I recently made some masking panels for my 16/9 aspect ratio projector screen to mask down to a 2.35 (actually 2.39) viewing area for viewing 2.35 content. This looks really good when actually viewing the content, but when not doing that XBMC projects content over the masking panels (as it should, since it is assuming it has a 16/9 display).
My question: Is there an easy way to switch XBMC on the fly to only display content over the visible part of my screen when I have the masking panels in.
I've attached an image that summarizes the problem and shows what I think are the desirable (and hopefully acheivable) solutions).
Thanks!
One idea is to have 2 profiles, and in the second profile calibrate the screen so that it achieves number 2. Then switch between those two profiles. Problems are that when changing profiles you lose your current place in the UI (though IIRC there's an upcoming patch to remedy that).
Number 1 could be done the same way though you'd chop more off ofcourse.
Cheers,
Jonathan
I fixed this by setting my pc to a custom resolution, 1920x800. The downside is that 16/9 material gets scaled down to fit the 800 pixels height. However it doesn't bother me, since most of my 16/9 material is 720p tv shows.
Thanks All. I will give your suggestions a try.
I gave both approaches a try:
1) The "calibrate the screen so that it achieves number 2" approach worked for the GUI, unfortunately it applies the same transformation to the 2.35 content, so it occupies less then my full letterbox. Is there any way to get XMBC to respect that cal only while in the GUI?
2) Using a custom resolution in the OS failed because my i3 integrated graphics won't let me set one for some reason.
Any other ideas?
1. You failed to calibrate the pixel ratio in that case?
I did calibrate the ratio. I just think the calibration is doing what it should do: scale the image per the calibration. If it didn't scale it when playing content I would be good for 2.35 content (although then I would have a problem with 16/9 content...).
That second image isn't totally accurate. The scaling occurs more along the vertical dimension than along the horizontal. The issue is still the same though: the scaled 2.35 image doesn't fill the entire screen (while the scaled 16/9 does).
I don't understand the problem. If you calibrate so that the UI does not extend past the screen then the video will also not extend past the same area.
The video image is scaled to stay within the area you calibrate but is scaled so that aspect ratio is conserved. If you calibrated and 2.35:1 video is not filling the screen in one dimension then you calibrated to something other than 2.35:1. You may find it easier to calibrate while the video you wish to fill the screen is playing. The UI will then fit inside that rectangle.
Cheers,
Jonathan
The problem is that the UI is 16x9 content, so when I calibrate the image to live within the 2.35 space on my screen, I am good on the UI. But then when I display true 2.35 content, that also gets the calibration applied.
I've since found that when the video starts playing, I can go to the video menu and set the view mode to "original size," which fixes the problem for 2.35 content, but then there are other issues with content with other aspect ratios.
I think my configuration is somewhat unique, so it's not surprising that I am having issues. I do appreciate the help, and even if I can't get this to work, XBMC still provides a cool experience even with this issue.
As I say, if you calibrate while playing a video so that the video is correct, the UI will be scaled to fit inside that window, as per option #2 above.
BenInCOSprings Wrote:The problem is that the UI is 16x9 content, so when I calibrate the image to live within the 2.35 space on my screen, I am good on the UI. But then when I display true 2.35 content, that also gets the calibration applied.
I've since found that when the video starts playing, I can go to the video menu and set the view mode to "original size," which fixes the problem for 2.35 content, but then there are other issues with content with other aspect ratios.
I think my configuration is somewhat unique, so it's not surprising that I am having issues. I do appreciate the help, and even if I can't get this to work, XBMC still provides a cool experience even with this issue.
I have a CIH setup for my PJ as well when I scale the image and shoot it through a lens. It chops off the top and bottom of the GUI
I have the same issue, It would be nice if there was a way to get only the GUI to change resolution or at least have all info inside of the black bars you would see in 2.40 film.
Maybe someone could design a skin mod to get all the gui inside the 2.40 area and just the background would be in the are we want to cut off. That way id doesnt matter what mode the pj is in you will still see all the info you need.
If you're using an anamorphic lens then that's a completely different issue as you're changing the pixel aspect ratio.
The key in any case is to calibrate while the video is playing. The skin UI will then scale inside that rectangle.
In my theater I have a 16:9 projector and a 2.35:1 screen. I am not using an anamorphic lens and simply zoom the projector to fill the screen so that the areas where black bars would be are just off the screen. I have used the video calibration to adjust the settings so that the xbmc GUI fits my 2.35:1 screen. In my limited tesing so far, all videos display at thier correct aspect ratios, but I have had to adjust the zoom settings for a few of them. Its not a big deal though. However, I do find it annoying that a lot of the GUI elements get stretched horizontally because of the adjustments I have made to the screen calibration. I also have this issue when using a 4:3 screen, except cover art and text gets sretched vertically. Is there any way to fix this? It seems to happen with all skins. Is there a modification that could be made to the skins, or would it need to be a code change to xbmc to accomodate proper scaling of all UI elements?
Hey guys, I recently upgraded my projector to an Epson 8350 (1080p LCD). It has a long zoom range and lens shift, and the wall I'm currently projecting onto has a sloped wall/ceiling on one side, which limits how big of a 16:9 screen I can use (I'm currently using a 92" 16:9). This got me to thinking about 2.35:1 (or thereabouts) screens, and I liked the idea because I figure that I mainly watch movies in that room and a lot of the HDTV content from Comcast is overly compressed anyway, so I might not mind having my 16:9 content displayed in a smaller window inside the 2.35:1 screen.
I happened upon this thread when doing a search, but after reading it, I'm not clear on what XBMC can/cannot do already. I was originally planning on doing the manual zoom in/out with my projector, but I might not mind just optimizing it to 2.35:1 and downscaling 16:9 content to a lower resolution. This room's XBMC machine would be an Acer Revo w/Win7. Can I accomplish this goal with that and, if so, how? I saw mention of someone setting up a custom resolution of 1920x800. Is that what I need to do?
Some quick tips for getting started on this would be greatly appreciated.