Custom Aspects/Resolutions on HD Extender?

[dmiraclejr]

I received my HD Extender yesterday and played with it for about 3 or 4 hours. Very nice but I have one feature that I want back from using the server as a client with a 7600GT. No it is not the studdering in VMR9 It is the auto aspect ratio plugin for displaying 4:3 material on a 16:9 screen. I know some don't like the stretched look but it does not bother our family and we want to get rid of the side bars.

The other similar problem is that my 6 year old RPTV has about 8-10% overscan so that say the right edge of the picture is right down the middle of the ABChd logo. I used a custom resolution on the 7600GT of say 1700x980 to correct this problem. It worked very well and I don't want to spend the money on a technician coming to fix it on such an old tv. I have searched the internet for the service menu access (Mits) to no avail. Anyway the questions are:

Can the HD Extender adjust the aspect ratios to allow 4:3 to be stretched to 16:9 (I've tried it and no matter how much a change it, it has no effect)?

Can the HD Extender use custom resolutions to correct a RPTV's overscan?

Thanks for all the help.

[stanger89]

Originally Posted by dmiraclejr

Can the HD Extender adjust the aspect ratios to allow 4:3 to be stretched to 16:9 (I've tried it and no matter how much a change it, it has no effect)?

Does Fill not do anything? Or are you talking about 4:3 content in a 16:9 image (ie pillarboxed as broadcast)?

Can the HD Extender use custom resolutions to correct a RPTV's overscan?

I don't think so. To compensate for overscan adjust the UI overscan correction in Detailed Setup -> Multimedia.

[dmiraclejr]

Originally Posted by stanger89

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Does Fill not do anything? Or are you talking about 4:3 content in a 16:9 image (ie pillarboxed as broadcast)?



I don't think so. To compensate for overscan adjust the UI overscan correction in Detailed Setup -> Multimedia.

Yes, Fill will stretch it to get rid of the side bars, but too far (probably because of the overscan issue).

The UI overscan correction works great for the UI. Does nothing for the video however.

Any other ideas?

Edit: By the way, I am using Component cables for 1080i on this old TV if it matters.

[autoboy]

People that like stretched mode should be shot. :P Come on, if you care at all about picture quality then stretched HAS to look terrible. I can deal with bad picture quality, but stretched makes all content unwatchable for me. It gives me a headache just looking at in for a few minutes.

[stanger89]

I'm not a fan of non-linear stretch, but I see it asked for a lot

advanced_aspect_ratio_extra_modes=Panoramic|blackstrip\=0,0|cutstrip\=0,0|nonlinearmode\=2,2

That will add a new aspect ratio "Panaoramic" that will do a non-linear stretch. Play around with the values (2,2), the first controls how wide the "center" is, and the second how much it's stretched. 0-3 work for both.

[bialio]

Originally Posted by stanger89

I'm not a fan of non-linear stretch, but I see it asked for a lot

advanced_aspect_ratio_extra_modes=Panoramic|blackstrip\=0,0|cutstrip\=0,0|nonlinearmode\=2,2

That will add a new aspect ratio "Panaoramic" that will do a non-linear stretch. Play around with the values (2,2), the first controls how wide the "center" is, and the second how much it's stretched. 0-3 work for both.

Where are you getting the syntax rules for these aspect ratios?

[bialio]

And, since I don't have my HD extenders yet (TOMORROW) - how does the auto aspect ratio plugin inter-mingle with these custom aspect ratios?

And here's hoping we see support for these in full clients sooner or later. I'm all for the HD100 (got two coming!) but I'm still gonna have a full client in my theater room - it does blu-ray and HD-DVD also. No reason not to have sage there!

[nielm]

Originally Posted by bialio

And, since I don't have my HD extenders yet (TOMORROW) - how does the auto aspect ratio plugin inter-mingle with these custom aspect ratios?!

It asks sage for the list of AR names, so it should recognise these custom ones and allow you to select them as normal...

[stanger89]

Originally Posted by bialio

Where are you getting the syntax rules for these aspect ratios?

One part Trial and Error and another part info from Sage. Hopefully there will be an FAQ before too long

[mcaron1234]

Originally Posted by stanger89

I'm not a fan of non-linear stretch, but I see it asked for a lot

advanced_aspect_ratio_extra_modes=Panoramic|blackstrip\=0,0|cutstrip\=0,0|nonlinearmode\=2,2

That will add a new aspect ratio "Panaoramic" that will do a non-linear stretch. Play around with the values (2,2), the first controls how wide the "center" is, and the second how much it's stretched. 0-3 work for both.

I'm a little confused here, can I add this code to the sageclient.properties file and have this aspect ratio available on my client, or is this somehow only for the HD extender? Thanks!

Matt

[stanger89]

That's only for the HD extender.

[hemicuda]

does that code make a letterbox/pillarbox fill a 16:9 screen? Fill just stretches, Zoom A and Zoom B only take care of 1 set of bars. What would one use to get rid of bars on channels that downsample their HD content to a "widescreen" SD format?

[stanger89]

Originally Posted by hemicuda

does that code make a letterbox/pillarbox fill a 16:9 screen? Fill just stretches, Zoom A and Zoom B only take care of 1 set of bars. What would one use to get rid of bars on channels that downsample their HD content to a "widescreen" SD format?

This one will crop/expand letterbox content.

advanced_aspect_ratio_extra_modes=Letterbox|source\=2048,2048,4096,3072,FrontEdgeToCenter,FrontEdgeToCenter,Relative,Relative,Relative,Relative

[jprine01]

I'm looking for the same feature but opposite purpose.
I have my HD Extender hooked up to a 4:3 TV, when i watch a 16:9 HD Channel that has a 4:3 program on it, i have black boxes on all 4 sides.. I want to setup the Fill, or 4:3 aspect settings to do a zoom so my 4:3 is using the full screen.. But I found the aspect settings are completely removed from the setup menu in the HD extender.. And all settings Fill/4:3/16:9/source all look the same.

[stanger89]

I think, Zoom B will do that.

[pez]

I placed them in the SageClient.properties file on my server but don't see an aspect ratio for it on my HD extender. So where do the custom aspect ratio settings go?

[stanger89]

Sorry, they go in the \clients\macaddress.properties file for the extender.

[pez]

Thanks, can you get Andy to add that to his miniFAQ.

[Opus4]

Originally Posted by pez

Thanks, can you get Andy to add that to his miniFAQ.

Did you check the custom resolution & AR FAQs before posting?

It was already in the custom resolution FAQ from the beginning, but I added it to the AR post early this morning.

- Andy

[bialio]

From the FAQ : "ZoomA uses the complete screen in the vertical direction"

What's the use case for this?

btl.