[mvoosten]

hi,

when the msdashboard is set to widescreen i would like to have the option in xbmc to always send the widescreen signal to the tv, not just for widescreen movies...
probably the answer would be well we already do, but let me explain...
when having a normal tv broadcast and the tv is showing it, it has the build in option to 'stretch' the original signal to match the tv full screen. now when i record a program on my pc and watch it with xbmc it always shows 4:3 on the tv.
the option to zoom or stretch is not a good option as that means: or that the aspect ratio is screwed, or the subtitles fall off.
so this request is to be able to treath 4:3 recordings just as a regular broadcast.
fyi: if playing a 4:3 dvd, msdashboards dvd player lets the tv stretch the picture as mentioned. so why could xbmc not do this as well!?

[pike]

probably not smart to use msdashboard as reference since it doesnt handle widescreen correctly

[mvoosten]

ok, skip the msdashboard reference for that then.
but still the request stands and i think is a valid one don't you think!?
thinking about it, it's probably a matter of not sending the widescreen signal in xbmc on 4:3 sources, as else the television set does not know its a 4:3 source and always will treat it as 16:9, giving these issues.

[jmarshall]

is auto switch widescreen on?

if so, this should switch to 4:3 mode i would think, but perhaps it hasn't been designed this way. if so, should be easy to alter.

doing the stretch (4:3 -> 16:9) in xbmc is equivalent though isn't it?

cheers,
jonathan

[Gamester17]

have you really set xbmc gui/skin to 16:9 widescreen mode in xbmc's settings (there's one for 'videos' and one for 'apperence')?, if so then xbmc should only output a 16:9 signal

[mvoosten]

is auto switch widescreen on?

if so, this should switch to 4:3 mode i would think, but perhaps it hasn't been designed this way.  if so, should be easy to alter.

doing the stretch (4:3 -> 16:9) in xbmc is equivalent though isn't it?

cheers,
jonathan

sorry for the delay in getting back had temp no access to internet:

auto widescreen switch is off.. only thing that it does is do a 16:9 stretch of 4:3 source material making the aspect ratio messy.

as for the equivalent of using 16/9 stretch vs using the widescreen signal: there is a big difference: when using stretch the aspect ratio get messy, using the widescreen signal i can let my tv set use its propiate method of dealing with regular 4:3 source material. advantage? for example being able to adjust the zoom ratio and position on the screen and with that position subtitles independend of xbmc's calibration settings.
also for others, my previous tv had a 'smart zoom' option for 4:3 material that looked great and gave the full source with some clever rendition.

with just stretch compared to using the widescreen signal that's not possible.

[mvoosten]

have you really set xbmc gui/skin to 16:9 widescreen mode in xbmc's settings (there's one for 'videos' and one for 'apperence')?, if so then xbmc should only output a 16:9 signal

to your question on the appearance: yes, that's set to 16:9
on the video section, don't know exactly where you refering too. the only thing i could find was the auto switch and the default view mode (normal, stretched etc..) but i don't think you are refering to that do you?

[Aron Parsons]

so you want a zoom mode that stretches both vertically and horizontally to fill the screen with minimal distortion? i refer to this as "wide zoom" as that is what sony tvs have labeled it.

[mvoosten]

so you want a zoom mode that stretches both vertically and horizontally to fill the screen with minimal distortion?  i refer to this as "wide zoom" as that is what sony tvs have labeled it.

no, no zoom mode or stretching at all.. just to send the signal so my tv will process the 4:3 media as it was a regular tv signal so it will take up the processing itself. for that matter, just noticed an error in my reasoning in the previous post..
it should not pass the 16:9 signal for 4:3 media as that seems to prevent it from switching!
for all other formats and the ui offcourse it should.

[jmarshall]

auto-widescreen switching should take care of this.

please turn it on, play a 4:3 video (it should fill the frame of the screen) and press the white + black buttons, reproducing what it says there. it should say it's running in pal 4:3.

if it still says pal 16:9, then there's an error.

if it says pal 4:3, then either the widescreen signal is being sent in error (which i doubt, but you never know) or your tv hasn't picked up the fact that it's now off. try switching to gui and back to movie a couple of times to see if it'll pick up the switch.

last thing to try: set xbmc to 4:3 mode, with auto-widescreen switching on. then play a 16:9 movie, and see if your tv auto-switches when you change from movie <-> gui.

cheers,
jonathan