[MPlayer-users] Transcoding from one aspect ratio to another

[Nix]

On 2010.11.03. 18:06, JD wrote:
> I have a video file that has an aspect ratio of
> 2.353 : 1
> I would like to transcode it to an aspect ratio
> of 1.6 : 1 (like 1280x800).
> Is this even possible?
It's been a while since I lasted had to encode a video and truth be told 
I was never that good at it but generally speaking you can change how 
video is represented internally by messing with PAR and actual 
resolution and/or by cropping and adding black borders change it's 
"physical" form (DAR) (do note that this might crop away needed 
information, also if it was anamorphic you will need to recalculate the 
correction factor).
Short answer: just like you can't inflate or deflate a rubber balloon 
with a picture on it and expect that picture to stay undistorted, you 
generally can't change image form without cropping some of it or 
squashing it, which is what you want, if i understand correctly.
Regards,
nix