[APPLESCRIPT] Change QuickTime movie aspect ratio

[Mikuro]

This is a script I've made to easily change the aspect ratio of a movie in QuickTime Player. It presents the user with a dialog box with common ratios, like 4:3 and 16:9, with an option for the user to enter any arbitrary ratio.

I find this very useful for video podcasts from iTunes and movies downloaded from sites like YouTube. For some reason they often have the wrong aspect ratio, resulting in stretched (or smooshed) video. This script lets me fix it easily.

The zip includes both .scpt and .app versions. Personally, I recommend enabling the Script Menu (which you can do from AppleScript Utility, located in /Applications/AppleScript/) and putting it in there. You can even set it up so it only appears in the menu when QuickTime Player is the frontmost application.

This script has been tested with QuickTime 7 in Tiger and Leopard.

[ElijahLynn]

Thanks a bunch - Compressor has been outputting a bunch of mov files that were natively 4:3 and making the people look fat. This fixed it. Quicktime asks if you want to save the file when exiting. When you reopen the saved file it then keeps the correct aspect ratio that you set with your script.

I would like to set this in compressor on the h.264 export but until then at least I can view the real output.

Thanks for your work

I joined just to download and thank you.

[jle44]

this is a glorious manuscript!

[ElDiabloConCaca]

this is a glorious manuscript!
Hehe... I can't wait for the movie! ;)

[ElijahLynn]

Please help. I applied the script to one of my videos to 4:3 and saved it. Final Cut Pro now shows it as square pixel and 720 x 540.

I need the original footage back to the way it was.

Thanks

[ElijahLynn]

How can I manually go into a video file and change a dimension?

Final Cut is showing me it as square pixel when it isn't and also dominant field shows none - it should be lower field.

[hindsholm]

I am sorry to ask a stupid question like this, but I am a new iMac userand I can't figure out how to install the script. It works fine when I execute it, but I would like to have it available on the menu whenever I run QuickTime. What do I do?

TIA

[Mikuro]

Please help. I applied the script to one of my videos to 4:3 and saved it. Final Cut Pro now shows it as square pixel and 720 x 540.

I need the original footage back to the way it was.

Hi. Sorry for the delayed reply; I must have missed your post originally.

You can use the script to change the ratio back to its original ratio. Or, if you have QuickTime Pro, you can also do it manually like this:

- Open the movie
- Sselect "Show Movie Properties" from the Window menu
- Select the video track
- Go to "Visual Settings"
- Un-check the "preserve aspect ratio box"
- Enter the numbers from the "normal size" boxes into the "Scaled Size" boxes and hit Return.
- Save.

[Mikuro]

I am sorry to ask a stupid question like this, but I am a new iMac userand I can't figure out how to install the script. It works fine when I execute it, but I would like to have it available on the menu whenever I run QuickTime. What do I do?

TIA

I recommend using the AppleScript menu. You can enable this menu by using the "/Applications/AppleScript/AppleScript Utility" program.

Once you have it enabled, go into QuickTime Player, and select from the Script menu "Open Scripts Folder > QuickTime Player Scripts Folder". Drop the script files into that folder, and they will now appear in the menu whenever QuickTime Player is active.

[oslomac]

Thanks! Have been looking forever to get a simple thing like this to convert my skinny files into regular aspect ratio files. Thanks so much. Just used the script "Change QuickTime movie aspect ratio script.scpt" and it worked like a charm.
=) oslodude

[mchristopherson]

this is great. Thank you

[roblawrenson]

I was having a problem using iDVD 08 to encode a dvd from a quicktime reference output from Avid. Even though the movie displays fine when played in Quicktime, after I specify 16:9 square pixels on the QT reference settings in Avid, when iDVD imports the movie, it creates a 4:3 DVD. Your little script application solved the problem immediately. I also joined to download and thank you. Good work.

Now can someone tell Apple to put just one more option into iDVD, so we don't have to go through this rigmarole?!