The VideoLAN Forums

I'm trying to watch a video in VLC. Now VLC is set up to show it in a 16:9 kinda video format with these black bars on the side.

I resize the video so it's a square. And a few seconds later, it resizes itself back to the 16:9 window size.

How do I stop this from happening?

I have the "Scale" thing checked, so I dont' know if this is has anything to do with it, because it happens regardless of what I do.

I'm using WIndows XP SP2.

You are watching TS (transport stream) video?

AVI, MP4, MOV.

Dunno if any of those are considered "TS" or not

Seems like those black borders are part of the video file.

In windowed mode and the "Resize interface to video size" parameter checked (which is the default), the window adapts to the width/height of the video. But, video files can have black borders "hardcoded" in the video. If you want to remove them, the only way is to use the "crop" feature of vlc.

The scale "thing" is not the issue (mainly used in fulscreen mode)

Erwan10

Nope. The blackbars are not hardcoded into the video itself.

Here's a snapshot of VLC and Quicktime playing the same file. Unfortunately I can't figure out how to take a snapshot of what VLC is playing. but you'll have to take my word for it that the video is in the direct middle of the VLC window.

http://img443.imageshack.us/i/vlcresize.png/

I have no idea why it's doing this

I'm not sure if this is related or not... (please ignore if unrelated)

I often watch DVB-T in a window (not full screen) with zoom set to 1/2 or 1/4. Very occasionally the window suddenly restores to full size for no apparent reason. I'm using VLC 1.0.0 on Win2kSP4.

@Namrepus221

have you tried "vlc --reset-config". Seems like aspect-ratio or crop is no longer set to default values.

Erwan10

Very occasionally the window suddenly restores to full size for no apparent reason.

This happens before after commercial breaks?

The videos I'm watching have no commercial breaks.

If I resize the video, then fastforward or reverse using the slider bar, it instantly resizes the window.

Also the volume controls, and several of the buttons begin squishing into themselves.

I have noticed the Menu and chapter selection buttons appear when I play an MP4. Could this be the problem?

Very occasionally the window suddenly restores to full size for no apparent reason.

This happens before after commercial breaks?

I don't think so, but I'll pay more attention next time it happens