intervideo 720p vmr9 aspect ratio issues

[pvruser]

i've been working lately to configure my home PC as a DVR with the HDTV set on the secondary display over HDMI (and still using the PC while the DVR is working). and i've found another issue for which there appears to be no answer on the forums.

my problem is that with intervideo the timeshift live TV in 720p is letterboxed (black bars on top/bottom) on fill and auto aspect. when i force it to "remove letter box" to make 720p look fine all the other channels are also displayed with a zoom and it's bad.

i'm using InterVideo Video Filter 7.0.27.191 from Cole2k Media - Codec Pack V7.8.0 Advanced.

the other channels 1080i and 480i look fine in auto/fill modes.

other codecs like ATI, Dscaler, Cyberlink that i tried have other issues (like high CPU usage or missing letters in the closed caption). i've applied the DX9b fix for quartz.dll and the VMR9 rendering is now way way better but this aspect ratio is killing me.

is there a way to set the aspect ratio per channel or somehow force 720p to fill the screen? this issue happens in both the window mode and full screen (on a 720p HDTV).

thanks!

[sub]

If its only happening with this one decoder, then isnt too much you can do about it. You can look at the settings for that decoder, but if there is nothing there that helps, then you'll need to find another decoder.

[athomas]

Try the latest ffdshow tryouts codec. It works really well for most video files.

[pvruser]

Try the latest ffdshow tryouts codec. It works really well for most video files.

ffdshow is quite slow for some reason. maybe i don't know how to optimize it?...

i traced down the error which causes the aspect ratio:

2009-09-12 15:51:52.859 VERBOSE getSetting(SaveGraphFiles)
2009-09-12 15:51:52.859 VERBOSE setSourceAspectRatio() using autoAspectRatio
2009-09-12 15:51:52.859 VERBOSE video resolution is 1280 x 720
2009-09-12 15:51:52.859 VERBOSE unknown source aspect ratio...showing full frame
2009-09-12 15:51:52.859 VERBOSE getSetting(HorizontalZoom)
2009-09-12 15:51:52.859 VERBOSE getSetting(VerticalZoom)
2009-09-12 15:51:52.875 INFO DirectShowPlayerBase::playFile() done
2009-09-12 15:51:52.875 VERBOSE DirectShowPlayerBase:etPlaybackRate(1.000000)
2009-09-12 15:51:52.875 VERBOSE Restoring audio
2009-09-12 15:51:52.984 VERBOSE Allocator shutdown...
2009-09-12 15:51:52.984 VERBOSE DeleteSurfaces
2009-09-12 15:51:52.984 VERBOSE DeleteSurfaces
2009-09-12 15:51:52.984 VERBOSE Creating video texture: 640x480
2009-09-12 15:51:53.406 VERBOSE setSourceAspectRatio() using autoAspectRatio
2009-09-12 15:51:53.406 VERBOSE video resolution is 640 x 480
2009-09-12 15:51:53.406 VERBOSE source is 16:9

for some reason intervideo can't read the aspect of the 720p channels (all of them have this issue). but then it says 16:9 so i can't understand why it's showing squashed.:confused:

PS i added a log where i switch between 1080i (good), 720p (squashed), 1080i (good) again.

[athomas]

ffdshow is quite slow for some reason. maybe i don't know how to optimize it?...

I don't optimize mine at all. It runs at less than 10% CPU with an AMD 5200+ X2 CPU decoding Divx at SD 16:9 content and less than 30% when decoding HD 720p content. I only use an onboard nvidia 8300 video output. Are you using the latest 2009 version of ffdshow tryouts?

[pvruser]

ok i downloaded the codec directly from sourceforge. it uses WAY more CPU than intervideo (about double). the motion is not smooth either.

and of course worst of all is that now 720p and 1080i show fine in auto mode but the 480i are stretched to fill the screen. and of course if i'm changing the aspect for one channel it's changed for all others

but thanks for the suggestions, it was worth a try to rule out the codecs.

i'm still trying to understand why the aspect ratio is wrong but i'll try to keep intervideo. maybe sub will make some sort of option to save per-channel aspect ratio, that would help a lot!

[hoborg]

pvruser:
Can i ask what issue do you have with Cyberlink decoders?

[pvruser]

pvruser:
Can i ask what issue do you have with Cyberlink decoders?

with Cyberlink the closed captioning appears like AD&#Q#*SDA(&^... on the same channels intervideo and ATI show it properly.

[hoborg]

with Cyberlink the closed captioning appears like AD&#Q#*SDA(&^... on the same channels intervideo and ATI show it properly.

Please apologize me, but i have no idea what do you mean by this
Not sore how to translate captioning - some kind of subtitles?

[whurlston]

yeah, closed captioning = subtitles. That's what we call subtitles here in the United States (I'm not sure about Canada).