How-to: Larger Fonts

[stevech]

Sage 6. Font sizes look fine on PC.
S-video from MVP to STD Def TV, flunked the WAF, badly, Sage 6, for the UI. Show playback quality is OK.
S-video from PC to STD Def TV, WAF is fine.

Sage 6 uses smaller fonts. I tried all the STV choices in the setup menu; all are the same.

Cannot read the black-on-grey in the recordings displays - font too small, too much video smearing for things like lower case l (ell). Same TV, same S-Video, OK with PC feed, not with MVP feed. PC feed is 800 x 600.

Sage 6 has used several steps smaller fonts in some new menus. Way too small.

I searched the forums and FAQs and could not find how-to change font sizes. I experimeted with Sage.properties - not knowing which font= to change. Had no effect on the displays. Don't know if the XML overrides.

MVP and Sage 6 flunked the WAF due to small and fuzzy/blurry fonts. STD Def TV, S-Video.

[nielm]

Which menus?
2 column-slyle malore menus have an independant font size setting in the Options menus.

Default recordings syle menus use the same font as the rest of the UI, which is ui/base_font_size in the properties.
(and neither of these changed values in V6)

[stevech]

I will try to do a digital photo of the TV screen I'm getting with the MVP. You'll see and agree that it's not viable, in terms of small/fuzzy/smeared video fonts. This does not happen with the PC's S-video feeding the TV - same S-video jack on the TV, same cable.

The fonts in v6 from the MVP *are* considerably smaller on-screen. It's an issue because in our home, some have less than youthful eyes and just cannot read the small fonts. My eyes test OK and I struggle to read it. The black typeface on grey are video-smeared via the MVP, and not via the PC S-video. I reiterate, same S-video cable as is used with the PC. The TV is not a $2000 TV, but has been fine with the PC feed.

I fiddled with contrast/picture/brightness, and it can help, but then the settings are wrong for the video and for cable channels.

If the following is the cause, I have no solution but to configure Sage to use slightly larger fonts, and I hope someone will tell me how to do so.

The PC's output is 800 x 600 pixels to S-Video/NTSC. (ATI. no option for 720x480)
The MVP's output is 720x480 pixels to S-Video/NTSC. Video show quality is higher than from PC's video card (resampled)

So MVP has fewer pixels to resolve small features in the fonts. The letter "ell", with the MVP, is smeared out and not legible, as are other skinny characters with just 2 or 3 pixels' width. The show episode names in a list as shown in the 6.1 manual, page 32 (top), are too small for us to read with the MVP and 6.1. This program list is clearly in a smaller font. In that same graphic on page 32, the "i" and "l" in the selected recording title (black on grey), with the MVP, are smeared to the point of illegibility.

[rickgillyon]

Is it a 16:9 or 4:3 TV? All mine are easy enough for me to read, but the 16:9 TVs with the MVPs are ugly because the fonts aren't scaled properly but stretched horizontally because of the AR. Sage confirmed that this is the case. Makes the fonts less clear 16:9 on the MVP.

Haven't had any complaints from the people using the MVPs though.

[stevech]

it's a plain vanilla, 8 year old large CRT analog TV with S-Video in. 4:3.

[nielm]

Originally Posted by stevech

I hope someone will tell me how to do so.

I mentioned the appropriate property in my post above.

Be aware that certain GUI elements rely on the font being that size and that if enlarged, clipping may occur when the font is rendered outside it's bounding box.

(I have no problems reading my MVP's output, and remember that the VGA 800x600 will be rescaled to approx 720x480i before being converted to Svideo). Check also whether your TV has a sharpness adjustment...

[stevech]

Thanks. I changed those font properties but after restarting the server and MVP, there was no change.

I believe the too small font problem I'm having may be due to the MVP's raster being much less than the 800 x 600 that the PC feed we're used to has. The text was flawless with that, but smeared via the MVP. I tried tweaking the overscan as suggested by Sage.

Since this illegible / small and smeared font problem is unique to me, it must be my 8 year old TV. But it sure looks fine with the PC feed.