Auto Remove Letterbox

[zehd]

Well I have another idea... I've been thinking about it, working on proof of concept and I think I have something that would be best programmed natively, though I have been trying anyway

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Currently:

GB-PVR does switch aspects on the fly when content actually changes aspects. Except for when:

4x3 content, the TV is letter boxed, black bands across top and bottom.

Manually, when I press F7, I can 'Remove LetterBox' to expand video for full screen 16x9.


New Feature:

comskip now has the feature where it will log the aspect ratios of a program. It outputs the aspect information in .aspects file

Code:

0:00:00.03  720x 480 1.90 minX=   1, minY=  54, maxX= 720, maxY= 422
0:00:00.06  720x 480 1.98 minX=   1, minY=  54, maxX= 720, maxY= 422
0:01:25.98  720x 480 1.51 minX=   1, minY=   1, maxX= 720, maxY= 480
0:01:46.63  720x 480 1.98 minX=   1, minY=  54, maxX= 720, maxY= 422
0:01:49.77  720x 480 1.51 minX=   1, minY=   1, maxX= 720, maxY= 480
0:02:01.55  720x 480 1.98 minX=   1, minY=  58, maxX= 720, maxY= 422
0:13:03.94  720x 480 1.51 minX=   1, minY=   1, maxX= 720, maxY= 480
0:14:10.88  720x 480 0.00 minX=   1, minY=  54, maxX= 720, maxY= 422
0:14:13.75  720x 480 1.98 minX=   1, minY=  54, maxX= 720, maxY= 422
0:14:34.74  720x 480 1.51 minX=   1, minY=   1, maxX= 720, maxY= 480
0:15:21.68  720x 480 2.57 minX=   1, minY=  98, maxX= 720, maxY= 378
0:15:28.26  720x 480 2.39 minX=  26, minY=  98, maxX= 694, maxY= 378
0:15:29.46  720x 480 2.57 minX=   1, minY=  98, maxX= 720, maxY= 378
0:15:34.33  720x 480 2.15 minX= 106, minY= 118, maxX= 622, maxY= 354
0:15:41.40  720x 480 1.98 minX=   1, minY=  54, maxX= 720, maxY= 422
0:26:48.34  720x 480 1.80 minX=  30, minY=  54, maxX= 686, maxY= 418
0:27:05.62  720x 480 1.98 minX=   1, minY=  54, maxX= 720, maxY= 422
0:27:13.06  720x 480 1.51 minX=   1, minY=   1, maxX= 720, maxY= 480
0:27:48.26  720x 480 0.00 minX=   1, minY=  54, maxX= 720, maxY= 422
0:27:52.27  720x 480 1.98 minX=   1, minY=  54, maxX= 720, maxY=422

(This sample is a show predominantly in 4x3 with Letterbox)

minY=1 is fullscreen, else is not full screen, can be presumed 16x9.

What I propose is that GB-PVR read the .aspects file, while it is also reading the comskip.txt file, and just switch aspects (F7) as it sees it...

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What I have tried so far is:
read a PVR log to see what aspect ratio current video is in (I could only see when auto was applied - I'd like to see which mode it's in)

Read .aspects file that corresponds to current playing video

I can't quite figure how to find current time pointer of playing video from the logs.

When time equals aspect change: SendKeys (or SendInput API) to send F7 until 'Remove Letterbox" is selected

As I have added extra aspect ratio profiles, and edited some values, I would need to confirm with each F7, what mode it is in, so it knows to keep going...

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What do you think?

[zehd]

Bump!

[sub]

Sorry, but I'm not really interested in looking at comskip text files to determine how the aspect ratio should be shown in GB-PVR. I'm more interested in things in the stream which tell me the aspect ratio, so that the same sort of logic can be applied to live tv etc.

[zehd]

Doing it that way sounds cool.

Is it far off? Would it be worth trying a temporary workaround?

[sub]

Doing it that way sounds cool.

Is it far off?

Sorry, I think you missunderstood. I was just saying I wasnt keen on reading text files produced by an external app to determine how to handle the aspect ratio. The app is already using the info from the stream to determined the correct aspect. Unfortunately the way some channels are broadcast with blacks bars as part of the picture, and no info in the stream for the app to know, then there is no real way for the app to do it automatically (without decoding each from and looking at which bits are black).... so probably wont be any further changes in the near future

There is one more piece of info that GB-PVR isnt currently using that is embedded in some streams (AFD descriptors), which could be used to determine this, but its not currently always broadcast, and not at all here in NZ, so hasnt been a high priority. I have found the AFD descriptors in some US sample streams I had.

Would it be worth trying a temporary workaround?

If you need to auto removal of letterbox, you will probably need to come up with your own scheme for now. I do hope to add AFD (active format descriptor) support in future, but it wont always solve it because often broadcasters dont transmit this info.

[zehd]

If you need to auto removal of letterbox, you will probably need to come up with your own scheme for now. I do hope to add AFD (active format descriptor) support in future, but it wont always solve it because often broadcasters dont transmit this info.

Is it possible to know where a show is in the timeline (programatically) and is there a way to tell GB-PVR which apect ratio rofile to switch to?

I

[mvallevand]

Frank, mvpmc and the PCH both support the wss/afd data, if it isn't stripped out by zprocess.

Martin

[zehd]

Frank, mvpmc and the PCH both support the wss/afd data, if it isn't stripped out by zprocess.

Martin

I'm referring to the recorded MPG which play natively (and don't need to be transcoded), but really I was asking for a PC Client feature

BTW, I don't suppose that wss/afd data is encoded into a analog recorded MPG?

[mvallevand]

Sorry I am not much help. I don't know if the NTSC/PAL standard tuners can be set other than 4:3. I have this old link to a file that apparently will set the aspect ratio http://www.wincesoft.de/html/dvdpatcher.html without transcoding. It's one of those file I bookmarked but never tried.

Martin

[sub]

Is it possible to know where a show is in the timeline (programatically) and is there a way to tell GB-PVR which apect ratio rofile to switch to?

I

Sorry there isnt currently any way for a plugin to know where in the timeline playback is. Un until now plugins can only ask for a file to be played, and the app takes care of the rest.