Wrong aspect ratio -- FIXED! (1 Viewer)

[tatus]

TV-Server Version: TVEngine3 Snapshot: 01-04-2008 01-08h Revision 16867
MediaPortal Version: MediaPortal SVN-Snapshot: 01-04-2008 01-03
MediaPortal Skin: BlueTwo
Windows Version: MCE 2005, latest updates
CPU Type: AMD Athlon 3500+
HDD: Samsung 40GB
Memory: 512MB
Motherboard: Asus
Motherboard Chipset: Nvidia
Motherboard Bios:
Video Card: Nvidia GeForce 6200
Video Card Driver: 9.1.3.1
Sound Card: Creative Audigy 2 ZS
Sound Card AC3:
Sound Card Driver: 5.12.4.1196
1. TV Card: Technisat Skystar2
1. TV Card Type: DVB-S
1. TV Card Driver: 4.4.1.5 (Technisat DVB-PC TV Star PCI (BDA))
2. TV Card: Hauppauge Nova-S
2. TV Card Type: DVB-S
2. TV Card Driver: 4.4.10.12. (Technotrend BDA/DVB-S Capture + Tuner)
3. TV Card:
3. TV Card Type:
3. TV Card Driver:
4. TV Card:
4. TV Card Type:
4. TV Card Driver:
MPEG2 Video Codec: Nvidia Purevideo 1.02.223
MPEG2 Audio Codec: Nvidia Purevideo 1.02.223
Satelite/CableTV Provider: Astra 19.2
HTPC Case:
Cooling:
Power Supply:
Remote: MS MCE Remote
TV:
TV - HTPC Connection:


Hi,

I have installed snapshots from 01-04 and since then I have aspect ratio problems when watching TV. I have a 4:3 screen and it seems to depend on the channel and the corresponding stream aspect. Sometimes it is correct, sometimes not. If it is not correct, then the situation is always that the picture is too flat, condensed in the vertical axis. I am using TVE3 and its plugin, Nvidia mpeg decoder, and all aspect settings are either "follow stream" or "normal". Has this been reported elsewhere? As said, this was ok all the time until this snapshot.

I have made a recording, and surprisingly then playing it back, the aspect is correct. This means to me that the stream is correct. Playback and live TV use the same codec (Nvidia Purevideo).

Regards
Frank

 

[tatus]

Hi,

the problem (bug?) seems to be channel related. On certain channels (e.g. german ARD, ZDF, KiKa, 3Sat) it is always correct. On some other channels (Pro7, Sat1, RTL) the problem always shows up. It does not seem to depend on the stream aspect ratio. The picture is always condensed vertically.

Regards
Frank

 

[x4mer]

I was having the same problem, with Nvidia & MPV decoders. Only DScaler would display properly on all channels.

I just realised yesterday, that it had to do with the fact that I was running a tweaked resolution on my TV to make it fit to the edges properly. I tried selecting a display resolution that was of a standard AR (1280x720 16:9 in my case), & then all TV channels started displaying correctly & I could go back to using the nvidia decoder.

I had been using 1248x704 with the nvidia decoder in the past, & it was working fine. At some point one of the svn releases changed things, & I had to use Dscaler from that point on.....till now.

 

[henrik4223]

I have the same problem. It occurs every time I change to AC3 sound trac in the DVB-t stream. It is very anoying

I have attached logs.

TV-Server Version: TVEngine3 16789
MediaPortal Version: Mediaportal 0.2.3.0 - 16795
MediaPortal Skin: BlueTwo 0.2.3.0
Windows Version: Windows XP SP2 - all updates
CPU Type: AMD Athlon(tm) 64 Processor 3000+
HDD: RAID Samsung spinpoint 180GBx2 - Promise 2+0 Stripe/RAID0 SCSI Disk Device
Memory: 1 GB Dual Channel Kingston RAM
Motherboard: ASUS A8V Deluxe
Motherboard Chipset: VIA K8T800Pro + VT8237
Motherboard Bios: A8V Deluxe BIOS 1017
Video Card: NVIDIA GeForce 7600 GS
Video Card Driver: 6.14.11.6921 (Nvidia Forceware)
Sound Card: HDA Digital X-Mystigue 7.1
Sound Card AC3: Optical out
Sound Card Driver: Auzentech, Inc Inc 5.12.1.47 (HDA driver is 5.12.1.46 and causes BSOD)
1. TV Card: Pinnacle Dual USB DVB-t diversity stick
1. TV Card Type: Digital
1. TV Card Driver: Pinnacle 3.7.0.1
MPEG2 Audio Codec: NVIDIA Purevideo decoder 1.02-223
Satelite/CableTV Provider:
HTPC Case:
Cooling:
Power Supply: Chill 400W
Remote: Logetech Harmony 895+USB-UIRT
TV:
TV - HTPC Connection:

