Set NPVR aspect ratio to Fill

[Northpole]

+2

[treads6464]

+3

[sub]

This patch should remember and restore the last aspect ratio.

[johnsonx42]

It'd be better if Auto worked correctly. With GB-PVR I had it setup so Auto almost always gave the correct aspect ratio. With NPVR, Auto has never worked. In fact for me, Auto pretty much always works like "Fill" when playback first starts; if I "F7" around back to Auto then it letterboxes 16:9 content, although that's not what I want it to do. My AspectRatioModes are set like this:

Code:

<AspectRatioModes shape="4:3">
      <AspectRatioMode name="Fill">0,0,1,1</AspectRatioMode>
      <AspectRatioMode name="LetterBox">-0.17,-0.02,1.17,1.02</AspectRatioMode>
      <AspectRatioMode name="WideScreen">0,0.125,1,0.875</AspectRatioMode>
      <AspectRatioMode name="Zoom">-0.17,-0.15,1.17,1.15</AspectRatioMode>
    </AspectRatioModes>

So I've modified the "LetterBox" aspect ratio to actually stretch and crop 16:9 shows to fill the 4:3 screen, which is 95% of the time what I want on 16:9 content (because in many cases the actual content is a 4:3 show pillarboxed into the 16:9 frame, or even if it is really 16:9, the left and right edges add nothing to the scene). Then I put the original "LetterBox" settings into a new mode called "WideScreen", for the rare case where I really do want to see the whole 16:9 image.

With GB-PVR the above settings worked perfectly - both 16:9 and 4:3 channels defaulted to filling the screen. With NPVR Auto doesn't work at all when playback starts, and then if I roll around and back to Auto it does change the aspect ratio but doesn't obey my settings.

I know, I'm supposed to have test cases and logs ready when I start a gripe like this, but I'm WAY late to a service call so I've got to go. If you want logs I'll post them later.

[sub]

It'd be better if Auto worked correctly. With GB-PVR I had it setup so Auto almost always gave the correct aspect ratio. With NPVR, Auto has never worked. In fact for me, Auto pretty much always works like "Fill" when playback first starts; if I "F7" around back to Auto then it letterboxes 16:9 content, although that's not what I want it to do.

'Auto' always starts with the correct aspect ratio for me. Do have a short sample recording you can supply? We can then compare results on the same file for repeated tests as I tweak it.

Regardless, this wouldnt make any difference for this "analog recordings always 4:3, even though source material is really 16:9". This is a situation where the users would have to override the aspect ratio mode to force "Fill", so the patch is still valuable to them.

[johnsonx42]

I'll prepare one tonight.

[b00sfuk]

This patch should remember and restore the last aspect ratio.

Wow, that was quick, thanks, will try later tonight when I get home. Seems there was quite a lot of interest in this.

This sounds like it will remove my final obstacle to moving to NPVR. I guess is also introduces the minor downside in that it removes the auto-switching (for the few old 4:3 programmes) that worked fine with recordings via the DVB-T card I also have (that has the correct AR bit in its files) but this I think makes it similar (though not quite the same) to the GBPVR support now. I guess I can't have it both ways! There are still TVs you can buy today that have trouble auto-switching (especially over an HDMI link).

Why can't card vendors make their cards record in 16:9 format as default (as I guess there is no way of passing the AR bit over s-video). I wonder if any of the newer cards (as the PVR150 is very old now) do this (e.g. the Blackgold DVB-T2 card that also has analog input is one of the latest that I as looking at)?

thanks again

[b00sfuk]

Tried the patch but does not work for me. Still resets to AUTO when loading a new video file/recording. Will attach logs if required and when I get back. I've tried on 1.5.36 with just this patch and also after applying the cumulative patches (with this later dll).

Anybody else tested it yet?

[sub]

First thing to check it is that it is correctly storing the current aspect ration in HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\NPVR\LastAspectRatio.

[sub]

Why can't card vendors make their cards record in 16:9 format as default (as I guess there is no way of passing the AR bit over s-video). I wonder if any of the newer cards (as the PVR150 is very old now) do this (e.g. the Blackgold DVB-T2 card that also has analog input is one of the latest that I as looking at)?

I doubt you'll find any analog devices capable of recording 16:9 analog recordings. I'm pretty sure the Microsoft API doesnt even allow for this.