Changing aspect ratio and resolution automatically

[Eldaer]

Hi, does anyone know if its possible for the transcoding to automatically make videos 4:3 aspect ratio and change resolution. I am playing it on a CRT 4:3 tv

EDIT: I tried to set resolution in MENcoder Video but nothing happened. Also tried -vf scale=720:576 and -vf scale=720:-2 in custom options but nothing happened.

[mik_s]

Depends an what renderer you are playing the videos on.
Mencoder may not have been used depending on the priority set for transcoding options so could be why those custom options did not work. FFmepg is set as the first option by default but you can easily test the other engines in the #--TRANSCODE--# folder.

Might be better to edit that renderer's conf to set the max width and height for 4:3 so this will be passed to the transcoding command whichever one you use.

Your renderer may have options to do the change the output itself. What are you using to play these on? Are the videos themselves in 4:3?

[Eldaer]

I am using a ps3. Not sure where I find the config of the transcode folder and what engine im using, guessing its the one on the top of priority list which would be default. The videos which are already 4:3 isnt a problem, its the widescreen videos its like to have the option to stretch to fit

[mik_s]

The PS3 should be able to output the right aspect ratio. Make sure the display output is set to 4:3. Maybe this shows the right setting.
I don't know if it just stretches the picture, adds black bars for the letterbox format, or zooms in and cuts out the sides.

You can edit "C:\Program Files\Universal Media Server\renderers\Sony-PlayStation3.conf" (assuming you are on windows) to set the max resolution with

Code: Select all

# The maximum width and height supported by the renderer. 0 means unlimited.
# Both must be 0, or both must be higher than 0.
# Defaults: 1920 and 1080
MaxVideoWidth = 
MaxVideoHeight = 

If none of the options helps with the aspect ratio then you could set some custom options to add the black bars for letterbox if the video is in 16:9 format.
This option is specifically for scaling and padding.

Code: Select all

# Overrides the scale and pad part of FFmpeg VideoFilter options in UMS for this
# renderer. It leaves all internal VideoFilter setting for subtitles untouched.
# Do not use -vf in this option, and add only VideoFilter parameters (filters)
# separated by commas. Commas inside the filters are taken as a break so they
# must have a prefix.
# Example: OverrideFFmpegVideoFilter = pad=max(iw\\,ih*16/9)
# Default: ""
OverrideFFmpegVideoFilter =

I don't know what to set here but hopefully this will help you find the right setting, at least for letterbox, but don't know if it is selectively applied to only 16:9 or all videos.
(make sure the FFmpeg transcoding engine is at the top of the list in transcoding settings)

Best to save the edited version of the conf to "C:\ProgramData\UMS\renderers\" so it does not get overwritten when you update UMS.
To make sure yours is used over the default one you may need to add

Code: Select all

LoadingPriority = 2 

If all your videos ar already in 4:3 and were made a long time ago it may already be in a format the PS3 can play natively so UMS does not need to alter them,
then it will be down to the output settings on the PS3 to display them correctly.
The PS3 will also scale down HD videos to SD for the CRT TV so you may not need to set the width and height in the conf.