 

[tatus]

A short update on my status: I updated to latest SVNs (from yesterday) and switched to DScaler. The aspect ration problem is solved with using this decoder, but three new problems pop up.

1) There is some movement distortion, it is hard to describe. It looks like the frames are not in the correct order. Maybe a pair of interlaced half-frames is shown in the wrong order of time.

2) Playback sometimes is not smooth. When pressing Shift+1 I see that the frame rate in this situation is 25fps. It should be 50fps (it in fact always is with Nvidia decoder).

3) On some channels (always at German SAT.1) there are strong picture errors. It is horizontal bars with "scrambled" content, just as it sometimes looks for weak DVB signal. I will check the signal and my antenna, but the strange thing is that the picture again is good with the Nvidia decoder.

Please, can anyone help me?

Frank

 

[tourettes]

3) On some channels (always at German SAT.1) there are strong picture errors. It is horizontal bars with "scrambled" content, just as it sometimes looks for weak DVB signal. I will check the signal and my antenna, but the strange thing is that the picture again is good with the Nvidia decoder.

Nvidias decoder isn't showing the garbage as it's dropping frames instead of it. So if the corrupted stream happens when there aren't that much movement in the scene (especialy camera pans) you propably wont notice when nvidia's decoder drops one frame.

 

[tatus]

I just made a test by recording some seconds of the SAT.1 stream. Surprisingly, the playback is O.K. ! And I tried the Nvidia decoder and it shows no picture at all, but sound on this channel.

What I also notice from time to time is that there are sometimes some little areas (maybe 16 x 2 pixels) within the MP screen area (I think they are always on top of text) when MP is not in fullscreen mode. For me this looks that some MP module writes to some data location it shouldnt write to... I can imagine that this can cause any kind of instability. This problem already exists quite some time, maybe 6 months or so. Haven't found a way to reproduce it yet unfortunately.

I could at least fix the movement distortion by forcing vertical sync in the graphic card's advanced settings. Now Dscaler is always at 25fps, and horizontal scrollers like on German N-TV are completely unreadable...

The aspect ratio problem with Nvidia is quite new, this was always working in the past, lets say until New Year 2008.

 

[tatus]

Today I installed the other DVB-S card (Skystar2 with BDA drivers), uninstalled the first one (Hauppauge Nova-S, also BDA) deleted all TV channels and made a fresh scan. SAT.1 is still broken...

Regards
Frank

 

[tatus]

The problem has disappeared with the latest SVN! So it seems that somebody worked on it, or fixed by fixing another problem. I can now use Dscaler and Nvidia, playback is smooth, channel switching is also quick, Sat.1 is working again.

I would like to raise another question. As my postings here seem to be related with some existing problem that somebody has worked on, how are these things managed in the bug tracker or in the forum? Should this issue have marked as a bug? How would I be informed (automatically) when it was resolved?

It is very time consuming to totally clean up (I use to revert to a clean operating system image) and reinstall all the new packages every week, in the hope that it will now work stable. I'm a bit lost here. Also the version from yesterday is not stable enough, we can watch TV for a while and the the picture freezes. I have already learned not to play around with codec packs and these things, but I don't manage to have a stable TV system based on MediaPortal for about three years now. Although I very much like the idea behind this project, I am somewhat desperate meanwhile.

 

[tourettes]

As far as I know no one has especially worked with that bug. Also SVN changes doesn't point to that direction that there would have been anything that could fix this. So most likely what has happened is that your broadcaster did fix some issues in it's stream and now they are providing the correct aspect ration information.