TV aspect ratio problem (1 Viewer)

[han0522]

Hello all,

~ 1 month ago, without changing anything on my HTPC, the aspect ratio on recorded 4:3 TV changed to stretch across the entire screen, very annoying.

I have since then upgraded to MP 1.2.1. The only addons I have are Moving Pictures, Mp TV Series, and Schedules Direct. My machine has an Nvidia 9500 GT running to a 32 in Samsung lcd TV via DVI. I'm using LAV Filter codecs for TV (as per a previous post I found). I of course continue to have the problem.

Now, if I run the video file outside of MP (VLC or Windows Media player) the aspect ratio is still incorrect (stretched 4:3) so I imagine that it's not a MP problem. Further, when I change to watching tv through the tv alone (no htpc, just over the air signal directly to the tv), the aspect ratio is correct. So somewhere/somehow my computer isn't capturing the correct aspect ratio (my guess of what is going on).

I'm posting here, knowing that this isn't a specific MP problem, trying to get an idea of what's going on, because I'm a bit confused. I've searched on my TV card (avermedia A188C) and have found nothing.

I've tried changing the resolution of my screen - nothing. I have, of course, cycled through my zoom settings, nothing. Has anyone ever encountered something like this?

-Chris

 

[mbuzina]

Maybe your TV is set to stretch the signal from the htpc?

Or do you have ffmpeg with some scaling settings enabled?

 

[han0522]

I should have specified, sorry:

16:9 movies, 4:3 TV shows (both from DVDs) all look correct. It's just the recorded and live 4:3 TV content that is stretched to fit the screen. The HD wide screen TV format (whatever that is) also looks correct - it's just when a TV station is broadcasting an OTA signal that should be 4:3 (confirmed by watching the same channel on my TV directly) that is showing up stretched 4:3 in MP.

No custom scaling in ffmpeg has been set.

Thanks for the reply,
Chris

 

[mm1352000]

Hi Chris

Sounds like a problem with interpreting the video parameters as set by the channel provider(s). If you could post logs then we could check out the resolution and aspect ratio detected by MP, which would at least give you some extra information about the issue...

Log Files - MediaPortal Wiki

mm

 

[han0522]

Thanks, here's the log. I recorded live tv for 4 minutes starting at 00:53 on 11/16/11. This is a program that shows up on my tv when I'm watching the channel without the HTPC (i.e. OTA antenna->coax->tv) as 4:3 as it should be but is 16:9 stretched when watched from the HTPC.

Thanks,
Chris

 

[mm1352000]

Hi again Chris

According to the info in your logs:

2011-11-16 00:53:41.380875 [Info.][MPMain(1)]: TsReaderPlayer: OnVideoFormatChanged - streamtype=MPEG2 resolution=720x480 aspect ratio=16:9 bitrate=15000000 isInterlaced=True

So the recording frame ratio is widescreen 16:9. Of course that doesn't tell us whether the broadcaster is using pillar-boxing (black borders on the side) correctly, but if they're not it does explain why the picture is stretched...

mm

 

[han0522]

mm,

Thanks for the reply and analysis. It's curious that my tv is displaying the same signal correctly. I'm assuming the signal sent by the tv station would contain that resolution information? Is there any reason why the tuner would change it?

Thanks,
Chris

 

[han0522]

Just checked my tv: So my TV is receiving the 4:3 signal as "480p 16:9" but is displaying it as 4:3. On widescreen content it is receiving "720p 16:9" and displaying it as 16:9. I'm confused why the tv would override the 4:3 signal to get at the correct resolution that it should be displaying the video at. If I could figure out why the tv is overriding it it seems like there would be a way to get mediaportal to do the same.

*shrug*, it's odd.

-Chris

 

[Owlsroost]

Chris - you say in your first post that MP is set up to use LAV filters for TV, but in the logs it's actually using the MPC/MPA filters - does it behave the same with other codecs ?

Does your TV have automatic black bar detection/stretch to fill the screen ? The settings for this may be on a per-input basis, so it could behave differently for the tuner and the PC inputs ?

Tony

 

[han0522]

Chris - you say in your first post that MP is set up to use LAV filters for TV, but in the logs it's actually using the MPC/MPA filters - does it behave the same with other codecs ?

Does your TV have automatic black bar detection/stretch to fill the screen ? The settings for this may be on a per-input basis, so it could behave differently for the tuner and the PC inputs ?

Tony

Yeah, I read a post after searching through the forums where someone was having a sort-of similar problem which was solved by switching to the LAV codecs, but it didn't work. I switched them back to what they were before and then got the debug logs. In addition, both windows media player and VLC have the same behavior, although I can force VLC to display it in 4:3. So it's not an MP problem necessarily - I guess I don't know where else to ask to figure out what is going on.

Thanks,
Chris

Chris - you say in your first post that MP is set up to use LAV filters for TV, but in the logs it's actually using the MPC/MPA filters - does it behave the same with other codecs ?

Does your TV have automatic black bar detection/stretch to fill the screen ? The settings for this may be on a per-input basis, so it could behave differently for the tuner and the PC inputs ?

Tony

And I just checked my tv (5 year old samsung lnt3253h) - I see nothing in the menu related to black box detection and nothing in the manual. Would such a setting appear as a term that isn't necessarily obvious?

-Chris