The VideoLAN Forums

Please add 2:1 to the list of included Aspect-ratio settings. A number of films and anime have this ratio.

You could add this yourself. Go to Preferences -> Video -> scroll down to "source aspect ratio" and type 2:1 in the box, save and restart the video.

I haven't seen this AR a lot...

Never seen it before either.

According to the documentation:

Valid values are: "1:1", "4:3", "16:9", "16:10", "221:100" and "5:4"

So, something would be need to be added to allow any aspect ratio. If I try something that's not on the list, it doesn't work (and defaults to 1:1 which looks stupid).

Also, why is it that every time I quit VLC, I get:

"The application VLC has unexpectedly quit. The system and other applications have not been affected."

As CloudStalker said, you can add your own custom aspect ratios in the Preferences. Just go to:
Settings >> Preferences... >> Video

Then in the "Custom aspect ratios list" enter your desired aspect ratios(s). For example, if you wanted 2.35:1 just enter "2.35:1" or "235:100". Then press "Save", restart VLC. Then the next time you play a video you want to change the aspect ratio of to your custom one, go to:
Video >> Aspect-ratio >> Your aspect raio

Cheers, Arite.

Using VLC 2.1.0 and the custom aspect ratio thing does not work no matter what I do. It just ignores that field completely. I got a movie in "3d" format that's 2 frames side by side and it's 16:9 but I managed to crop off half of the video, but it's half the aspect ratio. Changing to 32:9 had no effect. Maybe I'm using a buggy build, I don't know, but I thought I would throw that out here.

VLC still seems to have issues with non-integer aspect ratios. Using a day old nightly build of VLC 2.1.0 the custom aspect ratio 1.85:1 didn't work, however 185:100 did.

If you don't apply any cropping does the aspect ratio work?

Arite.

Hi, I tried the 2.1.0 (git 2012-02-29) .
It works for any integer value but you have to stop and restart the video to see it.
Is it possible to make the change without restarting the video ?
My obective is to adapt the video to the window aspect ratio in real time with libvlc.

That might require a callback.

Thank you. Can you be a little more explicit ?

More code.

Hmm, two years after the last post, but regardless of time, this thread addressed my Google question, which was "how to set a custom aspect ratio in vlc"—using version 2.1.3, CloudStalker's post worked perfectly: Preferences, All, Video, Source aspect ratio... set it to 2:1, Save, close vlc, restart the video, and voilà.

Those who say they've never seen 2:1 is usually, believe it or not, because they don't notice or don't care when the aspect ratio's off a bit. Some people will use 16:9 for 2:1—it's close enough that they don't notice and/or don't care. I see it all the time. How often have you been to someone's house and the TV's on and everyone on the screen is short and fat because they have it set to 16:9 even when the show they're watching is broadcast in 4:3? The first time I pointed it out to someone I thought he was shitting me when he replied "no they're not" in a slightly bewildered tone... as in, no they're not short and fat... as in, it looked perfectly normal to him.

That said, 2:1 isn't done on purpose by the original people who created the film/show... what it usually is is the product of video conversion (sometimes more than once) where the people involved fcuked up the aspect in the conversion. Ever looked at a clip and none of the standard aspect ratios look just right (those who notice I mean )? That's usually why, and often setting 2:1 will look the best on those.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Univisium

It's a shame that this aspect ratio is still not supported after so many years and wih so many movies using it, especially in the recent years. Is it really so much effort to do it?

As CloudStalker said, you can add your own custom aspect ratios in the Preferences. Just go to:
Settings >> Preferences... >> Video

Then in the "Custom aspect ratios list" enter your desired aspect ratios(s). For example, if you wanted 2.35:1 just enter "2.35:1" or "235:100". Then press "Save", restart VLC. Then the next time you play a video you want to change the aspect ratio of to your custom one, go to:
Video >> Aspect-ratio >> Your aspect raio

Cheers, Arite.

Does this also work for the "Crop" section or will I have to access another preference/setting for that? I'm mostly interested in the crop section since I hate stretching.

EDIT: Looked through the settings myself instead of being lazy; There's a section THREE boxes above for "custom crop ratios" so yeah. Also, for anyone reading this post in the future or searching for it (as you should, and as I clearly did) all you have to do to add more than one custom crop or aspect ratio is put a comma and a space between them. Like this: 2:1, 3:2, 276:100