DVD player question

[yanksno1]

Going to setup my new HTPC tomorrow night, but had a question about the DVD player in Sage. On my current Onkyo HTIB DVD player/receiver, for newer movies on my Mitsu 55711 HDTV it stretches the anamaphoric movies to fit the screen. For letter box movies, there's short black widescreen bars, not as much as you normally get on TV's with standard DVD players.

My question is, will the Sage DVD player software do the same thing? Does it have an option to add this feature if you want? I haven't begun playing with Sage so I'm unsure and would like this option. Thanks.

[stanger89]

If I understand your question then yes, Sage can properly play anamorphic DVDs correctly. Just be aware that most big budget movies are not 1.78:1 like your TV, they are often 2.35:1 so even with them there will be bars.

And just one suggestion if you haven't gotten there yet, make sure you drive the TV with RGBHV (VGA w/ breakout cable) or Component for the best PQ, you won't be satisfied with S-Video, nor will you be taking full advantage of the display or Sage.

[yanksno1]

Originally posted by stanger89
If I understand your question then yes, Sage can properly play anamorphic DVDs correctly. Just be aware that most big budget movies are not 1.78:1 like your TV, they are often 2.35:1 so even with them there will be bars.

Yeah I've noticed that and have no problem with that. I've already experienced it on a few movies on my current dvd player and still think it looks a lot better then on my older dvd player that took it at the standard resolution.

One more question. Is this featured enabled automatically or do you have to go into the Sage settings and enable it?

Originally posted by stanger89
And just one suggestion if you haven't gotten there yet, make sure you drive the TV with RGBHV (VGA w/ breakout cable) or Component for the best PQ, you won't be satisfied with S-Video, nor will you be taking full advantage of the display or Sage.

My TV has a VGA hookup (no DVI though), so I think I'm going to try that at first. That should be better then the breakout cables right? Thanks for answering my questions, I appreciate it.

[stanger89]

Originally posted by yanksno1
Yeah I've noticed that and have no problem with that. I've already experienced it on a few movies on my current dvd player and still think it looks a lot better then on my older dvd player that took it at the standard resolution.

One more question. Is this featured enabled automatically or do you have to go into the Sage settings and enable it?[/B]

I guess the whole answer is the best one: Sage has 4 Aspect Ratio Modes:

• Source - auto AR based on content, on a WS display anamorphic content will fill the screen, 4:3 content will be pillarboxed
• Fill - I bet you can guess
• 4x3 - video is forced to fit a 4x3 area
• 16x9 - video is forced to fit a 16x9 area

So your choice of AR mode dictates how Sage treats content. AR modes are selectable on the fly and are calculated assuming square pixels, meaning you should run a 16x9 resolution on a 16x9 TV for the best results.

My TV has a VGA hookup (no DVI though), so I think I'm going to try that at first. That should be better then the breakout cables right? Thanks for answering my questions, I appreciate it.

Yeah, it's proabably a tossup, I know the VGA port lists 640x480@60Hz as the only supported resoluiton, if that's the case then you'll probably want to go breakout so you can run a 1080i based resolution. But yeah, give VGA a try first.