Aspect ratio change with Format Factory, etc.

I need some avi files to modify AR (aspect ratio) - from 4:3 to 16:9. Video players in the pc it can play without distortion, my older Sony dvd player does not. How it is possible to do it with transcoding programs such as Format Factory or similar? I tried it in AnyVideoConverter, but that it can only to crop that file (up and down). So the result is not it, distortion remained. I prefer to use a simple utility instead of video editors.
Thanks for the advice
Peter