Aspect ratio in WMP9 on Desktop and Pocket PC

[townsendtribe]

I was playing around with converting a DivX to a .WMV for playing on the Pocket PC. The divx I was using was a widescreen video, so I set the options in Windows Movie Maker 2 to 16:9, when I compiled the video, it turned out fine, and I was VERY pleased with the playback quality on my Axim running WM2003.

The problem is, on the desktop, the video plays at 16:9 ratio, but on the Pocket PC, it stretches the video to 320x240. I checked the properties of the video and it says's it IS a 320x240 video. That being the case I can see why it plays fullscreen on the axim, but why does it hold to the 16:9 ratio on the desktop?

Anyone know how to compile the video with movie maker 2 so that it will hold to the 16:9 ratio on the pocket pc?

[Falstaff]

Why bother even converting the divx to wmv format. Just install a divx player on your handheld, that would be the easiest thing. Is there some special reason why you have to have the movie in wmv? Check out Pocket DivX Player (http://www.ppc4all.com/appdetail.php?id=1020). That even offers a rotate feature so you can watch the 16:9 in landscape mode.

[townsendtribe]

Well, I guess it has a lot to do with the fact that the divx is 700 MB and the .WMV is 165 MB... not to mention that the Windows Movie Maker is free, and I don't need to install anything else on my axim to play it... The Movie plays great and the quality is better than that of the pocket divix movies I have... and I am sure I can go on down the list... but all I want to know is if anyone knows how to get what I want done to work...

[Excalliber]

Try using Encoder 9. Just make sure that for each session you change the codec you're using under video to v9 or else the quality will be lower, as the default that it chooses for your pocket pc is v8. Also, the bitrate that it offers for PPCs is a little high, so you may want to change that as well, depending on your size constraints.

[townsendtribe]

Thanks for the advice... Encoder 9 worked like a champ! File size is about 80MB bigger that way, but much easier on the eyes. Thank God for the microdrives!

[stevenmh]

I decided to try my hand at watching some of my DVDs on my PPC, but also had trouble with the aspect ratio. I was using the video guide at speedzone.com, and used Windows Media Encoder 9, and selected V9. I tried ripping AOTC and had good luck with quality vs file size, but I was getting a 4:3 aspect ratio at 320x240. I tried again, changing the output size to 320x214, which gave a perfect aspect ratio. However, this caused severe "banding" in the video, making it unwatchable. I assume I could play around with cropping the video, converting it to 4:3 pan and scan, but that's a lot of work on top of the already tedious 4 step process.

Can anybody give any tips on how to can get a widescreen DVD to show up at the correct aspect ratio on the PPC?

TIA.

[PeO]

However, this caused severe "banding" in the video, making it unwatchable.
TIA.

I don't really understand what you mean by "banding". If it is the black top and bottom bands, you have to live with it unless you do some cropping. Personally I prefer the scaling down rather than loosing edge video content when converting wide screen material to the PPC. It's quite annoying understanding that the crook is at the edge of the screen but you can't see him...

If "banding" is when the video consists of a number of horisontal stripes that are not vertically aligned - this effect is emphasized when there is fast motion or large objects moving on the screen - the remedy is to deinterlace. When setting up the Windows Media Encoder, select "Properties" => "Processing" => Video => "Deinterlace".

Good luck! If "banding" is something else, please clarify!

[stevenmh]

However, this caused severe "banding" in the video, making it unwatchable.
TIA.

I don't really understand what you mean by "banding". If it is the black top and bottom bands, you have to live with it unless you do some cropping. Personally I prefer the scaling down rather than loosing edge video content when converting wide screen material to the PPC. It's quite annoying understanding that the crook is at the edge of the screen but you can't see him...

If "banding" is when the video consists of a number of horisontal stripes that are not vertically aligned - this effect is emphasized when there is fast motion or large objects moving on the screen - the remedy is to deinterlace. When setting up the Windows Media Encoder, select "Properties" => "Processing" => Video => "Deinterlace".

Good luck! If "banding" is something else, please clarify!

Yes...the horizontal stripes thing is what I meant. Thanks for the tip!

[stevenmh]

Re-did the video with deinterlacing, and it worked like a charm. Thanks again!

[Mitchybums]

I convert movies the following way:

I open the movie in mediaplayer, pause it, select file-properties, and then I have the resolution. lets say 512x224 (the movie I'm doing now)
i open calculator, and use the following calculation :

320/512 * 224.

this gives me a resolution in the same aspect ratio of 320x 140

I open mediaencoder, select convert file, select file, and set converting options. then uncheck the option of start encoding when I click finish, and i select properties. In conversion I hit the edit button, and highlight the bitrate option, and select edit again.
Here I change the resolution, and also the compression options. I dont use headphones, so I select 16kbs22khz mono for sound, and depending for the movie length, I play around with 90kbs-120kbs for the video.
This will result in a movie file in the right aspect ratio, that will fit on a 128mb sd card (dont have a bigger one yet)

Hope this helps ya