Widescreen TV-out

[n9801904]

Hi people,

I was wondering if any of the current graphics cards support widescreen TV-out? I have a Geforce 2 MX 400 with one of the bt868 tv out chip and I get a black line down either side when using the tv out.

I would be suprised if the new graphics cards didn't support widescreen resoloutions on the TV out since many (if not most) tvs sold now are widescreen, however, I read somewhere that the ATI 9000 - 9800 only support widescreen on the VGA output. My hollywood plus card does a perfectly good job so I don't see why my graphics card shouldn't!

Thanks for any info anybody has!

[ultimatebilly]

Don't know about widescreen TV-out, but for this problem:

I have a Geforce 2 MX 400 with one of the bt868 tv out chip and I get a black line down either side when using the tv out.
There is a solution...
TVtool lets you turn of the underscan, and has many more nice features (for example macrovision removing, native PAL output with modified detonator drivers (don't know about NTSC) and much more...).
This is the homepage:

http://tvtool.info/index_e.htm

Unfortunately the program isn't free, but you can get a demo which works for 15 minutes...

[CaptainCarrot]

I have a notebook with MobilityRadeon, and i can have pretty much any resolution on the tv-out i like up to 1024x768. These are not supported by the standard driver, but with powerstrip (http://www.entechtaiwan.com/) you can create the resolution you want. That should be working with geforce, too, but i'm not sure.
You most likely will have to manually check the widescreen-mode on your widescreen-tv afterwards since the computers tv-out-signal is always identified as 4:3.

[hakko504]

All Matrox G400 (and newer) cards have widescreen modes implemented as standard.

[rudeboymcc]

thats definately true. i have a matrox G450 and it's quite old (2-3 years) and it has widescreen.

[n9801904]

Thanks for the replys!

I tried TV tool and that didn't seem to help. When I streched the screen it just went 'off the edge'. I will see if power strip can help.

Thanks again

[nikthebak]

To get widescreen, just display anamorphic image under normal 4:3 resolution. That's how it's done with standalone DVD players and everything. Widescreen TV's don't use any special resolution for widescreen mode, just plain PAL 720x576 or NTSC 720x480. The key concept is the phrase "anamorphic image".

Most software DVD players can do this by unchecking "Keep Aspect Ratio" checkbox or similar and Media Player Classic has a "scale to widescreen TV" option. In Zoom Player, you have an option "anamorphic" in aspect ratio settings.

You have to set your TV to "Widescreen" or "16:9" mode naturally. Besides that slight annoyance (the TV can't recognize aspect ratio automatically) this procedure works like charm.

Besides, widescreen TV's (and standalone DVD players) use a certain SCART pin, or a special voltage in green wire in RGB, to signal the aspect ratio. Automatic aspect ratio detection would be impossible to implement in display adapters supporting only S-Video output. It's only possible with RGB connectors or a custom built adapter specific S-Video -> SCART wire.

[Zhnujm]

i also wonder what these widescreen modes of the g400 are. from my experience nikthebak is right, a widescreen tv uses the same resolution as a standard tv.
are you sure these modes are not for 16:9 tft displays ?

[n9801904]

Even if I set my TV to strech the picture I still have black borders at either side of the image. Is it because of the chipset I have (BT868)? I can't see an option to turn off the underscan in tv tool. Which version is that in?

[Zhnujm]

in the actual version 7.1 you have to activate "fullscreen" on the mode page. maybe "desktop" is already enough.

[m99]

I've read that setting line 21 "high" in the S-Video output enables 16:9. Don't know more.

[n9801904]

OK... Sorted it... How daft am I. Got TV tool to work.. I was looking for a button that said "disable underscan" or something but I should not have been looking for anything so technical sounding... I just had to select "full screen"! Doh!

mm99... S-video only has 4 pins I think... Pin 8 on a scart lead can do fancy stuff like that.

[hakko504]

Originally posted by n9801904
Pin 8 on a scart lead can do fancy stuff like that.
Signalling pins of a SCART lead

P8:
0V = SCART off
6V = 16:9 video / SCART on
12V = 4:3 video / SCART on

P16:
0V = RGB off
3V = RGB on

[m99]

re: n9801904
Not the pin, line 21 in the svideo-signal.

[n9801904]

Ah... Interesting... I never knew that.

[m99]

I tried to use a svideo-cable between my DVD and TV. No 16:9-recognition. Anyone else tried it?

[Zhnujm]

i dont think a 16:9 switch is possible via s-video. at least i havnt seen a dvd player that can do this.

[m99]

Some channels on my analog Cable-TV (Telenor Avidi, Norway) transmits a signal so that my TV zooms up a letterbox image (not anamorphic 16:9), so there is a signal somewhere there. But where and what is it, I don't know. I found something about "closed caption" when I googled for "line 21", is "closed caption" 16:9?

[bilu]

"Line 21" and "Closed Caption" refers to subtitles.

Bilu

[m99]

Thanx. There is even a faq about line 21 and closed caption. Silly me :-)
http://www.robson.org/capfaq/

[auenf]

Originally posted by m99
Some channels on my analog Cable-TV (Telenor Avidi, Norway) transmits a signal so that my TV zooms up a letterbox image (not anamorphic 16:9), so there is a signal somewhere there.

i think that is your TV automagically zooming it for you, rather than a flag in the stream.

Enf...

[hakko504]

Some TV's can switch to wide mode automagically, but as m99 correctly observed, even analogue transmissions contains a signal that they can rely on to make the switch. Read this! (http://www.intersil.com/data/an/an9716.pdf)