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  1. Member
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    I have a video that plays in widescreen, but was originally filmed in 4:3. It fills the widescreen frame, but looks stretched.


    I know you can compensate for this by watching in VLC and using the Video>Aspect Ratio options, but I'd like to learn a way to convert such videos to just play 'normally' (without notable loss in quality of course).


    Is there a way to do this? I've been poking around but most people are asking questions kinda backwards from what I'm trying to do. Here are the details for the file, if it helps:




    Video Codec .............: H.264/MPEG-4 AVC
    Frame Size ...............: 720x416
    AR ............................: 1.731)
    Audio Codec .............: mp4a: MPEG-4 AAC LC
    Sample Rate .............: 48000 Hz
    Audio Bitrate .............: 160 kb/s [2 channels]
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  2. You can use mkvtoolnix to set the container aspect ratio flag

    Add video, highlight video track, format specific options tab, under the aspect ratio "radio button" select "4/3" from the drop down menu, push start muxing
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    Originally Posted by poisondeathray View Post
    You can use mkvtoolnix to set the container aspect ratio flag

    Add video, highlight video track, format specific options tab, under the aspect ratio "radio button" select "4/3" from the drop down menu, push start muxing
    Thanks for the help. I followed your instructions, but when I go to the "format specific options" tab, all the options are greyed out except "delay" and "stretch by". The drop down menus and radio buttons are all inaccessible.
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  4. Did you highlight the video track? Select it by left clicking it, then go to the format specific options tab
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    You have to hi-light the video stream in the box above.
    Oops !
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  6. And if your player doesn't recognize the AR flag, reencode after resizing to some 1.33:1 ratio such as 640x480.
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    Originally Posted by poisondeathray View Post
    Did you highlight the video track? Select it by left clicking it, then go to the format specific options tab
    derp. I see now I'd accidentally selected the audio track instead. it worked!
    i noticed it's now mkv, about 1 MB smaller, and doesn't seem to generate a thumbnail image. hm!


    thanks again!
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  8. what container was it before?

    Probably mp4 if you had thumbnails

    It can be difficult to get mkv thumbnails. Many people disable thumbnails because of stability issues. For some people it works if you use haali media splitter as the directshow mkv splitter - You can configure in the options under explorer integration "enable thumbnails extraction" set to yes instead of no

    Or, you can use yamb or mymp4boxgui to set the aspect ratio, and keep the mp4 container . Similar procedure in yamb - highlight the video track, hit properties, select 4:3 NTSC from the drop down box, push ok ,next
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    Originally Posted by poisondeathray View Post
    what container was it before? Probably mp4 if you had thumbnails
    Yup, mp4.
    Originally Posted by poisondeathray View Post
    It can be difficult to get mkv thumbnails. Many people disable thumbnails because of stability issues. For some people it works if you use haali media splitter as the directshow mkv splitter - You can configure in the options under explorer integration "enable thumbnails extraction" set to yes instead of no

    neat, thanks. the thumbnails weren't such a big issue, just something I'd also noticed before with some files and didn't understand.

    Originally Posted by poisondeathray View Post
    Or, you can use yamb or mymp4boxgui to set the aspect ratio, and keep the mp4 container . Similar procedure in yamb - highlight the video track, hit properties, select 4:3 NTSC from the drop down box, push ok ,next

    cool, thanks! is there any benefit to using mkvtoolnix over yamb? or, if I used yamb and kept the mp4 container, would there be any benefit to that? or is it just file format preference at that point?


    again, many thanks for your help!
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  10. The benefit for you is ease of thumbnails use

    There are pros/cons to MP4 vs. MKV container . You can read the various discussions in other threads.

    Basically, MKV is less compatible with devices (like ipod/pad/phone, various portable devices) , but more versatile in that it supports more video & audio formats, more subtitle formats like ASS, SSA. The filesize overhead is similar (it might be 0.1% difference between them)

    Not all players (hardware or software) accept container aspect ratio flags - so your adventure might be for nothing. In that case your only option is to resize/reencode as manono suggested above. In my experience, MKV will play the AR flag properly more often than MP4 . You mentioned VLC - that will usually play videos correctly and acknowledge the AR flag
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  11. Member
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    Originally Posted by poisondeathray View Post
    Basically, MKV is less compatible with devices (like ipod/pad/phone, various portable devices) , but more versatile in that it supports more video & audio formats, more subtitle formats like ASS, SSA. The filesize overhead is similar (it might be 0.1% difference between them)
    gotcha, that's kinda what I was referring to in terms of it being mostly a preference thing.

    Originally Posted by poisondeathray View Post
    Not all players (hardware or software) accept container aspect ratio flags - so your adventure might be for nothing. In that case your only option is to resize/reencode as manono suggested above. In my experience, MKV will play the AR flag properly more often than MP4 . You mentioned VLC - that will usually play videos correctly and acknowledge the AR flag
    yeah, VLC and XBMC are my usual viewers. thanks for the tip about the AR flag with mkv!
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  12. It's more than just a preference thing; in some scenarios you can't use one or the other , or there are limitations

    e.g. h.264/aac (same video & audio as yours) , cannot stream in a mkv container in flash web pages, but can in MP4.

    It first boils down to how are you going to play it, what is the intended hardware device or software player.

    VLC can play just about anything on any platform (win/mac/unix) , XBMC can be problematic with some file types, encoding settings
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    Here eight years later to say thank you! I didn't even know MKVToolNix could do that.
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