Changing Aspect Ratio For Home Video

[Phil Conners]

We have some home video which was recorded in DV/wide format. I captured it and converted to .avi but now it plays in 4:3 aspect. With VLC we can force the correct aspect ratio but I would like to burn it to a CD and be able to play it correct in a DVD player. Is there some software that can convert it so it plays in the correct aspect?

[monty]

If you make an MPEG2 file out of it (vcd/dvd) then you can use a freeware program called DVD patcher.

It can modify the headers of the files so it'll play in the correct aspect ratio.

Make some backups of your original video files when you start fiddling with it! You might need some trial and error before you get things right!

[Phil Conners]

Hm, I still have the original DV tapes - but no DV player anymore (it got stolen, another story). At some point I managed to borrow a DV player and capture the tapes to wmv files. Any way to convert the aspect ratio with those? Would prefer a one-step process as these things take forever to process...

[Sel]

free trial NLE like sony vegas then render with settings, file type, aspect ratio etc that you want

[MTH]

If you're running Vista or Windows 7, Windows DVD Maker will do this for you.

Just add the WMV files, then click options and you can set the aspect ratio to either 4:3 or 16:9.

Not sure if it's available as a downloadable program as well, but Google should answer that question.

[Phil Conners]

Actually found a quick little tool here which changed the aspect ratio without reformatting the whole movie, seems it just changed some header setting or something.

Oddly enough I find if I set aspect ratio to 16:9 (as it should be) it is too stretched horizontally. After a little trial-and-error I found setting the aspect ratio to 64:45 actually results in a proper 16:9 display for me, as compared to using VLC and forcing the aspect ratio to 16:9.

Edited March 14, 2010 by Phil Conners