Slightly off-topic: widescreen

[robk]

I have been using SageTV for a couple of years, along with Placeshifter and a Client, and have been very happy with it. In my home office, I watch SageTV on a 17" 4x3 standard LCD monitor with great clarity, no real problems (DirecTV is the video source through the Svideo input on my Hauppauge 250), serial control of D10-100. I have a question that someone may help me with: I have an opportunity to get a widescreen 19" LCD monitor for almost nothing. But, most of DirecTV's programming is "pan and scan" or standard 4x3 aspect. Would I actually be getting a smaller viewing area with the 19" widescreen than my existing 17" 4x3 because of the reduced vertical dimension of the screen? It seems that 99% of DTV's programming is 4x3, would I gain anything with the new 19" widescreen, other than DVD's played in 16x9? Most of my viewing is CNN during the day and HBO, Showtime, Cinemax movies in the evening.

Thanks for any input! And, to all a Happy New Year!

Rob

[GKusnick]

For true 4x3 content, you'd most likely be viewing it pillarboxed on the widescreen monitor (i.e. with black bars on either side). For 16x9 content that has been letterboxed to 4x3 at the source, you'd be seeing it with black bars all around. However you can then use SageTV's aspect ratio controls to zoom that picture to fill the entire screen. This is what I do with letterboxed content on my widescreen monitor.

[stanger89]

I'm 100% addicted to the Constant Image Height setup/idea/theory. The theory that all content is meant to be, and should be the same height, and that only the width should change.

Further, that wider content (like 2.35:1 Cinemascope movies) is meant to be the most impressive, largest, most "cinematic". Thus I'd always go for the wider screen.

My primary display is a 2.39:1 aspect ratio

[robk]

Thanks for the replies. So, going from a 17" LCD to a Widescreen 19" LCD I would lose about 3/4" on the vertical always, and have to set the "zoom" or "stretch" in Sage manually for every time I watch a widescreen movie? And I'd still have black bars because there are many different film aspect ratios and the monitor is really 16:10 not 16:9? Doesn't sound too enticing, I think I'll stick with 4:3 until more programming is offered in a widescreen format.
Rob

[paulbeers]

I like to watch 4:3 stretched to 16:9. Makes me feel less fat seeing all the actors and actresses stretched out wide! Hehehe.

[Rogue9]

99% of my viewing is SD content. I watch it on my 16:9 HDTV and on my 16:10 LCD monitor.

I just set the Aspect Ratio in Sage to 16X9, and then use the custom "zoom" settings to adjust the image further.

I am very satisfied with the results. Lots of shows are "letterboxed" 4:3 anyway, so all the zooming just cuts off the black bars at the top and bottom. The 4:3 shows that aren't letterboxed (usually older shows) end up with a small part of the top and bottom of the image cropped off, but I have not missed it at all, in over a year of viewing this way.

I have become very spoiled on my 16:10 LCD for Windows applications, gaming, and TV/Movie viewing. And I highly recommend trying one out for yourself.

[GKusnick]

Originally Posted by robk

So, going from a 17" LCD to a Widescreen 19" LCD I would lose about 3/4" on the vertical always, and have to set the "zoom" or "stretch" in Sage manually for every time I watch a widescreen movie?

Not quite. You'll lose 3/4" when watching non-letterboxed content, but when watching letterboxed content that's been zoomed to fill the screen, you'll gain about 2.5" of actual image height. (Unzoomed, the letterboxed image would be about 7.5" tall on your 17" monitor, which I'm guessing is probably 5:4 rather than 4:3.)

And you wouldn't have to configure the zoom every time. You configure it once, and then use the Aspect Ratio Toggle command to switch modes as needed. Or you can install the automatic AR switcher plugin and not have to switch manually at all. Either way, it's pretty painless once you get it set up.

[jbarr]

100% of our recorded TV is SD, so on our Westinghouse W4207 Widescreen 42" LCD HD monitor, everything is "pillerboxed" when using the "source" aspect ratio setting. We find this to be perfectly acceptable. Some content, however is also letterboxed, so you get a doubly-bad situation where there is a black border on all 4 sides of the content.

To get around this, I did 2 things:

1. I configured the aspect dimensions for SageTV's "full" mode to overscan both horizontally and vertically. I played around with different valuse, and was able to get it so that when I select "full" mode, the letterboxed + pillerboxed content stretches vertically and horizontally. The proportions are pretty decent, and for most letterboxed content, we see no borders. Basically, it's just "zooming in" the image. Actual results obviously depend on the actual aspect ratio that was used in the letterboxing. Resolution is degraded just a bit, but it nicely fills the screen and is nery pleasing to watch.

2. I re-assigned one of the Hauppauge remote buttons (the lower left "red" button) to "cycle" through the aspect ratio settings. When a letterboxed + pilelrboxed show is on, it's a simple matter of just hitting the button a couple times until the "full" mode displays. When the show's over, hitting the button once or twice brings me back to the "source" pillerboxed display.

[bhyman1]

Jbarr, what values do you have in for Full Mode to zoom in on letterboxed 4:3 content?

I'd like to try this out.

Thanks.

[stanger89]

I use 16:9 for letterbox content (I personally use full for 2.35:1 content ), but the idea should be the same, approx:
100% Horizontal Zoom
133% Vertical Zoom

[camus]

For letterboxed SD I just adjusted the Sage 16x9 setting, I think I have it set to zoom 132% or something close to that, that fills the screen as if it was true 16x9 content.

Everything else I veiw as source.

[jbarr]

For "fill", I am using H Stretch 100%, V Stretch 140%, H Offset 0%, V Offset 0%.

"Source" is set to H Stretch 110%, V Stretch 110%, H Offset -5%, V Offset 0%.

It also may be dependent on your PC's video settings.