The VideoLAN Forums

I watch video via VLC 2.0.4 on my second monitor which is a 1280x1024 (5:4) resolution (ratio). Below is a screenshot of how a 16:9 widescreen show looks. Knowing that programmes will not usually frame their shots such that anything important strays into the extreme left/right of the screen (because of legacy 4:3 TVs), I'm happy to crop off the 16:9 sides.

So what I'd like to setup in my VLC, is that if there are black bars above/below, then it zooms in (centrally) until the vertical height reaches the point where there are no longer black bars, discarding stuff from the left/right edges as it's doing it. I'm sure I had my VLC setup like that a couple of years ago, but can't figure out how to do it now.

Press C to change crop.

Press C to change crop.

Yeah, I found that in the video menu also. I want to set 5:4 as the default crop though, so I don't have to press C (about 10 times) each time I start a video. I know it was possible in an earlier version of VLC, and probably still is now, but I don't know where to find it.

You can do that somewhere deep in the preferences.

You can do that somewhere deep in the preferences.

That's why I'm here, because I can't find it deep in the preferences

Advanced -> video

Advanced -> video

I found it To complete the thread for future searches, here's how to enforce 5:4 video cropping.

Tools -> Preferences -> Switch to "All" (from "Simple") -> Video -> Video cropping -> Enter 5:4 in the box

I am trying to get rid of black bars (cinemascope) for some videos
I want this to be as automatic as possible, on a per-file basis
so globally changing "crop" to 16:9 is not an option because then vlc will remove parts of any 4:3 file.

In previous threads I have read about an --autocrop command line switch/filter
but it does not work in VLC 2.0.4/win64 ("the command line options could not be parsed")
and I did not find an appropriate filter in the advanced options

how can I get autocrop to work?