Simple problem - stretching video files.

[heartburn88]

Hello everyone, I have an .avi file that I need to stretch from 4:3 to 16:9. Can somebody link me to a freeware program that can deal with this?

Many thanks in advance!

[minidv2dvd]

depends on what you mean by stretch and what type of avi it is. if you literally stretch it, everything will turn into short and fat objects. the only way to convert it would be to cut off about half of the picture vertically and re-encode it. normally this will cut off everyone's head and feet so it's not recommended. the other way is to encode permanent black bars on each side, which is pretty ugly.

what interests you?

any encoder can do them for you. avidemux, mediacoder, xmediarecode, etc...

[Baldrick]

You can use Mpeg4 modifier and change it to 16:9. But some players will ignore the aspect ratio, then change the aspect ratio manually to 16:9 in the player.

[heartburn88]

depends on what you mean by stretch and what type of avi it is. if you literally stretch it, everything will turn into short and fat objects. the only way to convert it would be to cut off about half of the picture vertically and re-encode it. normally this will cut off everyone's head and feet so it's not recommended. the other way is to encode permanent black bars on each side, which is pretty ugly.

what interests you?

any encoder can do them for you. avidemux, mediacoder, xmediarecode, etc...

Right now, everyone looks tall and skinny, so I need something to make them look shorter and fatter.

[minidv2dvd]

use mediainfo to determine what type of avi it is and post a screenshot or the text here.

[heartburn88]

use mediainfo to determine what type of avi it is and post a screenshot or the text here.

I think it's a pretty standard PAL DV.

[heartburn88]

Just noticed this topic has been moved to Video Conversion. This problem, although not advanced, does not refer to a downloaded video, but to a video captured from DV. Not that it's particularly important though.

[poisondeathray]

I think you can change aspect ratio flags in DV material with Enosoft DV Processor

[heartburn88]

Okay, I've downloaded no fewer than seven different video converters that theoretically should be able to do this. All seven were suggested either in this thread or in others that I found asking pretty much this exact same question. All seven have failed in one way or another.

Some have made themselves so complex and non-user-friendly that I wasn't able to figure out how to apply this simple setting.

MediaCoder comes up with a strange error message, "Audio stream and video stream cannot be muxed together." I'm using the default audio settings.

Avidemux looks to be pretty straightforward, but it flat-out refuses to open any uncompressed AVIs. "Attempt to open C:\***.avi failed!"

I can't find the stretch setting on AVS, and it leaves a watermark.

And from what I can tell, that Enosoft DV Processor is only used for capturing from DV cameras.

[poisondeathray]

Did you want to re-encode it? You will lose quality with all those converters, not to mention take a lot more time. If you wanted to re-encode it (not recommended), I can give you more specific instructions.

I though all you wanted was to change the display aspect ratio flag. Enosoft claims to be do this for DV. If Johnny Malaria is around he'll give you detailed instructions.

You could also re-wrap it into the mkv container and use the aspect flag there (again lossless, no re-encoding, takes a few seconds)

Or you could just set the software player to display as 16:9

[heartburn88]

Okay, xmediarecode did the trick. Thanks for the help!

[minidv2dvd]

i may be too late, but it appears like it might be video from a miniDV cam. it was probably shot in widescreen mode. to check see if mediainfo says it's 16/9 if you put mediainfo in text mode.