[MPlayer-users] aspect ratios and dxr3

[Guillaume Cocatre-Zilgien]

Hello,

In order to encode DivX films in such a way that they will be displayed 
correctly on my 4:3 CRT monitor as well as on my 16:9 TV, I crop my 
DVD's to get rid of black bars, and keep their encoded aspect (orginally 
5:4, black bars included) when scaling them. In extenso, they will be 
displayed correctly on a 4:3 display while using their aspect ratio 
information (4:3, 16:9, 2.35:1), as well as on a 16:9 TV while 
disregarding it (which is exactly what happens when reading a DVD 
movie). This is explained on the following page (divx examples are 
available):
http://docs.skamp.net/digital/cropping-scaling.html

I've a problem, though, when it comes to using my DXR3 decoder to output 
  streams to my TV. It seems like MPlayer has no other choice than 4:3 
and 16:9 aspect ratios. Thus, although it doesn't matter for 4:3 videos, 
in order to watch movies more or less correctly, I have to:

- let MPlayer use the aspect ratio information for 2.35:1 divx movies, 
otherwise they will be displayed in 4:3 instead of 5:3 as expected;

- disregard the aspect ratio information for everything else (16:9 divx 
movies, 16:9 and 2.35:1 DVD's).

The problem comes obviously with 2.35:1 divx movies. So, my guess is 
that my TV can't understand anything else than 4:3 and 16:9 streams; am 
I right, or am I missing something? If I'm right, is there any other 
solution than using the -noaspect switch all the time except for 2.35:1 
divx movies? Note that DXR3's aspect switch and MPlayer's -monitoraspect 
one don't change anything in this case.

Regards,

-- 
Guillaume Cocatre-Zilgien
http://www.skamp.net/