Why no aspect selection?

[rhsmcc]

I noticed that there's no aspect selection avaible on the MVP. Why is that? I'm guessing that it cann't change the picture size. I have some recordings off the HDTV channels that are recorded as a down converted SD but still in 16x9. I would like to be able to change the aspect size.

[nielm]

most likely because it is not supported by the hardware... the MVP probably plays 720x480 @ 100%/100% only...

[Narflex]

The MVP only lets you do full size, half size and quarter size (which is what the preview window is). It's a limitation of it's hardware.

[minimatt]

ummmmmm... Can I assume that if I play a widescreen movie on the MVP that it is going to show up as letterboxed on a 4:3 set and full screen on a widescreen set? Does the MVP let you set what type of TV you are using? Please tell me this is the case. If it isn't then I won't be buying any MVP units.......

[rhsmcc]

What I find happening is that the left and right sides are cut off. The screen fills from top to bottom. This happens with 16x9 or true widescreen formats. 1/4 to 1/3 of the picture is lost. Wide screen movies recorded by sage will display the the black bars on top and bottom because thats part of the recording and is a true 4:3 image.

[minimatt]

Oh really!! So can you confirm if there is any option to select what aspect monitor you are using on the MVP? From what you are saying, it sounds like widescreen DVDs would be played 4:3 with cropped sides!

[mcaron1234]

The MVP only lets you do full size, half size and quarter size (which is what the preview window is). It's a limitation of it's hardware.

I had some un sage relatred problems last week and had to use the Huappauge MVP server for a couple of days and I noticed that their transcode software does not force 4:3 on 16:9 avi's.

Matt

[briands]

Originally Posted by minimatt

Oh really!! So can you confirm if there is any option to select what aspect monitor you are using on the MVP? From what you are saying, it sounds like widescreen DVDs would be played 4:3 with cropped sides!

Most WS TVs have modes for dealing with SD sources that will stretch squeeze the image to make it fill the screen. Setting Sage to fill and then using the TV display mode should do the trick.

[cosmocat]

Setting the TV for widescreen won't help, that will just strech the 4x3 cropped picture to fill the screen making everybody look short and fat.

I tried using the 16x9 ratio setting in Hauppauges own server software - look under setting / configure in the hauppauge menu system. That did something to the MVP as when I restarted it with Sage the screen was in 16x 9 ratio, but the TV picture still looked to be basiclly 4x3 with cropped edges, but with the top and bottom cropped off and blacked out also ! ( Even worse! )

I don't think this is an extender hardware limitation as Hauppauges own software will output widescreen, so will MythTV and GBPVR has a workaround to get widescreen, all from the MVP.
It seem only Sage are not doing this.

See the release notes for Myth mvpmc here http://mvpmc.sourceforge.net/idx.php?pg=main

version 0.2.1 dated 11-2-2006
Quote
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correctly letterbox widescreen content on 4x3 displays
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and version 0.2.0
Quote
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add a new 16:9 aspect ratio setting with widescreen signaling (WSS)
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And this very interesting one from a GBPVR forum post

http://forums.gbpvr.com/showthread.p...ght=mvp+aspect

Quote djtaylor
----------8<-----------------

This is what I use:-

<MVPFFmpegTranscodeCmdLinePAL>-y -i "{SOURCE_FILE}" -b 2400 -r 25 -s 604x400 -padtop 90 -vcodec

mpeg2video "{DEST_FILE}"</MVPFFmpegTranscodeCmdLinePAL>

What I found was that if I used typical PAL parameters such as 720x576 or 352x288, the MVP seemed to autoscale to a 4:3 ratio.
By choosing something a little off with my 604x400, the MVP doesn't scale but instead bungs the letterboxed pic at the top of the screen leaving a large black band at the bottom which I bodged by the padtop 90 parameter.

--------------------------------

I dont know how this could be applied to Sage but it looks like parameters passed to the ffmpeg codec. This looks like it will leterbox the video on the 4x3 MVP output so that my widescreen TV can zoom in and fill the full screen with the correct aspect ratio ( albeit with reduced vertical resolution )


I was days away from buying the licences to put Sage throughout my home, based around extenders in the family rooms and a server shut away. My main TV is widescreen, 90% of the broadcasts on UK DVB are widescreen, it seems such a basic area of functionality that the picture coming out of the exdender is the right size and shape and complete that I never thought to even test this until now. I had done all my testing on a 4x3 portable tele. Good job I saw this in time so that I can hold off buying Sage until this is fixed!