Postcards From the Edge

[Myrtledog]

Just obtained this BD and ripped it. Then loaded it onto Plex.
The problem is that this widescreen disc seems to have ripped to 4:3... not sure why?

Any thoughts?

[Woodstock]

If you play the file with something like VLC from Videolan.org, does it display as 1080p or something else?

Plex introduces issues with its re-coding video for some clients that can make things tricky to debug.

[Myrtledog]

Not sure what VLC is however I have hundreds of BDs ripped via mkv and this is the first and only time I've seen this issue...

[Woodstock]

VLC is a multi-platform player that plays "most everything", and makes it easier to tell if the file itself is "bad".

[ElJimador]

If you play the file with something like VLC from Videolan.org, does it display as 1080p or something else?

Hi. I ran into the same issue. Played with VLC the file displays as 4:3 also so it's not just a Plex player issue. MediaInfo reports it as 1920x1080 but watching it the movie itself is squeezed into the middle of the frame horizontally (still full height) so all the characters look like stick figures.

I've ripped hundreds of blurays with makemkv and this is the first time I've ever run into this. Let me know if there's any other info I can provide to help sort out a fix. Thanks.

[Woodstock]

This is likely a case where the aspect ratio values on the BD do not agree with each other. I've had a half-dozen different BDs like that. MakeMKV copies the one found in the video stream itself to the MKV, which "should" be the correct one, but is not always correct.

There are a couple of ways to patch the aspect ratio in the MKV file, but I don't have the magic incantation for that. It was not a big deal for me, because I process EVERYTHING through handbrake, and handbrake figured out the correct aspect ratio when converting.

[ElJimador]

It was not a big deal for me, because I process EVERYTHING through handbrake, and handbrake figured out the correct aspect ratio when converting.

Thanks so much for posting this. My next step was going to be to try to use Handbrake to fix it and I thought I was going to have to do a whole lot of trial and error mucking around in the picture settings, cropping, etc. Turned out my default settings for bluray (CQ 21 slow) worked just fine to spit out the correct AR. So that's good enough for me too.

[crussader]

I realize this is an ancient thread, but I just came across this problem so maybe someone else has as well.

The problem is the header data has the display width set at 1080. I downloaded mkvtoolnix and used it to edit the header. I changed the "Display Width" setting to 1920 and saved the file. That's all it takes. Took longer to download the tool kit than it did to fix the file.

[pipo233]

This problem occurs because there is a difference between display aspect ratio (DAR) and storage aspect ratio (SAR)
Sometimes they are not the same.
I have a dvd disc that is 16:9 but the SAR is 4:3. The video is presented in 16:9 but saved on disc as 4:3

Makemkv uses apparently SAR which is on most cases correct but not always.

The solution is quite simple, open the output file in mkvtoolnix, select the video track and scroll down in the right windows pane to video properties.
Select set aspect ratio and select the ratio that this file should be played.