Can you upload a sample to a host service so I can see? I havent had similar issues with hardcoded letter boxing and I suspect your not setting it right but I need to be on the same saple as yourself as it could be the way your sample is encoded.

Here is a clip i am unable to stretch fullscreen, right click to download

http://www.demo-world.eu/download-2d-trailers/?file=distributor_20th_century_fox-DWEU.mkv&pic=distributor_20th_century_fox.jpg

John Ive got it

On MPC-HC FFMPEG LAV Filters: You can override the aspect ratio and can also pan & scan with different settings to remove the black borders.

On PDVD 15 using the following current PROD build:

PowerDVD Version: 15.0.2211.58SR Number: DVD150828-09 (DVD150310-04)TR Number: TR151019-002

You can adjust the aspect ratio settngs. You may have missed it. Its in the settings menu, in Video, Audio and Subtitles, click on more video settings. Then in the new window goto the aspect ratio tab and you can see various settings there with true theatre and what not to override the aspect ratio of the footage. This is not pan & scan and will result in black borders.

However, none of this really helps as I dont think you understand how different aspect ratios and things like anomorphic encoding works. The thing is, the black bars are normal for theatrical aspect ratio footage in say 2.35:1 when displayed on say a 16:9 display. If you do what you try to do and override the aspect ratio, the image wont look right. It would look like 16:9 anomorphic footage forced into 4:3 - all squished up. Even though pan and scan is not supported in PDVD15, its kinda useless as a feature. If you use pan and scan to remove the black borders, you loose parts of the footage from being displayed in the process. Loosing parts of the footage is never how a director intended a film to be shown.

So in summary nothing is wrong and I see no value in features like pan and scan for PDVD15

I think you should be able to personalize and customize a media player to your liking. Especially if you are paying for it. And especially if it's meant to be one of the best available.

Truetheater enhancements are not used for HD videos, and PowerDvd even provides a recommendation to disable enhancements when it detects HD content. But even then i am unable to stretch videos fullscreen when black borders are hardcoded. I am aware of the ability to change aspect ratio, but again, this does not remove hardcoded black borders.

As you mentioned, mpc-hc can do this quite easily via pan&scan->scale to 16:9 tv setting. And it does NOT result in any cropping, loss of image or distortion. It simply stretches the video to fill the entire screen. I prefer using my entire monitor to display video rather than only a part of it, as i find videos to be more immersive and enjoyable this way. I have always watched videos like this and it looks fine to me. What looks wrong to me is when i have a smaller image with black borders. Have you tried this with mpc?

So pan&scan is not a useless feature, as you do not distort the image or loose parts of the image. All it does is let you use all of your monitor space. Would it really be so hard to implement this feature in PowerDvd for people who prefer to view their videos without borders? And if it was such a useless/bad feature, why have other media players offered this functionality for years?

I appreciate the thought and sincerity that went into your post mate

I get what your saying

The problem is, when something is produced in say a 2.35 it is not in the ratio of 16:9 which is around 1.8. If you have a display that is 16:9, only a 16:9 encoded video will fill the screen. Here's a quote from this

URL: http://www.projectorcentral.com/build_home_theater_screen_aspect_ratio.htm

"Here is a simple fact of life: Videos and movies are made in a variety of different aspect ratios. There is no standard. So no matter what aspect ratio your screen is, you will always end up with black bars at the top and bottom of some material, and black pillars at the sides of other material. The only time you don't get black bars is if you are viewing video or film shot in the format of the screen you are using--either a film done in 1.78 displayed on a 16:9 screen, or a movie shot in 2.4 on a 2.4 Cinemascope screen. In both of those cases, the screen frame will match the picture precisely, and no black bars will exist."

Where your not understanding #1: You can crop and stretch the video playback to fill the screen to suit your particular display aspect ratio but the reality is you will either distort the image or you will loose parts of the image. If you study what MPC-HC and FFMPEG does, you will see this to be true. Since you want to playback the footage and not re encode it under different settings, your stuck with the footage as it comes.

Where your not understanding #2: Cyberlink can do stretching. Because your sample file isnt 4:3 your not seeing the pillars removed. You need to understand this is source dependant on what method is needed to remove the black bars be it stretch or zoom. True theatre HD still runs on HD footage, such as MKV H.264 in 720P. However, as I say, unless you re-encode to different settings playback in stretch will always result in some degree of image distortion. What Cyberlink say about their feature:

"TrueTheater Stretch employs a non-linear stretching technique that automatically adjusts the viewing ratio of the displayed video to match the output display, with minimal distortion"

Heres a URL with some pictures so you can see

http://www.highdefdigest.com/news/show/High-Def_FAQ/Joshua_Zyber/High-Def_FAQ_Why_Dont_the_Black_Bars_Go_Away/764

If your willing to put up with distorted images or loosing parts of the image, then go for it and hassle cyberlink about it. You might be able to convince then to improve on their feature set of imporoving 4:3 content on 16:9 displays, to include movie like 2>35:1 as well on 16:9 displays. Personally I accept that my display doesnt have variable aspect ratios and since cropping or zooming always results in some sort of loss of image quality, I watch the footage as the director intended to see the art in.

I don't really care about technical details regarding aspect ratios. If i wanted to see something the way it was orginally intended i would go to the theatre. But im not in the theatre i'm at home, and at home i like my videos to fill the entire screen.

If the "pan&scan->scale to 16:9 tv" feature i use with mpc resulted in any loss of image as you keep suggesting, i would not use it (and i have checked). I don't want any loss of image as occurs with the zoom feature in PowerDvd, which is why i use mpc to watch my videos and not PowerDvd as i don't lose any image and get full screen!

I don't know why you are talking about improving 4:3 content? As that's not what i'm talking about. I'm talking about regular widescreen video with hardcoded black borders. Powerdvd can stretch the image when the borders are not hardcoded, but it can't stretch when they are hardcoded. So the functionality is already there, it is just incompletely implemented.

I already emailed support asking about this feature and they gave me a stock reply requesting my system specs (waste of time that was). And if nobody from Cyberlink looks at and replies in these forums, then obviously they don't really care about what their customers want.

So i'm not going to "hassle" or try to "convince" Cyberlink to implement these features, i'm just not going to buy their software because my free media player offers me better functionality.

Yes its frustrating when support does that. It happened to me with useless irrelevant responses and/or asking for things I'd already supplied

In your demo file, in those cases where the ratio is higher than your display, theres no way you can not loose part of the image or distort the image. Its simply not possible to display a 2.35:1 image onto a 1.85:1 widescreen display and not loose parts of the image or distort the image. I know you think otherwise, but your in fact wrong and you havent noticed it. The bloke who created this re-encode never did it properly like many pirates - as you say he hardcoded the black borders as the file is actually 1920x1080 with a display aspect ratio of 16:9 PDVD15 actually is playing it back at fullscreen its just its been hardcoded by a poorly skilled pirate to be that way.

The other problem assuming you want to put up with loosing parts of the image or distorting using say MPC-HC ffmpeg lav filters is when you work out how to deal with footage greater than your display aspect ratio, youll eventually get some content that is lower and youll have the same desire to "fix" that. This is why I was talking about 4:3 content.

Im not trying to discourage you from pressuring Cyberlink to add the feature you want mate. Go for it. Its just I personally will not to do what your doing due to the loss of image quality that unavoidably takes place.