Dealing with 4:3 ratio resolution on 5:4 LCDs

[mjia]

Most 17" and 19" LCDs are the same shape are conventional CRTs, sporting a 4:3 aspect ratio in their physical size. The problem is that their standard resolution of 1280x1024 is actually a 5:4 ratio. The shape of the resulting pixels are actually squashed rectangles.

I have frequently found this disportionality in my LCDs very annoying when watching movies. People appear squashed and shorter.

The only way I have found to deal with this problem is setting the resolution to 1280x960 (4:3). Two issues with this solutions are the inconvenience and the resulting double anti-aliasing. The movie player will enlarge the movie to the full screen resolution and then the LCD will strech it again, and the resulting image is futher distorted.

What I am look for is a movie player that will compensate for the rectangular pixels. Perhaps someone has thought of this problem and added a feature to address it. Alternatively, programs that can force the movie to be enlarge to fill the screen (and not maintain the original aspect ratio of the movie file) would also solve the issue for normal movies (won't help for widescreen movies).

 

[imported_Ned Flanders]

I'm not sure, but Media Player Classic has a few options regarding aspect ratios.

 

[JBT]

ummm LCD's 17" + 19" physically are 5:4 and also have the res of 5:4 nothing is squished on an LCD. On a CRT they are 4:3 so yeah 1280x1024 is going to look weird but on a LCD it shouldn't.

 

[Auric]

Such LCD's are physically taller than the equivalent CRT so that the greater vertical resolution does not cause distortion. Indeed, if such a CRT displays 1280x1024 and is adjusted horizontally to fill the available area then it will vertically squash movies. Inversely, if the LCD displays 1280x960 and is forced to fill then it will vertically stretch. So, the problem must indeed be with your player (putting aside bad encodes). Media Player Classic should fix you up with its myriad of options including various video frame modes, keep/override/correct AR and change fullscreen resolution.

 

[Job]

same with VLC advanced video options - just manually enter the ratio you want

 

[mjia]

Hum...it would appear that you are correct in that the physical size is 5:4 (I measured it). I thought I read somewhere that LCDs were subject to this distortion, and some of my videos definately looked distorted. I checked out the files' resolutions again and found that they were 5:2...I guess the distortion was cause by file itself.

Thanks for the tips.