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#1 2008-11-02 3:01 pm
- Den
- Member
- Registered: 2008-11-02
- Posts: 12
Movie aspect ratios
I am entirely new to Mac having had my iMac for 2 weeks after 25 years loyalty to Bill Gates. One of the things that is irritating me is that all my home movies are shot in 16:9 aspect but every movie player I have on my iMac only plays in 4:3. The only way I can see them in the original aspect is to open them in iMovie or Final Cut Express. All advice welcome. Regards, Den.
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#2 2008-11-02 3:06 pm
- Shadowless
- Cpl, USMC
- From: Jacksonville, NC
- Registered: 2005-10-10
- Posts: 3061
Re: Movie aspect ratios
http://www.videolan.org/vlc/
This media player will play everything. Well, except RealPlayer stuff, but outside of that, it really does play everything.
This should play it in the correct format.
Also, are you using the actual DVD Player app? What other programs have you tried?
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#3 2008-11-02 3:21 pm
- Den
- Member
- Registered: 2008-11-02
- Posts: 12
Re: Movie aspect ratios
I've tried Quicktime, iDVD and Front Row. Sorry if I have posted this in the wrong forum. If you really think videolan is the answer I will give it a try. Thanks for your interest Shadowless. I have quite a few avi files from my previous PC but they all play in 4:3. Investigations on Google point to me having to buy the pro version of Quicktime but since I am still finding my way around the iMac I am postponing that action for now.
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#4 2008-11-02 3:24 pm
- Den
- Member
- Registered: 2008-11-02
- Posts: 12
Re: Movie aspect ratios
Sorry I should have said that iDVD will not open an avi file.
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#5 2008-11-02 3:30 pm
Re: Movie aspect ratios
Quicktime, iDVD and Front Row can all play widescreen files... what's the issue? What does it look like when you try to play a widescreen file?
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#6 2008-11-02 4:11 pm
- avkills
- demyelinated brain matter
- Registered: 2001-05-09
- Posts: 7094
Re: Movie aspect ratios
My guess is that the AVI files are not tagged as widescreen format, hence they play back in 4:3.
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Stack it!#8 2008-11-02 6:12 pm
- D'Eyncourt
- OMGDICTATOR
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Re: Movie aspect ratios
Until a solution is posted, you can Shift-click the lower-right corner of the QuickTime Player to adjust the QT screen to whatever size you wish.
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#9 2008-11-02 10:37 pm
- maleko
- Member
- From: Eugene, OR
- Registered: 2006-11-25
- Posts: 1221
Re: Movie aspect ratios
Open a movie in VLC, then press A. It will play in any aspect ration you like.
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#10 2008-11-03 12:05 am
Re: Movie aspect ratios
As maleko said, it corresponds to video>aspect ratio in VLC. In case of black borders, you might also have a look at video>crop.
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#11 2008-11-03 10:12 am
- Den
- Member
- Registered: 2008-11-02
- Posts: 12
Re: Movie aspect ratios
Thanks to all for the useful info. The avi files are in 16:9 format copied over from my PC. The suggestion of shift clicking the corner of the Quicktime player has enabled me to produce a satisfactory aspect for viewing and I'm now quite happy with that. Front Row will play the avi files but cuts them off into a 4:3 aspect and, up until now, I can't find a way of changing that but I will work on it. I agree that iDVD will play movies in 16:9 aspect but, as I said, it will not open avi files. I have downloaded VLC since that gets good reports from you and I will be trying that in the next few days. In the meantime I am learning to use iMovie and Final Cut Express so all my future clips will be imported to the iMac and I don't anticipate too many problems after that. I've had so much good advice that I think this problem can be considered "sorted". Regards to all.
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#12 2008-11-05 9:36 am
- Dunkin'
- Mom Bo'
- From: Over the hills and far away
- Registered: 1999-10-15
- Posts: 3300
Re: Movie aspect ratios
Flip4Mac - free download to enable wmv and avi playback in QuickTime apps (QT, iTunes, QuickLook, FrontRow)
1/φ = φ-1
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#13 2008-11-05 9:44 am
Re: Movie aspect ratios
Actually Flip4Mac only supports AVI playback of WM encoded AVIs. It's unneeded for standard AVIs and Perian (or the individual codecs it replaces) is still needed for DivX, Xvid, 3ivx, msmpeg4v1 & msmpeg4v2 AVIs.
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