2.35:1 AVI plays back stretched on HDTV

[stormdragon]

Hello,

I have been ripping my DVD's to my computer using DVDFABHD, and then using AUTOGK to convert them to .AVI files.

The video's range in size from 1.3 gig to 5 gigs. (bigger files were movies I converted @ 100%, for an excellent transfer)

The physical dimensions of the video files that are 720x304. (Underworld: Rise of the Lycans is the one I'm playing now on my TV)

This is approximately a 2.35:1 aspect ratio. If I watch the video on my computer, it looks fine in Media Player Classic.

Then, I load it to a USB stick, or my WD 1TB HDD, and plug it into my Samsung Series 6 6000, LED TV, and the pictures gets stretched out to 16:9. In order for the video to display correctly, I should have the black bars top and bottom of the video, but they're not there.

So... unlike a lot of people who want to get rid of the black bars, I want mine BACK!

So, is there a way to ADD the black bars back to a video to get it to 16x9? or should I just try streaming the video from my computer, and see if the software (Media Player) does the conversion automatically?

[jagabo]

Getting a decent media player will take care of the problem. Otherwise it looks like you'll have to reencode with black borders so your TV doesn't stretch the video to full screen (actually it will still stretch the video to full screen but the black borders will be part of the video).

[MilesAhead]

By default AutoGK auto crops and shows letterbox video in "postage stamp" style. If you want the black bars auto configured put the source into FitCD and select anamorphic 16x9 on the output side. Copy and paste the resize and black bar lines from the generated AviSynth script to a converter that lets you input a .avs script. A lot depends on if the original video was letterboxed or real 16x9 to start.

[manono]

Yes, as jagabo says you'll have to encode the black bars into the video if you continue to use your present setup. You'll have to disable cropping in AutoGK. Open the IFO or VOBs or however you get the video into AutoGK. Go into the Hidden Options (CTRL/F9) and in the AutoCrop section set the 'Threshold' to zero. Run the 'Preview' before encoding to make sure it's as you like it. I'm not positive about whether or not you have to check the 'tune auto crop parameters' box. Since the tutorial doesn't mention it, I guess not:

http://www.autogk.me.uk/modules.php?name=TutorialEN#6

[davexnet]

Seems there are a lot of problems of this type. I'm surprised the TV doesn't have a mode to honor the
aspect ratio of the file on the USB stick. How difficult could it be to add this basic functionality ?