----- Original Message ----- From: "Jon Burgess" <jburgess@xxxxxxxxxxx> To: "Klaus Schmidinger's VDR" <vdr@xxxxxxxxxxx> Sent: Friday, September 02, 2005 8:47 PM Subject: Re: Aspect Ratio problems > Mike Parker wrote: > > Thanks for the Help Darren. > > > > By squashed I mean that the TV is showing a 'full' picture which is not in > > the correct aspect ratio, no pillar boxing. > > When a 4:3 is being transmitted I have to switch my TV into 4:3 mode and the > > tv puts in its own blank sides and the picture is correct. > > Watched bbc3 Apprentice last night, it shows pillar-boxing and no change is > > necessary, but surely that is 16:9 in stream (I did not check) so it should > > look ok anyway. > > I recorded that program, it was broadcast as 16:9 stream containing > pillar-boxed 4:3 content. If you have a 16:9 TV then you are correct, it > will look OK without VDR or the TV doing any kind of proceeing on the video. > > > The problem is when a 4:3 stream is being sent and dbv is set to 16:9, the > > 4:3 picture is sent to my tv in 16:9 format and the tv does not > > automatically switch. > > I have a 4:3 TV and use a DXR3 card for my display so I can't be certain > about the capabilities of the FF card, but here is what I can tell you > about what I believe should happen. > > A true 4:3 video stream obviously doesn't have the black borders to make > it look right on a 16:9 TV so something needs to add them. I believe > what is meant to happen is that the TV gets instructed to switch into > the 4:3 mode in one of two ways: > > - Signalling via SCART pin 8 which probably isn't applicable since even > if you use some s-video to scart conveter then this pin will not be > driven by the FF card. (see this link for some information on SCART > http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SCART ) > > - Widescreen Signalling (WSS), which is a special signal embedded in one > of the offscreen lines of the picture much like the old TeleText system. > ( see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Widescreen_signaling ). I think this > can either be delivered inside the original video stream by the > broadcaster or be inserted by the playback card (I'm not sure if the FF > is in this category). > > > Is this a vdr / driver problem? > > Sorry I can't help here. Other possibilities include the video stream > not including the WSS signal or your TV perhaps not obeying the WSS. > Occasionally broadcasters have even been known to flag 4:3 programs as > 16:9 by mistake. > > Jon > > _______________________________________________ > vdr mailing list > vdr@xxxxxxxxxxx > http://www.linuxtv.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/vdr > Hi Jon Just like to say thank you for taking the time to reply about the Aspect Ratio problem with vdr/tv. The TV is about 4 months old (42" LG plasma) so pretty upto date. If I watch an analog tranmsission the tv switches correctly, or inserts blanks down side etc. I am using composite out of the FF card so pin 8 is not a viable solution. So that leads us to WSS - which I assume the tv does support as it appears to switch correctly on analogue. It seems to me that setting 16:9 or 4:3 in vdr setup sets the output at that and WSS does not occur. I assume vdr needs this info for handling OSD etc. I have replied off list due to the 'noise' generated by quoting ;-) Thanks once again - I will keep on investigating. Mike -- No virus found in this outgoing message. Checked by AVG Anti-Virus. Version: 7.0.344 / Virus Database: 267.10.17/85 - Release Date: 30/08/05
