Blue bars above and below video

[Moskus]

When using Vista Media Center to show a movie (a typcial wide screen movie), Vista blacks out the part of the TV that don't show video.

Using SageTV these areas are blue! It's annoying as hell!


How do I get rid of those blue bars or to ask another way: How do I color them black?


Thanks!

[Moskus]

I refuse to believe that I'm the only one that sees these blue lines...

[GKusnick]

Originally Posted by Moskus

How do I color them black?

Detailed Setup > Customize > Video Background Color

If that doesn't do it, then the blue bars are coming from somewhere else, like maybe your STB. Hard to say without more info about your setup and maybe a screenshot to show us what you're talking about.

[Moskus]

The PlaceShifter does not have that option, but I've reset it to black on the server. I'll doublecheck with my living room computer that it did the trick...

What do you mean by "STB"?

(I'll see if I can get a screenshot of it).

[GKusnick]

STB = Set-Top Box

[Moskus]

I don't have a settop box, so I'm guessing that can't be it. It also seems to be a problem on a few computers, but not on others...

I managed to grab a screen shot of the background color (but not the video playing on top. The backgroun color is to the left, complete black (as Vistas Media Center is capable of) is shown to the right.


Thanks!

[GKusnick]

Looks black to me. Are you sure your graphics card is using the correct color profile for your monitor?

Just to be clear: you're talking about the letterbox bars that appear above and below a widescreen image on a 4x3 TV, is that right? Is the content itself being broadcast in 16x9, and your computer is adding the bars? Or is it broadcast in 4x3 and the bars are added by the broadcaster?

[Moskus]

Compare the left side ("blue") to the right side (which is total black), and you'll see the difference (if your monitor is set up right). If you don't see it, turn up the brightness (or use an image editor application).

Yes, this happens typically if I play a wide screen movie on my 40" LCD TV. The picture is wider than the screen, and the result is black/blue bars above and below the actual movie.

Vistas Media Center colors these black areas true black. PlaceShifter colors these dark blue.



I'll have another look at the monitor and video card settings.

[GKusnick]

Originally Posted by Moskus

Compare the left side ("blue") to the right side (which is total black), and you'll see the difference (if your monitor is set up right). If you don't see it, turn up the brightness (or use an image editor application).

Yes, I've done that, and I realize that the left-hand side is not absolute black. My point was that it's so close to black that on a properly adjusted monitor, the difference should barely be noticeable. If it's so obvious as to be "annoying as hell" on your monitor, then something's not adjusted right.

For what it's worth, on my screen Placeshifter colors those areas absolute black. The only time they're not absolute black is when the letterboxing is done by the broadcaster (e.g. movies recorded off IFC) and not by Placeshifter.

If all else fails, check *.properties in the Clients folder on your server to make sure that videoframe/video_bg_color=0,0,0.

[Taddeusz]

It has to do with conversion between colorspaces. TV video actually has a smaller colorspace than RGB computer video. As a result video black looks dark gray on a computer monitor if there is no conversion. I gave up trying to get it to work right a long time ago. The ONLY place I've ever seen this done correctly is on a Mac. For some reason Windows doesn't seem to have a set way to ensure that colorspace conversion happens all the time.

[Moskus]

Originally Posted by GKusnick

If all else fails, check *.properties in the Clients folder on your server to make sure that videoframe/video_bg_color=0,0,0.

Hm! I can't find this in any of the .properties files. Should I be woried?

[GKusnick]

Any properties not present in the client .properties file will be inherited from Sage.properties on your server, so that would be another place to check. But I'm not sure whether that particular property is relevant for Placeshifter clients.