 16:9, and they now happily play correctly. However other players, such as the early Philips, ignore this flag and will play them back stretched (squashed).

480 x 480 is SVCD resolution. I am unsure is SVCD observes the aspect ratio flag. If this is an SVCD mpeg file then the solution might be to demux it with rejig, change the AR flag to 16:9 with ReStream, the remux. However I suspect that a lot of software players will still ignore the flag.

If you need to resize it, the correct 1:1 PAR size would be 640 x 480

[Enforcer83]

alright here is my output from gspot

I am trying to get the video so I can watch it on a regular TV if I was so inclined to do so.

[Baldrick]

Watch it how? Using a standalone dvd player? or htpc/media center?