TV Guide is hard to read on TV

cre8nchaos · 2006-03-22, 21:20

First off I would like to say that after trying out several front ends mediaportal is awesome. My hat goes off to the developers.

This is my first HTPC and have been able to find all the info I need to set it up through the wiki and the forums. I have searched now for a couple of days and cannot find any info on making the EPG more readable. I hope this the right forum for this.

I have set the tv resolution to 800x600 and set overscan to fill the picture in and eliminate any black borders I had. I am using the bluetwo skin and everything looks great on my 15"LCD and my 32" CRT TV, except the guide is hard to read and looks horrible. The text is blurry and faded on ends on some of the blocks. On the 15" monitor it looks fine, just bad on the TV. I also tried going to a 640x480 and it had no effect.

Any ideas would be greatly appreciated.

moltas · 2006-03-22, 22:55

What kind of graphics card do you have? I have a NVidia 5200 card after fiddling with the different settings I am more then satisfied with the result. (Look at Digital Vibrance and the like.) I have MP on my old telly and it's easy to read (I would say excellent quality)

/Moltas

cre8nchaos · 2006-03-22, 23:01

Thank you for the reply.

I am using a PNY GForce FX 5600 serial out converted to rca video in on the TV. Viewing TV shows looks perfect just hard to read the guide fonts.

I'll try playing around with the digital vibrance and sharpness settings tonight. Doesn't changing those settings affect both monitors? Or can you change it for only one?

cre8nchaos · 2006-03-24, 17:59

managed to get the text in MP to look a little better by playing around with the graphics card settings.

I will probally make the fonts a little larger and see if that helps.

moltas · 2006-03-24, 23:46

I have been aiming for having the same sort of hue, saturation, contrast and brightness when I view TV through MP as when I view TV (plain and simple). Then I noticed the different setting for Digital vibrance and such. I haven't changed the fonts or anything...but thats me.

Hope it turns out as you want!

/Moltas

Efros · 2006-04-11, 11:10

I had similar issues with the text in the program info being very difficult to read. I edited the fonts.xml file in my skin folder upping the text fonts generally by 2 points e.g. font heights upped from 13 to 15. Gave very satisfactory results. remember to delete the fonts directory in the skin folder before restarting MP

2006-03-22, 21:20	#1 (permalink)
cre8nchaos Portal User Join Date: Mar 2006 Posts: 3 Thanks: 0 Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts	TV Guide is hard to read on TV First off I would like to say that after trying out several front ends mediaportal is awesome. My hat goes off to the developers. This is my first HTPC and have been able to find all the info I need to set it up through the wiki and the forums. I have searched now for a couple of days and cannot find any info on making the EPG more readable. I hope this the right forum for this. I have set the tv resolution to 800x600 and set overscan to fill the picture in and eliminate any black borders I had. I am using the bluetwo skin and everything looks great on my 15"LCD and my 32" CRT TV, except the guide is hard to read and looks horrible. The text is blurry and faded on ends on some of the blocks. On the 15" monitor it looks fine, just bad on the TV. I also tried going to a 640x480 and it had no effect. Any ideas would be greatly appreciated.

2006-03-22, 22:55	#2 (permalink)
moltas Portal Member Join Date: Apr 2005 Location: Sweden Posts: 132 Thanks: 0 Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts	What kind of graphics card do you have? I have a NVidia 5200 card after fiddling with the different settings I am more then satisfied with the result. (Look at Digital Vibrance and the like.) I have MP on my old telly and it's easy to read (I would say excellent quality) /Moltas __________________ ======================= Hurrah for the developers of MP! =======================

2006-03-24, 23:46	#5 (permalink)
moltas Portal Member Join Date: Apr 2005 Location: Sweden Posts: 132 Thanks: 0 Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts	I have been aiming for having the same sort of hue, saturation, contrast and brightness when I view TV through MP as when I view TV (plain and simple). Then I noticed the different setting for Digital vibrance and such. I haven't changed the fonts or anything...but thats me. Hope it turns out as you want! /Moltas __________________ ======================= Hurrah for the developers of MP! =======================

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2006-03-22, 23:01	#3 (permalink)
cre8nchaos Portal User Join Date: Mar 2006 Posts: 3 Thanks: 0 Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts	Thank you for the reply. I am using a PNY GForce FX 5600 serial out converted to rca video in on the TV. Viewing TV shows looks perfect just hard to read the guide fonts. I'll try playing around with the digital vibrance and sharpness settings tonight. Doesn't changing those settings affect both monitors? Or can you change it for only one?

2006-03-24, 17:59	#4 (permalink)
cre8nchaos Portal User Join Date: Mar 2006 Posts: 3 Thanks: 0 Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts	managed to get the text in MP to look a little better by playing around with the graphics card settings. I will probally make the fonts a little larger and see if that helps.

2006-04-11, 11:10	#6 (permalink)
Efros Portal Member Join Date: Jan 2006 Location: Maine Posts: 464 Thanks: 1 Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts Country: My System	I had similar issues with the text in the program info being very difficult to read. I edited the fonts.xml file in my skin folder upping the text fonts generally by 2 points e.g. font heights upped from 13 to 15. Gave very satisfactory results. remember to delete the fonts directory in the skin folder before restarting MP