Feature Request: (Aspect Ratios)

[jsidlosky]

Feature Request:

Please add Aspect Ratio adjustment based on input ratio.

Example. I have 4:3 sources and 16:9 sources.

On my 16:9 television, I want 4:3 sources stretched horizontally to fill the 16:9 picture, and vertically by 115% to help compensate for the stretch.

On my 4:3 television though, I want 4:3 sources displayed normally, and the 16:9 sources displayed at 150% 150% (to show only the center 4:3 image).

So, if it were like: Aspect Ratios for 4:3 sources->
and: Apect Ratios for 16:9 sources->

etc. where I can tell it what to do with each source type, that would be fantastic.

[jsidlosky]

Or, based on card... I'd rather have based on input though.

[stanger89]

Originally Posted by jsidlosky

So, if it were like: Aspect Ratios for 4:3 sources->
and: Apect Ratios for 16:9 sources->

The problem is, everything Sage records, or more correctly, the tuner cards record, they record as 4:3. Sage has no way to know if something recorded is actually 4:3, 16:9 Anamorphic, or 16:9 Letterbox, (or 2.35:1 letterbox for that matter).

Though I would like some more AR controls

[Thomas Wischgol]

I would like to see some more flexible settings there, too. For example, my display allows to zoom the content which is quite nice for movies that originally were 16:9 but are broadcasted at 4:3 with the black bars at top and bottom. Zooming out would allow to use the full 16:9 screen estate and get rid of the bars. This could be just added to the menu where you can switch between 4:3 and 16:9.

[Ceger]

I would just be happy to see a smooth stretch feature for displaying 4:3 in 16:9 that gradually distorts more and more as you get tot he outside of the image edges.

Ceger

[stanger89]

Originally Posted by Thomas Wischgol

I would like to see some more flexible settings there, too. For example, my display allows to zoom the content which is quite nice for movies that originally were 16:9 but are broadcasted at 4:3 with the black bars at top and bottom. Zooming out would allow to use the full 16:9 screen estate and get rid of the bars. This could be just added to the menu where you can switch between 4:3 and 16:9.

I do that today, I use "Source" for most stuff. But for letterbox content, I have the 16:9 AR setup for about 130% vertical zoom. When I watch something letterbox (like Stargate) I switch to 16:9 and it crops the bars off.

[Thomas Wischgol]

Originally Posted by stanger89

I do that today, I use "Source" for most stuff. But for letterbox content, I have the 16:9 AR setup for about 130% vertical zoom. When I watch something letterbox (like Stargate) I switch to 16:9 and it crops the bars off.

Can you have different AR settings for 4:3 and 16:9? Or do you manually change this every time? I guess I have to play with this a little when I get home. Thanks for the tip!

[stanger89]

Originally Posted by Thomas Wischgol

Can you have different AR settings for 4:3 and 16:9?

The problem is Sage has no way to know if something is 4:3 or 16:9. Everything that comes out of the encoder cards is (usually) 720x480. It all looks the same.

Or do you manually change this every time?

Yes, you have to change it, just like on your TV.

[jsidlosky]

Yeah, then just based on Tuner card then. On Tuner #1, do this aspect ratio recording, on Tuner #2, do this....

[blade]

Originally Posted by jsidlosky

Yeah, then just based on Tuner card then. On Tuner #1, do this aspect ratio recording, on Tuner #2, do this....

There is no way to tell Sage to record all 16:9 shows on tuner 1 and all 4:3 shows on tuner 2 so having seperate aspect ratios for each tuner wouldn't be very useful. Then there's still the problem of Sage not knowing what aspect ratio the show is in so there would be no way to know which capture device to use.

[jsidlosky]

Why can't it "Play back at Aspect Ratio", rather than "Record at Aspect Ratio".

[blade]

As has already been said the capture cards capture everything at a 4:3 ratio. Sage has no way of knowing if the show was originally 16:9 or 4:3 so it can't automatically detect and choose which ratio to use for playback.

If you could set Sage to always display tuner 1 at 16:9 and always display tuner 2 at 4:3 unless there is some way for you to get tuner 1 to record nothing but 16:9 content and tuner 2 to always record nothing but 4:3 content you're still going to have the wrong aspect ratio being used for some shows.

For example if tuner 1 captured a 4:3 show it would display it back using your 16:9 settings which would of course be the wrong settings and vice versa for tuner 2.

Since Sage has no way of knowing what aspect ratio the show really is, there is no way to tell tuner 1 to record nothing but 16:9 shows.

If Sage could determine the shows correct aspect ratio then there would be no need to assign the shows to a specific tuner because it would be possible to automatically select proper aspect ratios for playback.

[stanger89]

I'm not sure what you mean. There is no "Record at AR", the AR settings apply only to playback.

[Freegoo]

Why not just add the AR options to the favorites options, then we can tell Sage what show is 4:3, 16:9 and set the stretch up accordingly. It's not automatic, but it's better than what we got now.

[jsidlosky]

Hey thats a pretty cool idea to add the Aspect ratio to the show as a tag.

However, that doesn't completely solve my personal problem. I want to tag each show differently, on my 4:3 set to display differently than my 16:9 set.

[blade]

Originally Posted by Freegoo

Why not just add the AR options to the favorites options, then we can tell Sage what show is 4:3, 16:9 and set the stretch up accordingly. It's not automatic, but it's better than what we got now.

That would definetly be a step in the right direction. It still wouldn't be perfect, but would be nice. For example new SG1 episodes are letterboxed where as the old episodes aren't.

Originally Posted by jsidlosky

I want to tag each show differently, on my 4:3 set to display differently than my 16:9 set.

Sounds like you want Sage to detect your TV's aspect ratio now. From your complaints I assume you're trying to run 1 client box on 2 different aspect ratio TV's. Is that correct? If so I see why you have some problems getting the aspect ratios like you want them.

If you have a seperate client box for each TV then you should have no problems setting up different aspect ratios for each TV because the aspect ratios deal with playback on the client and has nothing to do with capture or the server.

[stanger89]

Originally Posted by blade

Sounds like you want Sage to detect your TV's aspect ratio now.

FWIW, Sage does detect your display's aspect ratio. I guess more correctly, it detects your resolution ratio, and assumes your TV's AR is the same (I'd like to be able to adjust that too ).