How can I encode a video for my non-square pixel display?

Question

My car stereo has a 800x480 display but is physically 16x9 so I believe it uses non-square pixels. The documentation says it says (2 400x480) so I think it's describing a 2:1 pixel aspect ratio (?).

If so, how can I convert videos to use the entire resolution of the display?

For example, let's say I have a 720p or 1080p video that I want to encode at 800x480 but make sure it's correctly translating the pixel aspect ratio, etc.

Answer 1

You state that your display is physically 16:9, which should produce no distortion upon setting the aspect ratio to 16:9.

To set the aspect ratio, use the -aspect flag. For example, to set an aspect ratio of 16:9, in the encoding parameters use:

ffmpeg -i inputfile ...other parameters... -aspect 16:9... outputfile  

Note: The normal 800x480 display is 1.66 and not 1.77. In which case you can't use the entire screen area and get an undistorted image because they are different aspect ratios. So there has to be some mask/band of black to compensate for that change- 1.77 to 1.66. Or there will be some cropping.