I am running NextPVR 2.4.3 on Windows 7 x64. I am using two Hauppauge 1850's (Analog/Digital Combo tuners). I connect to a 16x9 1080p HDTV through HDMI. I use a AMD 780g/Radeon 3200 HD for video out. All of my HD content comes in great. I get my analog and a couple SD channels and they work well, but I cannot figure out my aspect ratio and GUI issues.
When I play any SD channel, the GUI shrinks to 4:3 on my 16:9 display (it doesn't span the full width of the TV and looks scrunched together). Also I have to use the Fill setting, as any other setting makes the video appear extra slimmed down.
This is a problem when viewing an Analog channel that has 16:9 content. The video will have black borders all around (top and bottom, since it is 16:9 content in a 4:3 format, being displayed on my 16:9 screen). I need a zoom ratio, but all the ones I try fail, I can never get the video to even occupy the left and right border areas of my screen. What am I doing wrong? Thanks in advance.
Its complicated, and there could be a few issues which are factors.
Are your analog channels coming via a set top box? ie, even if you're tuned to a 16:9 channel on your STB, it'll most likely be outputting a 4:3 over composite/svideo/rf. The STB would typically either add black bars top and bottom, or center-cut (discarding the left/right sides of the video). Often an STB would have an option somewhere to choose which of those it does.
All analog video coming from your 1850 will be marked as 4:3, since that's what all analog cards do. If you're using a 16:9 screen, NextPVR will show that 4:3 in the middle of the screen with added black bars left and right to allow it to maintain the correct aspect ratio of this 4:3 video. The application has no idea what is in that 4:3 picture though. If you happen to be supplying a 4:3 video stream which has black bars on the top/bottom, then you can end up with black bars on all four sides.
With analog there isn't really much the application can do about it automatically because it doesn't really have any info about what the 4:3 video contains. You can often work around it by pressing F7 a few times to find an appropriate video mode.
Best solution is to not use analog if you can help it.
sub Wrote:All analog video coming from your 1850 will be marked as 4:3, since that's what all analog cards do.
If the problem is the STB output, some Hauppauge devices can be forced to set analog 16:9 following these instructions.
http://www.hauppauge.co.uk/forum/showthr...r-than-4-3
Martin
mvallevand Wrote:If the problem is the STB output, some Hauppauge devices can be forced to set analog 16:9 following these instructions. http://www.hauppauge.co.uk/forum/showthr...r-than-4-3
True - if his STB is outputting 16:9 anamorphic content over the analog output, then this would help. I didn't want to complicate things with telling him this though since very very few set top boxes output content this way via analog outputs. His set top box is almost certainly outputting a stantard NTSC 4:3 image via svideo/composite.
hilltopper06 Wrote:I am running NextPVR 2.4.3 on Windows 7 x64. I am using two Hauppauge 1850's (Analog/Digital Combo tuners). I connect to a 16x9 1080p HDTV through HDMI. I use a AMD 780g/Radeon 3200 HD for video out. All of my HD content comes in great. I get my analog and a couple SD channels and they work well, but I cannot figure out my aspect ratio and GUI issues.
When I play any SD channel, the GUI shrinks to 4:3 on my 16:9 display (it doesn't span the full width of the TV and looks scrunched together). Also I have to use the Fill setting, as any other setting makes the video appear extra slimmed down.
This is a problem when viewing an Analog channel that has 16:9 content. The video will have black borders all around (top and bottom, since it is 16:9 content in a 4:3 format, being displayed on my 16:9 screen). I need a zoom ratio, but all the ones I try fail, I can never get the video to even occupy the left and right border areas of my screen. What am I doing wrong? Thanks in advance.
I had the same problem and I had to live with it when recorded with my HRV-1600 or older cards I had before. Now, if I record with my Colossus I can use Remove Letterbox and the video fills the screen. Most of the time I am able to record my shows with the Colossus and if you think you would be able to also I would recommend that you buy one. I take it that your analog shows are recorded that way because they aren't available through digital, which if you avoided you would be missing a lot of shows. The Colossus, as I said earlier, would basically eliminate that problem and give you an even better recording of the HD shows if you get some through your STB such as Discovery, History, Natgeo, GolTv, etc. It's worth spending the extra money even if you have to replace your motherboard to gain a PCI-E slot.
Thanks for the replies. It is not a STB, Analog NTSC cable plugged straight into the tuner. It did this in WMC as well, but I would use Zoom 2 (fill basically) to get rid of the black borders on all sides. In NextPVR, no amount of cycling through ratios fixes this. Fill shows it with borders all around, but the others just alter the image within the same 4:3 boundaries. Also the GUI doesn't take up the full 16:9 width of the screen, it only occupies the 4:3 space. Any ideas on if this is normal behavior or not? My resolution is 1080p regardless of channel, but the GUI doesn't seem to stay fixed.
hilltopper06 Wrote:Also the GUI doesn't take up the full 16:9 width of the screen, it only occupies the 4:3 space. Any ideas on if this is normal behavior or not? My resolution is 1080p regardless of channel, but the GUI doesn't seem to stay fixed.
Can you post a screenshot?
I wonder if your tv is one some 'auto aspect ratio' and trying to adjust things?
hilltopper06 Wrote:Thanks for the replies. It is not a STB, Analog NTSC cable plugged straight into the tuner. It did this in WMC as well, but I would use Zoom 2 (fill basically) to get rid of the black borders on all sides. In NextPVR, no amount of cycling through ratios fixes this. Fill shows it with borders all around, but the others just alter the image within the same 4:3 boundaries. Also the GUI doesn't take up the full 16:9 width of the screen, it only occupies the 4:3 space. Any ideas on if this is normal behavior or not? My resolution is 1080p regardless of channel, but the GUI doesn't seem to stay fixed.
The GUI shouldn't be changing at all. The video playback through NPVR and the NPVR GUI are two different things. Posting screenshots, as sub suggested, and maybe even providing a link to a clip of one of your recordings can help a lot. FYI sub is the developer of NPVR.
Zoom 2 in WMC is not the same as Fill in NPVR for me.
Here is how it works for me-
Zoom2 in WMC is the same as Remove Letterbox in NPVR (Removes all black bars)
Zoom3 in WMC is the same as Fill in NPVR (stretches video horizontally)
TV aspect is set to "Normal", which means it does nothing to the image. I can set it to wide, zoom, cinema, etc. Zoom fixes the issue, but cuts off the GUI at the bottom. When I say GUI I am not referencing the Menu system, that works fine, I am talking about the information bar at the bottom (that shows the length of the program, channel name and number, etc.). I will try and get some screenshots real quick. I couldn't get one that showed the borders on all sides (kids were watching tv and were not allowing a channel change). You can see in the images what is going on though, that I cannot stretch past the 4:3 boundaries (not that I would want to on the program shown in the screenshots, but you get the idea).
[ATTACHMENT NOT FOUND]
[ATTACHMENT NOT FOUND]
[ATTACHMENT NOT FOUND]
How should I go about giving a video clip? If I upload you youtube won't that remove the TS details? Could I just PM access to my NEWA to sub or something?
Looks like a decoder issue. Even your "Auto" is in the wrong aspect (squashed in on the sides). Have you tried different video decoders?
Here is my examples of "Remove Letterbox", "Fill" and "Auto"