Squished Videos

[scramjet]

Several (not nearly all) of the vids I've downloaded recently look squished flat. I'm using the VLC player, which seems great. Are these videos just encoded wierdly or is there something I can do to restore the correct aspect ratio?

[British]

If you are viewing Siouxie and the Banshees' "Israel", I think it is supposed to be squished. Dang does Siouxie look good in those just-above-the-knee boots.

[scramjet]

No, it's not some trendy effect. The round VH1 symbol is squashed into an oval.

[Berserker]

Make sure your VLC player settings are correct. VLC is one of those players which will let you adjust the aspect ratio of anything you play through it. Go to Settings->Preferences->Video, and tick the "Advanced Options" box in the lower right corner. You can then find an option called "Source Aspect Ratio". Set it to 4:3 or so for normal TV output.

[scramjet]

OK, I found the controls, but they don't seem to have any effect. What am I doing wrong?

[scramjet]

It works now. Not sure why it didn't before. Thanks for the tip Berserker.