Windows Media Player and Mpeg aspect ratio

DJ_Izumi · Post by **DJ_Izumi** » Mon Jul 26, 2004 4:38 am

So, I've always used the default version of WMP in Windows XP, I like the skin, it's a little heavy by effective. Recently, to watch some WMV:HD videos I had to upgrade, got the whole package. After that I played back one of my own videos, a 512x386 Mpeg-1 file... WMP played it back in a square. It was resizing the video to be a SQUARE. Previously, WMP had always been blind to aspect ratio tags, so I ran around trying other AMVs, all the ones with a 1:1 aspect ratio tag were aslo playing back in square. This is of course, really fuckin' bad. Numerious AMVS in Mpeg-1 and 2 that were encoded with the 1:1 tag are playing back and being resized to a square.

I tried my DVD software which also obey the aspect ratio tags, it resizes videos with the 16:9, 2.11:1 and 4:3 tags to fit those ratios, with 1:1 it just ignores any resizing and playsback at the videos native resolution. Which is how it should be.

...Any idea how to deal with this MS screw-up? I dislike the idea of end users downloading my videos and getting them crammed into a square. :/

ajew · Post by **ajew** » Mon Jul 26, 2004 4:46 am

Try classic windows media player, it has many options that I like and is a similar gui to wmp.

located here

http://www.divx-digest.com/software/med ... assic.html

I personally love the features it has.

DJ_Izumi · Post by **DJ_Izumi** » Mon Jul 26, 2004 4:47 am

I don't want another player. See, that's not my problem. My problem is the most used media player on x86 boxes playing back my, and other peoples AMV's in a fucking square. Saying 'Oh yeah! Download another media player to see my video right!' dosn't work.

ajew · Post by **ajew** » Mon Jul 26, 2004 4:50 am

First of, calm down there no reason to act moodly, I was only trying to help. Second of you could always try ffdshow resizeing. Try a very high resoultion like 800x600.

Scintilla · Post by **Scintilla** » Mon Jul 26, 2004 10:35 am

Upgrade to WMP9 or use WMP6.4. Both of them handle MPEG-1 aspect ratios correctly as far as I've seen.

DJ_Izumi · Post by **DJ_Izumi** » Mon Jul 26, 2004 11:04 am

Scintilla wrote:Upgrade to WMP9 or use WMP6.4

...I...Did... That's what's caused this problem. I upgraded to WMP9 so as to play back WMP:HD.

WMP 9.00.00.2980 to be exact.

Scintilla · Post by **Scintilla** » Mon Jul 26, 2004 11:28 am

... Oops.

Well then I have no idea. I've never seen any MPEG-1 AMVs play back square in WMP9.

Of course, one <i>could</i> encode at a 3:2 resolution with a 4:3 playback flag like everyone else does...

DJ_Izumi · Post by **DJ_Izumi** » Mon Jul 26, 2004 11:32 am

But 1:1 is the aspect ratio setting you're supposed to use for files ment for VGA playback. It's supposed to mean 'Dun fuck it it' to the player. So resolutions like 320x240 or 640x480 are supposed to be tacked with 1:1 since they're aimed at VGA viewing, not television or DVD or something.

trythil · Post by **trythil** » Mon Jul 26, 2004 11:42 am

I have WMP 9.00.00.3075 on this machine, and although it is a flaming piece of shit, it does at least manage to not fudge any MPEGs I've got here.

I remember that there was a "stretch" option that stretched video without paying attention to the specified display aspect ratio. I have no idea where that might be, but try hunting that down and turning it off.

Scintilla · Post by **Scintilla** » Mon Jul 26, 2004 11:43 am

I know. But I'm looking through all the AMVs I have from 2003, and the only ones I have that aren't at either 352x240 or 720x480 are "NERV Evening News" and "A/V Hallucination Experiments", at 320x240, and "Playground Love", at 512x384... and even then, they all seem to be playing back fine in WMP6.4 (also full screen). I also tested "Playground Love" in WMP9, and no problems.

Maybe there's an option somewhere in the MPEG decoder's settings?...