Default aspect ratio question

[dinki]

I've got a 16:9 tv, but amongst my HD channels, I've got a ton of standard definition stations (4:3). Because of this, I've set my default aspect ratio to 4:3.

Yesterday I tried changing to 16:9 but all my SD stations showed up with black bars on the top and sides of the picture. I tried the different zooms and fills but none were able to fill the entire screen or when they did they were cropping off portions of the picture.

Is there something I can do to run the gui at 16:9 but still be able to change the way the SD picture is displayed so that it uses the entire screen?

[derelicte1]

did you readjust the corners of the video playback window after you changed the aspect ratio?

setup -> detailed setup -> multimedia -> overscan settings

[dinki]

Originally Posted by derelicte1

did you readjust the corners of the video playback window after you changed the aspect ratio?

setup -> detailed setup -> multimedia -> overscan settings

Hmmm... I thought that was only for the GUI and not for the video playback. I'll give that a try this evening. Thanks.

[paulbeers]

You need to set Sage to ouptut 16:9 but set the aspect ratio of playback to "fill". This will cause the SD shows to fill from side to side.

However, the reason you are probably seeing black bars on top and bottom is because many SD transmissions are really 16:9 videos that have top and bottom bars added to it automatically in order to fit the 4:3 aspect ratio of SD sets. Therefore there really isn't anyway to get rid of these black bars.

[Spectrum]

Originally Posted by paulbeers

You need to set Sage to ouptut 16:9 but set the aspect ratio of playback to "fill". This will cause the SD shows to fill from side to side.

However, the reason you are probably seeing black bars on top and bottom is because many SD transmissions are really 16:9 videos that have top and bottom bars added to it automatically in order to fit the 4:3 aspect ratio of SD sets. Therefore there really isn't anyway to get rid of these black bars.

You can tinker with your aspect ratio settings and get rid of them.
Detailed Setup->Multimedia->Aspect Ratio Settings->Modify
Biggest problem is you only have 4 unless you are using an extender

[ke6guj]

Originally Posted by Spectrum

You can tinker with your aspect ratio settings and get rid of them.
Detailed Setup->Multimedia->Aspect Ratio Settings->Modify
Biggest problem is you only have 4 unless you are using an extender

Don't know why you'd need more than 2. I have my system setup with a 16:9 tv and run it as "source" AR 90% of the time. It displays all my 16:9 HD TV content correctly. All movie rips also run in source with whatever letterboxing is needed for those wide aspect ratios. All 4:3 SD content is also displayed in source as well with pillarboxing on the sides.

It is only that 16:9 content that is broadcast in 4:3 in a letterbox format that I have issues with. since it is a 4:3 recording, it has pillarboxes, plus with the 16:9 internal letterboxing, you get what some call postage stampings. For those videos, I have the 16:9 AR set to zoom 133% horizontally and vertically, effectively zooming it in so that it fills the entire screen, with no "boxing" and no distortion. Why do you need other ARs?

And this is all set to swtich ARs automatically as needed witth the auto-switcihing plugin.

[Spectrum]

Originally Posted by ke6guj

Don't know why you'd need more than 2. I have my system setup with a 16:9 tv and run it as "source" AR 90% of the time. It displays all my 16:9 HD TV content correctly. All movie rips also run in source with whatever letterboxing is needed for those wide aspect ratios. All 4:3 SD content is also displayed in source as well with pillarboxing on the sides.

It is only that 16:9 content that is broadcast in 4:3 in a letterbox format that I have issues with. since it is a 4:3 recording, it has pillarboxes, plus with the 16:9 internal letterboxing, you get what some call postage stampings. For those videos, I have the 16:9 AR set to zoom 133% horizontally and vertically, effectively zooming it in so that it fills the entire screen, with no "boxing" and no distortion. Why do you need other ARs?

And this is all set to swtich ARs automatically as needed witth the auto-switcihing plugin.

• I need source for imported media, DVD's etc.
• I need 4x3 for anything recorded at 480p by HDPVR.
• I need 16x9 for most things recorded in SD by the overflow analog tuners.
• I have fill set to expand the picture vertically just a bit to run the CC data off the screen.
• I need at least 1 more to expand anything that is broadcast SD on an HD channel. I love it when locals do that
• It would be nice to have one where I could bump the horiz/vert just a bit to make 720p scale up to 768

That's just off the top of my head

When you have more than one type of tuner the need for this increases; they all have their own geometries and recording quirks.

This last time this came up I threatened to dig into the sage[client].properties file and experiment but I haven't done that yet. Might get around to it one of these days though.