TvOut, 16:9 TV, Resolution

[SirElvis]

I'm about to buy a new TV set and think about getting a 16:9 set. Also I want to connect my standalone DVD and DivX 'player'(VIA EPIA 800, HDD, DVD-ROM running Linux) to it.

So what happens, if I select a 4:3 resolution, such as 640 x 480 or 800 x 600 and watch a DivX file with a 16:9 aspect ration.

The picture of the PC, would be fullscreen on the TV(streched), wouldn't it?

Wouldn't the media player put black borders on top and bottom to the output again?

This would lead to a horizontally streched and vertically stomped picture, wouldn't it? (hope you understand what I mean)

Thanks for your answers!

[Zhnujm]

you can always use your tv or your player to resize to full screen picture.
lets say you play it the same way as for monitor playback. now you can use the tv to stretch the pictures width + height to fill the complete screen with correct aspect ratio.
or you play the file 16:9 so the tv must not resize the height wich may result in a better picture quality.

[bb]

640x480 or 800x600 will produce an aspect ratio error when played back on a TV set. PAL has a pixel aspect ratio of 1.1:1, so you have to squeeze the picture horizontally by 10%, which can easily be done e.g. using ZoomPlayer's settings. The same is true for 16:9 resolutions.

Not all 16:9 TV set are capable of custom resizing. Most 16:9 TV sets I know of offer several fixed resizing settings. But you will be able to play back a 16:9 DivX film without black bars on your TV set.

My TV set offers 4:3, 14:9, and 16:9 and some distorting settings ("super zoom" and such rubbish).

Let's say your DivX aspect ratio is 4:3, then @ 4:3 you'll get black bars at the left and the right side, @ 14:9 you'll get smaller black bars at the left and the right, but a part is cut off at the top and at the bottom, and @ 16:9 you won't see black bars, but a lot will be cut off at the top/bottom.

If your DivX aspect ratio is 16:9, then @ 4:3 you'll see black bars at left/right/top/bottom, @ 14:9 you get the same black bars, but smaller, @ 16:9 you don't get black bars. You'll always see the complete picture (nothing cropped off).

bb

[Zhnujm]

@bb:
how would you play an anamorphic dvd with these settings ? (with no resizing to 4:3 in the player). there should be a setting wich only zooms the x axis. or isnt this a common setting ? in this case i have a closer look at the settings if i buy a new (bigger) one in the future.

[bb]

Originally posted by Zhnujm
@bb:
how would you play an anamorphic dvd with these settings ?
The resizing is done in my DVD player. My old 4:3 TV set could squeeze the picture vertically using the 16:9 button. This way it was possible to play anamorphic DVDs without DVD player resizing, and you could get a better resolution on-screen. I used that feature to get better quality on VHS recordings (among other things).

The description of my current 16:9 TV set is rather lame. There's a "widescreen" option - maybe that one can do the anamorphic resizing, but I don't know (now that I think of it: I should try :sly: ). It has custom positioning, so I can move the picture up, down, left, and right, but there's no custom resizing :mad:

bb

[nikthebak]

I have found out that Media Player Classic's "Scale to 16:9 TV" option works great.

My 16:9 TV has very good custom resize (both vertical and horizontal) functions, but I think MPC's 16:9 scaling gives noticably better picture quality than resizing a 4:3 letterboxed picture through TV's functions.

If using software DVD player such as PowerDVD or WinDVD, unchecking "Keep aspect ratio" and using WideScreen mode of the TV pretty much does the trick for DVD.

I think I made a pretty good deal with the TV anyway, it's 32" 100Hz Finlux, supports PAL, PAL-60, SECAM, NTSC, progressive or interlaced through RGB, composite or S-Video. And as a bonus, there's a VGA input port :)

I pretty much fancy to use my TV's VGA input option, but my video card doesn't support the optimal 720*400 resolution. And I don't think a 10 meter VGA cable gives very good picture quality anyway...

[Slogra]

Originally posted by nikthebak
I think I made a pretty good deal with the TV anyway, it's 32" 100Hz Finlux, supports PAL, PAL-60, SECAM, NTSC, progressive or interlaced through RGB, composite or S-Video. And as a bonus, there's a VGA input port :)

I pretty much fancy to use my TV's VGA input option, but my video card doesn't support the optimal 720*400 resolution. And I don't think a 10 meter VGA cable gives very good picture quality anyway...

I've heard that most progressive tv's just support progressive 60hz and not progressive 50hz PAL. Your tv too?