VLC users - can i stretch vertically or horizontally?

HN

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Jan 19, 2001
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Some videos i had were not playing, and now that Portable VLC is out, i thought i'd give it a try. played like a charm. however, i'm wondering if there is a way to stretch the picture vertically or horizontally (independent of each other).

for example, in MPC, i can press up/down on the numpad to stretch/shrink the picture vertically, and press right/left to stretch/shrink the picture horizontally. is there an equivalent in VLC?
 

HN

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Jan 19, 2001
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hmm, does not appear to be the same function as in MPC. thanks though.
 

HN

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Jan 19, 2001
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Originally posted by: PseudoKnight
No, it's more useful and less subjective. Why would someone want to do that manually?

sometimes i want to increase a little, sometimes a lot. sometimes vertically and not horizontally; sometimes horizontally and not vertically. regardless of usefulness, i'd just like to see if there's an equivalent function.
 

kmmatney

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Jun 19, 2000
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I've never been able to get VLC to do that, even though I have often had the need. I believe that the DIVX player can do that - at least it used to.
 

kmmatney

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Jun 19, 2000
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Originally posted by: PseudoKnight
Source aspect ratio in Preferences -> Video.

I can't figure out how to get that to work...

From the Wiki:

How to control the aspect ratio of the video
Using VLC, you can override the source aspect ratio. This is available both as a command line option and as an option in the Preference dialog in the graphical interface. The aspect ratio can be specified both in ratio format (16:9) or as a decimal number (1.33).

Command Line

When invoking VLC from the command line, use the option --aspect-ratio. For instance,

vlc --aspect-ratio 1.85

Graphical Interface

If using the graphical interface, the setting is In the Video section of the Preferences dialog. You may specify the aspect ratio in the field labeled "Source aspect ratio."

 

PseudoKnight

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Oct 18, 2004
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Originally posted by: HN
Originally posted by: PseudoKnight
No, it's more useful and less subjective. Why would someone want to do that manually?

sometimes i want to increase a little, sometimes a lot. sometimes vertically and not horizontally; sometimes horizontally and not vertically. regardless of usefulness, i'd just like to see if there's an equivalent function.
Again, why would you want to do that?

I can't figure out how to get that to work...
You just type your preferred aspect ratio for the video to play at. This is helpful if the video is stretched. But this doesn't seem why you guys seem to be useing the feature. I can't imagine WHY you would want to stretch a video if not for that reason.
 

HN

Diamond Member
Jan 19, 2001
8,186
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Originally posted by: PseudoKnight
Originally posted by: HN
Originally posted by: PseudoKnight
No, it's more useful and less subjective. Why would someone want to do that manually?

sometimes i want to increase a little, sometimes a lot. sometimes vertically and not horizontally; sometimes horizontally and not vertically. regardless of usefulness, i'd just like to see if there's an equivalent function.
Again, why would you want to do that?

I can't figure out how to get that to work...
You just type your preferred aspect ratio for the video to play at. This is helpful if the video is stretched. But this doesn't seem why you guys seem to be useing the feature. I can't imagine WHY you would want to stretch a video if not for that reason.
well, since "i just do" won't suffice, here are some specific examples that i've encountered in my video viewing days:

-for whatever reason, the video has a vertical or horizontal jagged edge and i don't want to see that for the duration of the video. so, i just stretch it in either axis just enough so i don't see it.

-video is more squished than i prefer (whoever encoded the video distorted the picture unknowingly for example). i stretch it to MY preference.

-picture is too high / low and i want to raise/lower it (i dont' do this often and was not asked about in the OP, but now that my thinking is jogged, i know that MPC can do this; wonder if VLC can. an example of this type of video would be the Red vs. Blue videos that are slightly higher on my screen than i prefer so i lower them a bit in MPC via Ctrl + numpad down)

-picture has text on it throughout the duration of the video that i don't want to look at while i'm watching so i stretch it enough so it's out of the picture. out of sight, out of mind. i don't care if i lose some of the picture. that's my preference in the situation like this.

-videos come in all sorts of resolutions that 3 or 4 preset settings won't cover. strange resolution? stretch it to preference.

-etc. etc.

regardless of why, or how stupid those reasons may sound, i originally just wanted to know if VLC had a similar function.

er, i mean, bump.