Expanding the HD display for screen resolution?

[AzJazz]

This problem relates mainly to OTA HDTV viewing.

On my old Mitsubishi HD TV, there was an option to view in "Zoom" and "Expanded" modes. The Zoom mode basically stretched a smaller 16x9-formatted HD program out to the edges of my screen.

I'm looking for something like that with SageTV. When I play back OTA HD programs on my screen now, they are almost always surrounded on all sides by black bars (or color bars on the left/right). I'd like to fill my computer screen better.

Also, I just ordered the SageTV HD Extender. Will that format HD material better to the attached HD TV's screen size, or will it be driven directly by what I would have on my computer display?

AzJazz

[GKusnick]

Aspect Ratio 101

[AzJazz]

Originally Posted by GKusnick

Aspect Ratio 101

Thanks, GKusnick - but this sure looks inconvenient. There isn't a single-button menu selection on the main viewing menu to just zoom the screen while watching?

Or, is there a way to add such a button to the main viewing menu with some sort of macro, but I'm too new with SageTV to know about that yet?

AzJazz

[carlgar]

The HD extender remote has an Aspect button to cycle through the 4 standard aspect ratios and any that you have defined yourself. The HD extender also allows you to define you own aspect ratio settings if you need to. See the FAQ for the HD extender for more info.

[GKusnick]

Originally Posted by AzJazz

There isn't a single-button menu selection on the main viewing menu to just zoom the screen while watching?

Not sure what you mean by "the main viewing menu". The Main Menu (the one you see when you start Sage) does not have such an option. The media playback screen (the one where you do your watching) has a pop-up options menu that has an Aspect Ratio Mode command on it. You can access the pop-up menu with the Esc key on your keyboard, the right button on your mouse, or the Options button (if you have one) on your remote.

There's also an Aspect Ratio Toggle command that you can map to a free button on your remote to cycle through the available aspect ratio modes.

Either way, you'll want to customize the various modes to fit your screen and your viewing habits, but that's a one-time thing. Once you have that set up, the Toggle command should do what you want.

[stanger89]

Originally Posted by AzJazz

Thanks, GKusnick - but this sure looks inconvenient. There isn't a single-button menu selection on the main viewing menu to just zoom the screen while watching?

The link Greg posted was talking about how to configure the aspect ratio settings, it's basically a one-time procedure. After that you just pick the AR you want while you're watching the video. You may have to map a remote (or keyboard) command to the Toggle Aspect Ratio command.