[no Bug] Certain channels not full screen, have to manually switch AR (1 Viewer)

[doveman]

When viewing the channel Yesterday, the programme is 16:9 but not full screen, with large areas of black around it. I have to manually switch the AR to Non-linear Strech to get it to look right.

I tried switching through all the MPEG-2 codecs I've got installed, from within MP (stopping LiveTV first of course), none of which made any difference. The codecs were: Cyberlink Video/SP Decoder (PDVD9), Nvidia Video Decoder, MPC - MPEG2 Video Decoder (Gabest), ffdshow Video Decoder, Elecard MPEG-2 Video Decoder HD, DScaler MPEG2 Video Decoder.

When trying to restart LiveTV after switching to the Dscaler decoder, MP locked up!

I'm sure using the Nvidia decoder used to fix this problem with an older release, RC2 maybe, so the fact that it's not working again suggests that it's not just a codec problem but something to do with the information MP is sending it.

 

[jameson_uk]

can you press f11 to get a screenshot? Without seeing what you are seeing I think this is just that some channels transmit in the wrong format

are you talking about something like Sky Sports News on Freeview? this is transmitted as 4:3 even though the adverts are actually in 16:9 so you end up with a 16:9 advert fitting into a 4:3 part of the screen so end up being tiny.

 

[romuz]

What is a channel it was?
What type of broadcast on that channel in general 3x4 or 16x9?

I have some channels which broadcast 16x9 material inside 4x3 frames
I have to use IFC in this case to get zoomed picture automatically

 

[doveman]

I've attached two screenshots. Most of the programme was displayed as shown in the first one, but as I type this the current part of the programme displayed as 4:3.

These are from VIVA but I see something similar with Dave, where the programmes are shown as in the first picture but the adverts are full-screen 16:9.

It probably is that the channels are broadcasting in some strange format, but I'm pretty sure that set top boxes manage to handle this and make it full screen (non-linear stretch seems to be the correct option in MP), so hopefully MP can be made to do this automatically as well.

 

[catavolt]

AW: Certain channels not full screen, have to manually switch AR

Have a look at Intelligent Frame Correction Works very well here!

 

[jameson_uk]

Just checked and there are a few channels like this (VIVA, DAVE, Virgin1 and Sky Sports News) which are transmitted in 4:3 but often contain a 16:9 image. Song has just changed on VIVA and now video is standard 4:3. (this is on a STB in the bedroom which is showing the same as MP)

There is no correct way to display this. It is a 4:3 picture and you have a 16:9 display. What makes it more irritating is that the 4:3 picture contains a 16:9 video so they are actually transmitting the black bars to make it up to 4:3 (ie. if you have a 4:3 image and stretch it then this is ok but if you have black bars then these get stretched too). You have the option of displaying in native format, you can expand 4:3 to 16:9 using non-linear stretch (I personally prefer not zooming)

As above IFC is meant to identify the black bars and trim accordingly (so 16:9 adverts in a 4:3 picture should be displayed as full screen 4:3) but I have not tried this

Edit: I am marking this as no-bug as it is how these channels are tranmitted. MP is doing the same as my STB.

 

[wonkyd]

Yep, post your complaints to MTV. Or watch 4Music instead.

 

[tourettes]

Yep, post your complaints to MTV. Or watch 4Music instead.

Or buy some good CDs or download some music (legally of course) or go to see some band live and skip the commercial "music" TV stations ...and there are plenty of music DVDs available as well

 

[doveman]

Yep, post your complaints to MTV. Or watch 4Music instead.

Or buy some good CDs or download some music (legally of course) or go to see some band live and skip the commercial "music" TV stations ...and there are plenty of music DVDs available as well

Doesn't really help with Dave and Virgin1, neither of which are "music" channels

Cheers for testing jameson_uk. I don't have a STB so had no way of checking, I just assumed that people wouldn't be happy if STB displayed the channels like this, so thought it might be a MP thing, but your testing seems to prove otherwise.

I'll give IFC a go sometime. Thanks for the suggestion catavolt.