Aspect Ratio Filter

What's new

15/1/2007

• Email: due to spam, you can contact me now at arf1 (HAT) gouget (DOTT) org

16/8/2005

• Licensing: It seems that not enough people are interested in arf.ax, so I decided to lift all usage restrictions on the filter for personnal use, and provide it free of charge, but as-is and without support. In case of problems, you may drop me an email, but I don't promise I will answer...
• There is a new version available, with better memory management, no time limit, better optimisation, parameters persistent store, and which seems pretty stable, at least on my environment.... Enjoy!

13/6/2005

• IVR Mode: This filter does not work well in IVR mode. Info has been sent to Saar; for now, stick with the generic mode.
• msvcr70.dll needed: arf.ax needs the msvcr70.dll file. If you can't register the filter, chances are that you don't have it. You can download it here, and copy it in your windows/system32 folder.

Introduction

ARF is a Microsoft DirectShow filter allowing the dynamic modification of the aspect ratio of a video in a very user-friendly way. I developped it mainly for using with my THEATRE, a satellite TV application which works very well, except that it does not support displays with non square pixels, such as a 16:9 TV with a 1024x768 resolution. The workaround solutions suggested by Saar (the developer of MT) are far from perfect (using powerstrip), and did not worked in my case for hardware reasons. It seems that no one is providing a filter for changing aspect ratios, so I decided to write one from scratch, and did a deep dive into the DirectX SDK.

Actually, this filter is still an experimental program, which will run only for 1 hour, is not optimised, uses a lot of memory, has no installer, can't store its settings, and does not support remotes. But it fits perfectly my own needs. If enough people want it, I expect to improve and optimize it, and sell it through PayPal for the low price of 10 euro ( +VAT in europe). Please drop me an email (arf1 HAT gouget DOTT org) should you have any comments, or if you want to buy it :-).

Installation

Download the file arf.ax, install it in a directory (I suggest mytheatre/graphs) and register it using regsrv32.exe, or better, using the excellent RadLight Filter Manager.

Use graphedit.exe to load a working MT graph, and insert the aspect ratio filter just before the renderer. Save the graph as xml under a new name in the same directory. Then direct MT to use this graph.

• The renderer MUST be VMR7 or VMR9.
• The Intervideo decoder does not work well with this filter. Cyberlink and modified nvidia decoders work fine.
• I have tested it in generic mode only, as IVR is not good on my system; maybe it works also in IVR.

Usage

This filter is intended for use with a 16:9 display, such as a widescreen TV. If your screen or TV has a 4:3 aspect ratio, this filter is of no use for you. Even if your display has square pixels, you will find very convenient to switch between aspect ratios with a mouse click.

The filter has a property page where you can select between 3 aspect ratios:

• 4:3 Use this for standard TV pictures. You will get your video with vertical black bars on each side.
• 16:9 Use this for 16:9 broadcasts with horizontal black bars on top and bottom. The black bars are cropped, and the image is expansed to the full size of the display. Very nice for seeing movies...
• Anamorphic Use this for 16:9 broadcasts. The image passes through unmodified.

You can also cycle through these aspect ratios using the mouse. In fact, this is the recommanded way to use this filter, and the only one available when using some modified decoders, such as the nvidia, which causes MT to segfault when accessing property pages :-(. For that, press the left button first and while holding it, click on the right button. Each release of the right button will bring the next aspect ratio. Then release the left button.

The filter allows you to tune your display's aspect ratio, so that, combined with MT left+wheel zoom feature, you can use any resolution you want and adjust precisely the video to your screen. Press the left mouse button first, then the right one. Maintaining the 2 buttons pressed, turn the mouse wheel. Then release first the right button, then the left.

Enjoy!

Michel Gouget

Copyright

Copyright (C) 2005 Michel Gouget. All rights reserved. This software provided as is, without any warranty of any kind. Decompiling, reverse engineering and/or modifying this software is expressely forbidden.