16x9 on MVP

[zehd]

We no doubt will disagree on this one. I typically want the MVP to adjust the size and aspect ratio since it is done in hardware and match the actual video hardware. It greatly reduces the cpu requirements for ffmpeg and maintains the aspect ratios best. There will be a problem with odd aspect ratios because is that it isn't letterboxed it only shows part screen, but it isn't set to a phony aspect ratio either.

Martin

I am to understand that GB-PVR and the standard dongles, do not have aspect switching.

[zehd]

The Hauppauge 16:9/4:3 settings are going to have no effect on the Width of the menu and other screens. All this setting will effect is video. For example, if you have the Hauppauge MVP software set for a 4:3 tv, and try to play a 16:9 video then it'll cut the sides off the picture.

That's not right. When the MVP is in 4x3 mode on a 4x3 TV, a 16x9 picture gets the wings chopped off.

The other way around gives you letterbox... That's why I suggest people to set there MVP to 16x9 mode regardless of the shape of their TV.

[mvallevand]

I am to understand that GB-PVR and the standard dongles, do not have aspect switching.

Right, but I am not talking WSS, I am talking hard-coding a video output size on transcoded data. My preference is to let the mvp hardware control resolution and aspect ratio regardless of the dongle and let ffmpeg concentrate on optimizing the conversion saving a lot of CPU.

Martin

[Mr. Camaro]

That's not right. When the MVP is in 4x3 mode on a 4x3 TV, a 16x9 picture gets the wings chopped off.

The other way around gives you letterbox... That's why I suggest people to set there MVP to 16x9 mode regardless of the shape of their TV.

From what I saw if a person has a 4x3 TV and sets it in 16x9 they will not get letterboxed 16x9. They will get a 16x9 picture with the height correct but the width will be crunched down to fit the width of a 4x3 screen (everyone will look skinny). So a person with a 4x3 TV will now see all of the video but it will not be formatted right. A 16x9 TV can fix this by stretching out the video to fill the whole screen and it will be formatted correctly (ie not crunched down or stretched).

Maybe someone else can give it a try and confirm.

Sorry for the highly technical words (Crunched down, and stretched)

[zehd]

Right, but I am not talking WSS, I am talking hard-coding a video output size on transcoded data. My preference is to let the mvp hardware control resolution and aspect ratio regardless of the dongle and let ffmpeg concentrate on optimizing the conversion saving a lot of CPU.

Martin

We might want to carry this somewhere else so we don't split focus. I think we're on the same page, just reading different paragraphs... I do want to get this right. For the wiki and for ZProcess...

[sub]

From what I saw if a person has a 4x3 TV and sets it in 16x9 they will not get letterboxed 16x9. They will get a 16x9 picture with the height correct but the width will be crunched down to fit the width of a 4x3 screen (everyone will look skinny). So a person with a 4x3 TV will now see all of the video but it will not be formatted right. A 16x9 TV can fix this by stretching out the video to fill the whole screen and it will be formatted correctly (ie not crunched down or stretched).

It does also depend what the file type was. Was this a widescreen MPEG file, or a widescreen AVI file?

[zehd]

It does also depend what the file type was. Was this a widescreen MPEG file, or a widescreen AVI file?

Yeah I'm starting to think that's it. Some confusion between Mpegs and AVIs

[Mr. Camaro]

It does also depend what the file type was. Was this a widescreen MPEG file, or a widescreen AVI file?

The file I was using was an XviD encoded AVI.

I decided to do some checking so I converted the AVI to a Mpeg2. I made sure that this new file was not letterboxed. I also have another Mpeg2 that is letterboxed. Using these I ran some tests with the following widescreen files.

1. Xvid AVI
2. Mpeg2 No Letterbox
3. Mpeg2 Letterboxed

I then setup the MVP for 16:9.

1. Xvid AVI in 16x9
The Xvid AVI played with back on both sides but the video was not cropped it was just crunched up so everyone looked skinny. Changing the TV to Full Screen gave full screen video showing the entire video with no cropping, and with the TV in Full Screen it was formatted correctly. This would be ideal as the whole screen is filled, video is formatted correctly, and there is no cropping.

2. Mpeg2 No Letterbox in 16x9
When I played this I got black on three sides with the video at the top of the screen! (Black on left, right, and bottom.) All the video was viewable (not cropped) and it was formatted correctly.

3. Mpeg2 Letterboxed in 16x9
This played in the center of the screen with black on all 4 sides. All the video was viewable and it was formatted correctly.


After this I reset the MVP to 4:3.

1. Xvid AVI in 4:3
The Xvid AVI played with black on both sides and now the video was cropped on the sides and formatted correctly. (People were not skinny or fat.) Putting the TV in Full Screen now distorted the video stretching it making the people look fat, but filling the screen.

2. Mpeg2 No Letterbox in 4:3
The MPEG2 played the same way as it did in 16x9. Black on three sides with video at the top of the screen and no cropping.

3. Mpeg2 Letterboxed in 4:3
The MPEG letterbox also played the same as it did on the 16x9. Center in the screen, no cropping, and formatted correctly. Black on all sides.

Interesting thing to note, I started unplugging the MVP after each test because at one point it got stuck in the middle. It didn't matter if I was in 16x9 or 4:3 it always cut the sides off some of the picture. If the 4:3 normally cut off 4" on each side it was only cutting of 2" on each side. I think this has been mentioned before in other posts were the MVP gets stuck in the wrong aspect ratio. Unplugging the MVP between each test eliminated this problem from popping up.

Conclusion
It seems that the 4x3 and 16x9 settings only really affect the AVI files. This really doesn't make any sense but it is what I was seeing. It seems that the type of file your using makes a difference and also possibly the way you encoded it too. I would be interested to see what other people get trying some of their own files.

Mr. Camaro

[sub]

Those are pretty much the results I'd expect given those parameters, but you'll find you get different results if you have a correctly sized MPEG2 video file. The MVP positioning is all up the whack unless you use standard sizes like 720x480 (full D1), 352x480 (half D1) etc.

Try a full D1 16:9 MPEG2 file (ie 720x480), and a full D1 4:3 MPEG2 file (also 720x480) and you'll get different results on the Hauppauge MVP 4:3 and 16:9 settings.

[zehd]

Subs right. Those are the results. And yes, it's only with AVIs.

I would say, leave the MVP in 16x9 mode. (using the hauppauge software).

Now, with ZProcess, set to 16x9 mode, you should get full screen 16x9 mode, and a 4x3 should get you pillar box...

The TV should always be stretched to full.

There is discussion in another thread regarding TV auto switching responding to differently encoded AVIs. Currently ZProcess doesn't support it (hence leave it in fullscreen mode when watching MVP)

But I will be updating ZProcess 2 to include the switching, assuming that all goes well with my investigation