4:3 conversion showing as 16:9

General Support / Questions
1

I’m trying to convert a SD (mpg in a .TS contained) video using the MP4 normal profile.

The video has a native resolution of 544x576 and is an anamorphic recording of a 4:3 TV programme intended to be displayed on 16:9 screen with black bars on the left and right hand sides.

After conversion the video is playing as a 16:9 rather than 4:3.

  1. My thoughts are that either the original settings are not being detected - possible
  2. Something is overriding the aspect ratio - unlikely
  3. It’s because the file is being cropped - possible

I know there are apps that will allow the aspect ratio to be reset but I would like to do it in automatically in MCEBuddy if possible.

Any ideas.

Thanks

2

Did you try turning of cropping in Conversion Tasks -> Expert Settings -> Uncheck crop video?

3

Thanks for your response, unfortunately the situation is more complicated than I first thought so a change of question if I may.

The video has the end of the previous programme and some adverts before the actual programme that I wanted to record, so the first section is correctly 16:9, the actual programme is 4:3 with no filler margins on the left and right!

So my question is can I force a 4:3 aspect ration on the conversion and if I can, what are the commands to add.

Thanks in advance

4

Short answer is yes you can, long answer is you’ll have to create a custom profile, depending on what you’re using handbrake or ffmpeg you’ll have to write up the custom commands for those encoders, there are many different ways to do it so each encoder community would be the best bet. Make sure you’ve set the encoder optimized flags in your profile (see Advanced Commands <encoder>-VideoOptimized=true) so that MCEBuddy doesn’t “overwrite” your settings with it’s own logic.

E.g with ffmpeg you can use -vf scale or -vf setsar or combine them based in input width -vf scale=iw*55:ih,setsar=1:1 etc. You’ll have to decide what’s best for you, scale, SAR or PAR.