The VideoLAN Forums

I have it set to 16:9 but it doesn't seem to work on all the videos...anyone else have this? I just upgraded it to latest v2

i downloaded videos from same VOD websites and i download them all as in "h.264" quality so i suppose they should be same format? but still force aspect ratio is not working on all of them those videos that it doesnt work on...it is possible still to manually change it to 16:9

Did you set the "Source aspect ratio" to "16:9" in the preferences? It's probably the same as "Force Aspect Ratio" in the simple preferences, but to be sure go to:
Tools >> Preferences >> (Select "All" for "Show settings") >> Video

And change the "Source aspect ratio".

You can also cycle through the aspect ratio list by pressing the "A" key, or go to "Video >> Aspect Ratio >> [DESIRED_ASPECT_RATIO]".

Arite.

Yes, i checked it is at 16:9 and i do know about the "A" shortkey, i would just like to not-do-that ...i dont have the same problem with BSplayer but i'd really rather use VLC because otherwise it's just simply amazing but this is one of those small things that just gets to you ....you know

OK, so are you saying neither the source aspect ratio nor the A key will change the aspect ratio for some H.264 video files?

Arite.

A key will change it....the force feature isn't working

i know it's just a small detail but it just bothers me =)

OK, well could be a bug in VLC then. I can't seem to reproduce it however, so if you have a sample file or something that'd be useful?

Arite.

I'm actually seeing the same thing or at least something very similar. The source aspect ratio preference doesn't seem to 'stick' in certain circumstances.

To reproduce:

• Set source aspect ratio to 16:9
• Play a 4:3 video, it'll show up as 16:9
• Play a native 16:9 video, again shows up as 16:9
• Play a 4:3 video, it'll now show up as 4:3
• Force set ratio to 16:9 (via A or the video -> aspect ratio menu) and it'll stick again until a 16:9 ratio video is played
• Restarting VLC and playing a 4:3 video will also result in a 16:9 display, until a 16:9 video is player, that is

Seems like playing a video with a native aspect ratio that matches the source aspect ratio property puts the player into a state where it no longer forces the aspect ratio. Hadn't seen this in VLC 1.x, it's a new behavior I've seen in 2.0. Obviously this wouldn't be seen if you restarted the player between runs, but if you have videos with different aspect ratios in a single play list, this crops up.

*Edit -- Actually there's a little less rhyme or reason to it. If I hit stop on VLC and drag in a 4:3 video it'll start playing in 16:9, if I drag another 4:3 video it may or may not revert to 4:3. But again if I hit stop and drag the same video which reverted to 4:3, it'll begin playing in 16:9.

I also put 16:9 above in ”Video cropping” for one live TV-stream and that seems to keep,
but I haven't done all of the experimenting described above with several items.