[GrendelJapan]

My issue can be summarized by the following:

I have episodes of Murder She Wrote (80s US TV Show, 1.33:1 ratio, I think) and Foyle's War (~recent British TV show, 1.78:1 ratio) on dvd. I used MakeMKV to create mkv files for each and am attempting to play them both in XBMC (openelec) on my Toshiba LCD (1920x1080).

When I play the dvds through my dvd player, Murder She Wrote has the normal ~square/tv aspect ratio (black bars on either side) and Foyle's War plays in the wider aspect ratio (full screen on my lcd). When I play them in XBMC, Murder She Wrote looks fine, but Foyle's War doesn't look right and any option on either the TV picture settings or XBMC settings that I've tried all look wrong (are too far zoomed in, are stretched tall, or have black bars on the side).

The closest I've gotten to getting Foyle's War to looking right was by setting "Allowed error in aspect ratio to minimize black bars (%)" to 20%, but there are still slight black bars on either side of the picture and then Murder She Wrote looks completely off.

I'm guessing that some sort of metadata on the Foyle's War mkvs must be listing the wrong aspect ratio, but I've no clue how that incorrect data would have gotten there or how to resolve the issue.

I'm assuming that plenty of people out there have both old 1.33:1 ratio shows and newer 1.78:1 ratio content (along with various other stuff) and are able to get both to render correctly; any tips on how would be greatly appreciated.

[Chris!]

So you want foyle's war to display 16:9 and murder she wrote to display 4:3?

If you play murder she wrote in a different media player are they black bars either side of the video (in the actual video it's self)

Have you tried fiddling with the OSD settings:
http://wiki.xbmc.org/index.php?title=Vid...o_settings

[GrendelJapan]

Nope, Murder She Wrote episodes look complete normal in other players.

I haven't messed with the OSD settings. Would that be something I'd need to configure for every single episode, or would I just tweak the settings when I watch Foyle's War, for example? I guess the answer to that may be apparent when I get into the OSD settings.

[Chris!]

Umm, yeah (i'm only answering as no-one else seems to be picking up on this thread).

Did you see the "Display 4:3 videos as:" perhaps that is set to stretch 16:9


The Z button on the keyboard allows one to flip through aspect ratio's quickly, other than that I can't be much more help I think.
But I am curious to see if there is another option.

[GrendelJapan]

I'll need to bring down a keyboard, since the remote that came with my Zotac AD10 can't get to the OSD settings, as far as I can tell.

I'll check the "display 4:3 video settings as" settings again, but I think it may solve the issue with one and create an issue with the other.

Another oddity I noticed is that other 1.78:1 content (e.g., Life in the Undergrwoth) looks completely fine. The only show I've noticed that doesn't render correctly is Foyle's War, but again, I'm using exactly the same method (MakeMKV) of dvd-digital backup.

[OniFactor]

I'll need to bring down a keyboard, since the remote that came with my Zotac AD10 can't get to the OSD settings, as far as I can tell.

I'll check the "display 4:3 video settings as" settings again, but I think it may solve the issue with one and create an issue with the other.

Another oddity I noticed is that other 1.78:1 content (e.g., Life in the Undergrwoth) looks completely fine. The only show I've noticed that doesn't render correctly is Foyle's War, but again, I'm using exactly the same method (MakeMKV) of dvd-digital backup.

what were your settings used when you ran handbrake on the Foyle's War dvds?
was anamorphic set to anything other than "strict"?

[Chris!]

what were your settings used when you ran handbrake on the Foyle's War dvds?
was anamorphic set to anything other than "strict"?

He's been using makemkv only (no handbrake) - which doesn't do any transcoding so he is right in assuming nothing should have changed to the image.

I'll need to bring down a keyboard, since the remote that came with my Zotac AD10 can't get to the OSD settings, as far as I can tell.

It depends what remote you have, a lot of them have an option on them to access OSD and/or aspect ratio switch button.

[GrendelJapan]

Setting "display 4:3 video settings as" makes Foyle's War look right, but everything else look pinched.

I used the OSD to manually adjust each episode of Foyle's War, so that each episode stretches to 16:9 and that seems to do the trick. Thanks! I also noticed that when I check episode info for Foyle's War, it incorrectly notes a 4:3 icon. I'm not sure if that is assessed on the MKV itself or pulled from some sort of web db, but that could be the culprit.

Now, I just need to figure out a way to program the custom buttons on the Zotac WMC remote or pick up a new one, so that I don't need to lug a keyboard down the next time this pops up.

[OniFactor]

He's been using makemkv only (no handbrake) - which doesn't do any transcoding so he is right in assuming nothing should have changed to the image.


It depends what remote you have, a lot of them have an option on them to access OSD and/or aspect ratio switch button.

meh.. i read to fast. -.-

[Chris!]

Now, I just need to figure out a way to program the custom buttons on the Zotac WMC remote or pick up a new one, so that I don't need to lug a keyboard down the next time this pops up.

Might be worth starting here:
http://wiki.xbmc.org/index.php?title=Usi..._with_XBMC

I can't really help as I use flirc (which acts as a keyboard input by remote control presses)

[GotMak]

Google lead me to this thread and I saw that you were having the same issue with Foyle's War that I am seeing - namely it looks fine on DVD, but when you pull the MKV it makes everything tall and skinny. I didn't want to resurrect an old thread, but since I have a solution that does not require anything be done in XBMC, rather resolves the issue by transcoding, I thought it might be OK to do so.

In my case, I'm pulling extracting the video into an MKV file like the OP is, but then transcoding the MKV files into MP4 files - I do this since I can rip MKV's very quickly, put them all on my hard drive, then queue up the transcodes which are slow, and let them run all night without intervention. Foyle's War is not an HD feed, and Handbrake does an excellent job of transcoding it.

I'm able to address the following issues by transcoding:

• Large file size for a low-res image - 720x480 movies ranging 3.6-6 GB, approximately
  
• Interlacing
  
• Aspect ratio issues as identified by the OP
  
• Having to change XBMC video settings, which I don't like to do - one setting, all the time, especially since I'm setting this up for my mom who's 70+ years old and just wants to watch her shows in a point-and-click fashion.
  

My solution was to transcode in Handbrake, using a high-profile setting, constant quality factor of 18, with decomb and a a picture setting of 854 pixels wide with a PAR Width setting of 32 and PAR height setting of 27.

The file size for one eposode (A War of Nerves) is down to 1.6 Gig from a 5.1 gig MKV, the aspect ratio is correct (Sam is now normally skinny and tall instead of freakishly skinny and tall), and decomb takes care of the interlacing very nicely, so XBMC doesn't have to. Running on a slow machine like a Raspberry Pi or Apple TV1, this makes a difference.

Here's the reference I used for the trascode settings, discusses anamorphic DVD's, like Foyle's War: https://trac.handbrake.fr/wiki/AnamorphicGuide#enabling

Anyway, sorry to resurrect such an old thread, but I thought it was pertinent to do so.