Nov 24 2013

Viewing Anamorphic Widescreen Videos in VLC Media Player

Here’s a quick tip if you’ve got old DVDs that you’ve ripped to video files.

The DVD format used to squeeze widescreen video into the legacy 4:3 aspect ratio in order to be compatible with the video formats used on older televisions. This legacy resolution was used given the relative but declining popularity of older CRT televisions with respect to LCD and plasma televisions. However, with a compatible DVD player and a widescreen television your DVD player would be able to stretch the video back into its widescreen format but with potential loss of picture quality.

Anyway, if you’ve ripped the video off the disc then you may find that the video seems squashed horizontally with people and objects appearing thinner than they should. Now, you could run the files through a converter but that can be tricky for the general user out there so there is a way to have VLC Media Player do it for you.

Just fire up the video in VLC and then do the following:

  1. Click on Video at the top,
  2. Click Aspect Ratio,
  3. Click 16:9.

I find this handy for video I record off the television using the Vulkano as for some reason it chooses to record to a video file with 4:3 aspect ratio encoding.

Boydo

My name is Boyd and I’m a Service Management Specialist with a knack for operational data gathering, transformation, analysis and reporting.

In 2012, I obtained my Masters of Science in Information Technology through the University of New South Wales @ The Australia Defence Force Academy (UNSW@ADFA).

I was also part of an online community known as the Panasonic Insider Crew in the capacity of “Insider Guru” for Panasonic Australia where I interacted with other tech enthusiasts and find out more about Panasonic's latest gadgets.

I love technology, gadgets, and the Internet and maintain a keen interest in these areas locally, nationally, and globally. I hope by sharing my views on these topics that people will receive an honest point of view from someone with a genuine interest in these topics.

I have also written and edited articles for Neowin - you can check out my articles over @ https://www.neowin.net/news/poster/boyd_chan

I hope you enjoy reading my blog!

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