Suggestion for new zoom-mode (1 Viewer)

[tomtom21000]

Since 2 weeks I am proud owner of a 42" toshiba lcd tv. Hey mediaportal is great on it!

Well you may know the problem of watching 4:3 tv on a widescreen display. If you switch to 16:9 all the people on the tv seems to become very fat and it looks unnatural.

Now, the toshiba has a zoom mode called "Superlive" that works this way: There is nothing cut of at top or bottom or only very little. The image is stretched in width to 16:9.
Now, the trick is, the image is streched nonlinear. The center part is almost unchanged and the further to the outside the picture is streched more (see sketch). Assuming that most tv shows show the important parts near the center, the zoom mode works very well and doesn´t look distorted.

Maybe it is an idea to add such a mode to mp?
don´t know if other brands have similar zoom modes.

what do you think?

tomtom

 

[NLS]

all 16:9 TV have this zoom mode... yes I agree it would be very nice to have in MP

(but I suspect would be processor intensive)

 

[trosty]

all 16:9 TV have this zoom mode...

Yepp, Hitachi calls ist "Panoramic".

I would prefer a 14:9-zoom though, just as mentioned in this thread. For watching sports also a 14:9-streched-zoom (just like the 14:9-zoom, but than strech the picture across the whole screen) would be a nice feature.

 

[mPod]

I would prefer a 14:9-zoom though, just as mentioned in this thread. For watching sports also a 14:9-streched-zoom (just like the 14:9-zoom, but than strech the picture across the whole screen) would be a nice feature.

That's already in SVN since yesterday.

 

[trosty]

I would prefer a 14:9-zoom though, just as mentioned in this thread. For watching sports also a 14:9-streched-zoom (just like the 14:9-zoom, but than strech the picture across the whole screen) would be a nice feature.

That's already in SVN since yesterday.

Wow, that was quick! Thanks a lot, I guess I will have to try that (after creating an image after I will have completet the clean install of my whole machine). 8)

What about an additional zoom mode that fits the 2.35:1-movies onto a 16:9-screen (getting rid of the black bars on top and bottom and cutting something on the left and right side of the picture)? Or am I to slow again :? ?

 

[bigj]

Now, the toshiba has a zoom mode called "Superlive" that works this way: There is nothing cut of at top or bottom or only very little. The image is stretched in width to 16:9.
<cut>
[\quote]

I've also been thinking about this. I think I read that MCE supports this.
With VMR9 I presume the frame ends up in a texture?
It so, it should be possible to implement this using a pixelshader on the GPU.
Even more interesting is the whole range of effects that can be applied via the GPU:

Viewport sizing (variable zooms, stretch, crops, superlive whatever).
Contrast/Brightness/Colour adjust
Anti-twitter for interlaced displays.
Edge enhancement (sharpen) without resorting to ffdshow.
etc

 

[rtv]

the toshiba has a zoom mode called "Superlive"

NLS wrote:
all 16:9 TV have this zoom mode...


Yepp, Hitachi calls ist "Panoramic".

right - for Panasonic's it is "Aspect"


Why implement it in MP then? No accuse but do you guys really think about the features you ask? A TV set e.g. can do stuff like this better - why wasting precious coding time and maybe introduce bugs for features you do not even need?

 

[knutinh]

One reason would be that MP could be set in 16:9 modus meaning that the tv is just a pssive display device. Then when MP detects a 4:3 transmission, it could switch to nonlinear stretching automatically. I dunno if tv sets could do that, and the overlay would llok bad.

Which leads me to another point. I cant see that this nonlinear stretch should be that processor intensive. But implementing it would probably be some work. And it has its drawback. For typical "panel debates", the people at left and right extremes (positions, not politics) are depicted with enourmously distorted heads.

I prefer having the good old black bars, or doing gentle linear zoom + crop (smaller black bars).

regards
Knut

 

[trosty]

Why implement it in MP then? No accuse but do you guys really think about the features you ask? A TV set e.g. can do stuff like this better - why wasting precious coding time and maybe introduce bugs for features you do not even need?

Because my plasma is connected to the htpc by DVI and this zoom-option (14:9 as well as panoramic) is not possible through DVI.

I prefer having the good old black bars, or doing gentle linear zoom + crop (smaller black bars).

I am with you! That is why I talk about a 14:9-zoom which should be easier to implement (as it seems it already is), not the panoramic - sorry for partly hijacking this thread . Right now I use Zoomplayer as external player to get that feature (and get rid of the black bars through zoom& crop) - but I would prefer to have it directly in MP (as ZP and my display do not work together through MP ).

 

[tomtom21000]

Why implement it in MP then? No accuse but do you guys really think about the features you ask? A TV set e.g. can do stuff like this better - why wasting precious coding time and maybe introduce bugs for features you do not even need?

Why would you need any zoom modes in mp then? the tv can do 16:9, 14:9 and many more?

But maybe you are right anyway. I forgot that my wiring is still not optimized. It is graphics card -> amplifier -> scart to LCD.
and the scart can only do 4:3?

This way the zoom mode was not possible with mp as it is with tv-signal from the tv.

I´ll have to try connect graphics card -> component to LCD.
Just have to figure out how I can have sound via amplifier for music.
Then I can switch to a 16:9 windows resolution (1366x768) and then the superlive from the tv might work with a tv 4:3 show in mp fullscreen mode???

Does that make any sense?

tomtom