www.makemkv.com

My theater has a bit of a problem with low ceilings. Watching movies and using the back row requires tilting the PJ up so that the image fills the top of the screen. This of course requires the use of keystoning which makes the picture worse. What I would like to do is project the 2.35 wide image at the top of the 16:9 field.

Is there any custom hack that I can force makemkv to make a 16x9 image with the image on top and black filling out the bottom?

The black bars are called "letterboxing", and they're part of the video on the disk. They are put in because the aspect ratio of the original movie does not match the media it is stored on, 720x480 for DVD (4:3), 1920x1080 for BD (16:9), or 3840x2160 for UHD BD (16:9).

You can remove them completely with a tool like handbrake, which will crop them off, but... Your projector will put them back on when it displays the video, because your display is not the same aspect ratio.

Woodstock wrote: You can remove them completely with a tool like handbrake, which will crop them off, but... Your projector will put them back on when it displays the video, because your display is not the same aspect ratio.

Is there a hand brake script to put the bars at the bottom? Probably wrong place to ask right?

I understand they have a "Pad" filter to insert bars, but it isn't part of their graphic user interface. I do not know if it can pad just one side or not. You'd have to ask on their forum.

From my experience with projectors, you'll want to know the "native" resolution of the projector, and encode to that size for best results. My projector can handle 1080p input, but the actual resolution is less than 720p.

Just to circle back on this yes Handbrake can do what I'm asking but even at best Settings it compresses the file A lot

The foolproof solve to this is buy a PJ with lens memory and better vertical shift like the epson 4000

Unfortunately I don't know if that PJ's throw will fit in my theater