[mmmfishies]

i just set up an hdtv and i'm going through all of my components to take advantage of it. at the same time, i like to pipe the output of my family room receiver around the house through a modulator & coax, and that's now become something of a challenge. i've managed to solve of the connector format issues (composite vs. s-video vs. component vs. hdmi), but i can't find a way to easily scale down the video signal to 480i on the xbox.

for instance, if i left xbmc at 720p and i'd like to use it elsewhere in the house, i don't think there's an easy way to switch it to 480i without going back to the main tv. on the hd directivo, you can hit "up arrow" while watching a video to cycle through the resolutions, and it would be nice if something like that existed for xbmc. possibly a key that's active at the main menu only, for this purpose.

i've poked around in the keymap file and made a couple of simple attempts to call reasonable-sounding functions, but based on my failure and the documentation, i don't think there's a global function to do this.

is there already something set up for this, or is it worthwhile to look into adding it?

thanks,
rob

[Loto_Bak]

how do you plan on outputing composite/s-video while maintaining component output? iirc the xbox shares the composite output with one of the component outputs
the video encoder changes the pinout of the video connector depending if its in component or composite/svideo output mode. the mode is selected using 3 pins of the connector. composite and component outputs overlap and cannot be used at the same time, at least not without creating a switch box, but i doubt the video encoder will change on the fly (it will just flash red after changing the encoder mode), and beyond that xbmc would need to auto detect that and change its resolution as well (which is not implimented)

i think your best solution is to buy a 2nd xbox as they are getting quite cheap now

[mmmfishies]

how do you plan on outputing composite/s-video while maintaining component output? iirc the xbox shares the composite output with one of the component outputs
the video encoder changes the pinout of the video connector depending if its in component or composite/svideo output mode. the mode is selected using 3 pins of the connector. composite and component outputs overlap and cannot be used at the same time, at least not without creating a switch box, but i doubt the video encoder will change on the fly (it will just flash red after changing the encoder mode), and beyond that xbmc would need to auto detect that and change its resolution as well (which is not implimented)

i think your best solution is to buy a 2nd xbox as they are getting quite cheap now

i'm not expecting to output composite and component at the same time (after some reading, i realized that that was probably not possible).

my receiver (a denon 3806) has the capability to switch between composite, s-video, component, and hdmi, so that's taken care of for me. the xbox can happily continue to output any resolution over component cables, but the receiver will turn that into composite and s-video when the signal is 480i.

what i'm asking for is an easy way to get xbmc to switch to "ntsc 4:3" so that i can get a signal on my satellite tvs. everything in this scheme is already working fine, but i need to manually slog through the xbmc menus to switch the resolution. as lazy as it may sound, i'm particularly thinking of a situation where i'm laying in bed and i decide that i'd like to listen to music or watch something through xbmc. i'd prefer not to have to walk downstairs, turn on the tv, change the resolution, turn off the tv and go back upstairs. a simple hotkey pressed after getting back to the home screen (simple blind keystrokes) could allow me to manually cycle through the resolutions until i hit one that i could view.

the one trick that i had to perform to get this to work was to tell the xbox (through the ms settings menu) that my television couldn't accept 480p. if i left that setting checked, it would *never* output 480i. with it set to "no" (and the others set to "yes"), i get 480i, 720p and 1080i.

rob

[Loto_Bak]

how does your denon deal with widescreen signals, does it crop the sides off or does it shrink it into a 4:3 screen?

have you tried using the y button during video playback to get a mode that works well? this well def work if it crops, i doubt there is anything that will work if it stretches

[mmmfishies]

how does your denon deal with widescreen signals, does it crop the sides off or does it shrink it into a 4:3 screen?

have you tried using the y button during video playback to get a mode that works well? this well def work if it crops, i doubt there is anything that will work if it stretches

it looks like it shrinks the widescreen if i set it to ntsc 16:9 and output to composite. the 16:9 and 4:3 settings actually look remarkably similar on my 4:3 set.

the "y" button doesn't actually change the resolution that the xbox is displaying; it just changes the way that a particular video is displayed within the current mode. it's also only active while playing a video, so even if that worked, it require a significant amount of blind navigation to get into that mode.

currently, to change the resolution, you have to go into "settings", over to "appearance", down to "resolution" and find the arrows. while i'm glad the function exists, it's even a pain to do it when i *can* see the screen.

rob

[mcowher]

i would like to do the exact same thing, but i'm struggling with a solution as well.

mmmfishies, are you saying that the denon 3806 downconverts the component inputs to composite, or are you saying that if the video signal on the component cables is 480i, that it will simply pass that 480i signal through to the composite monitor output?

if either of these things happen, then i could also output the xbmc output to another room with a regular ntsc television.

sounds like you just need an easy solution to switching between the hd modes and the 480i mode.

[mmmfishies]

i would like to do the exact same thing, but i'm struggling with a solution as well.

mmmfishies, are you saying that the denon 3806 downconverts the component inputs to composite, or are you saying that if the video signal on the component cables is 480i, that it will simply pass that 480i signal through to the composite monitor output?

if either of these things happen, then i could also output the xbmc output to another room with a regular ntsc television.

sounds like you just need an easy solution to switching between the hd modes and the 480i mode.

the second option. the 3806 won't output anything over composite or svideo if the input resolution is not 480i. the only conversion that it performs is between the different connector types, but only when the resolutions are compatible with the connector.

the 4306 apparently does convert the video signal (scaling), but not the 3806.

you're right. i'm looking for an easy way to blindly cycle through the different resolutions, like the up arrow does for the hr10-250 hd tivo.

rob

[mcowher]

cool...i am now searching on ebay for prices on both the 3806 and the 4306...other than a quick way to switch to 480i inside xbmc, is everything else working ok as far as switching between hd on your hd set, and 480i on your ntsc sets?

[mmmfishies]

cool...i am now searching on ebay for prices on both the 3806 and the 4306...other than a quick way to switch to 480i inside xbmc, is everything else working ok as far as switching between hd on your hd set, and 480i on your ntsc sets?

yes, everything's working fine. as i mentioned above, it shrinks a widescreen signal (if that's what's being broadcast) so that 4:3 and 16:9 look almost identical on my 4:3 sets.

for what it's worth, denon released some information about the new 2807 at ces, and it looks like a great product. they appear to be addressing some of the hdmi and video switching limitations on that model, so perhaps you should look into it.