HD-PVR aspect ratio problem using EVR

[nstub]

I've been a long time user of GBPVR - finally getting around to my first post. Thanks to sub for an amazing program.

I've just upgraded to the HD-PVR and everything is going perfectly except for one small glitch that I believe is due to my STB.

I'm in Canada using a Starchoice Motorola DSR-505 STB. I'm getting a border at the top of my HD channels; SD channels are fine and the border is at the top of every HD channel and only at the top.

This only occurs when using EVR (I'm running Vista). Everything is fine when I switch to VRM9 but then I lose H264 acceleration. Recordings still play smoothly using VRM9 but CPU usage is in the 35 - 40% range instead of 2 - 5% using EVR.

The border is present during "Live TV" and on all the recordings and shuffling through F7 does not fill the screen.

This same top border is present while recording from the bundled Arcsoft TME software.

Just wondering if anyone has experienced something similar. I've attached a screenshot of one of the HD recordings. I realize I haven't listed many specs of my setup - please let me knoe if you need more. Thanks![ATTACHMENT NOT FOUND]

[sub]

What is you monitor shape set to in the config app? If 16:10, does setting it to 16:9 remove the bars?

[beav_35]

I don't think it is an aspect ratio problem. If it was there would be bars on both the top and bottom not just the top, right? I have a Bell 6141 and I have a slight black bar at the top too. I think that the channel is just like that but you don't see it when going direct from sat to tv because overscan on the tv cuts it off. The channel logo in the corner is farther from the edge of the screen through the HD PVR so this means that there is less overscan. I get a grey bar on nbc and some junk on the top of some SD programs. Is there a way to overscan the videos in gbpvr so we can get rid of all of this? I have tried the overscan setting in the config but it was a while ago. If I remember correctly it only overscaned the menus not the video.

[nstub]

Thanks for the quick replies guys. Sub - the monitor is set to 16:9 in the config app. We have 2 DSR-505s; I tested the second one and it has the same results. I also fed the TME software a 720P signal from a Toshiba HD-A3 HDDVD player and it fills perfectly - no bars anywhere. If I play back the .ts files created by the HD-PVR on other computers in the house using MPC-HC the black bar on top is still there; fullscreen mode im MPC still has the bar on top.

Using the "zoom" aspect on the STB does fix the problem but that of course cuts out a nice chunk of the image.

[sub]

To be honest, I have no idea. I've not seen it here. It sounds like its part of the picture its capturing though.

[nstub]

Thanks again for the reply sub. It looks like it's a part of the picture it's capturing for sure. beav35 is getting something similar with his Bell STB so it looks like it's not limited to the Starchoice STBs. It's not that big a deal; picture quality is excellent and after a week with the E1 revision HDPVR not a single lockup - so far so good.

[johnsonx42]

Yet another case where negative aspect ratio values with EVR would be useful. Come on sub, we know you can do it!

[greenglo]

Hi guys, I have the same problem with my Motorola 505 box and Hd-PVR. I also have the black bar above HD content. The thing is that that I didn't have it in January with the same settings. I believe our problem may lie with the Motorola 505 box. That being said before now I also had a bar on the side of my screen.... which has apparently gone away with a driver reinstall.

Starchoice did say they were introducing a new analog protection system to their boxes. I emailed hauppauge when I found that out late last year and they said the HD-Pvr would be unaffected.... Perhaps this small black bar is the data for the copy protection, that the HD-PVR is simply passing as a non video area of the signal?

Let me know if you find out anything!