2012-03-31, 19:06
Extensive googling and reading the wiki and this forum fails to point me in the right direction, so I guess I'll have to ask.
I happen to have a Linux machine (Gentoo, freshly installed) with freshly built (from source by the automated build system, as is the Gentoo usual practice) XBMC 11.0, connected to a 4:3 projector with the maximum actual resolution of 1024:768 over HDMI. X sets this resolution by default with the closed-source NVidia drivers, but I forced it anyway with xorg.conf while I was trying to fix problem #1. The card is a Geforce 8600.
XBMC works, plays video fine, and there are no obvious problems except two nagging issues:
Problem #1: All skins available in the builtin skin downloader appear to be designed for 16:9 aspect ratio, which, on a 4:3 screen, don't look pleasant most of the time, and even though the documentation makes me suspect that skins are supposed to be aware of the screen aspect ratio, and adjust to fit, this doesn't happen. Most of the GUI elements (but bizarrely, not all) look squished horizontally. Switching to windowed mode produces a window with 16:9 between it's sides which doesn't even take the whole screen. Aspect ratio of the videos played is nevertheless correct, it's only the GUI that thinks it's running on a 16:9 screen. Switching the projector into 16:9 mode is possible, but then the videos get squished vertically, i.e. the builtin video player does know the correct screen aspect, but the GUI does not.
How do I fix that? Do I have to find a skin meant for 4:3, assuming the available ones are hardcoded for 16:9, and if so, where? Or are there some special configuration settings which let you force the GUI to be 4:3?
Problem #2: Due to the way the projector is positioned in the room, it is preferable to letterbox widescreen videos from the bottom side only, rather than from both, i.e. instead of centering them on the screen vertically, it would be much better if they hug the top side of the physically 4:3 screen instead. While it is obviously possible to adjust it per video, that's going to be a pain, and setting this adjustment as a global default will cut off the top portion of 4:3 videos. Is it possible to tell the builtin player to do that, and if it is, how?
I happen to have a Linux machine (Gentoo, freshly installed) with freshly built (from source by the automated build system, as is the Gentoo usual practice) XBMC 11.0, connected to a 4:3 projector with the maximum actual resolution of 1024:768 over HDMI. X sets this resolution by default with the closed-source NVidia drivers, but I forced it anyway with xorg.conf while I was trying to fix problem #1. The card is a Geforce 8600.
XBMC works, plays video fine, and there are no obvious problems except two nagging issues:
Problem #1: All skins available in the builtin skin downloader appear to be designed for 16:9 aspect ratio, which, on a 4:3 screen, don't look pleasant most of the time, and even though the documentation makes me suspect that skins are supposed to be aware of the screen aspect ratio, and adjust to fit, this doesn't happen. Most of the GUI elements (but bizarrely, not all) look squished horizontally. Switching to windowed mode produces a window with 16:9 between it's sides which doesn't even take the whole screen. Aspect ratio of the videos played is nevertheless correct, it's only the GUI that thinks it's running on a 16:9 screen. Switching the projector into 16:9 mode is possible, but then the videos get squished vertically, i.e. the builtin video player does know the correct screen aspect, but the GUI does not.
How do I fix that? Do I have to find a skin meant for 4:3, assuming the available ones are hardcoded for 16:9, and if so, where? Or are there some special configuration settings which let you force the GUI to be 4:3?
Problem #2: Due to the way the projector is positioned in the room, it is preferable to letterbox widescreen videos from the bottom side only, rather than from both, i.e. instead of centering them on the screen vertically, it would be much better if they hug the top side of the physically 4:3 screen instead. While it is obviously possible to adjust it per video, that's going to be a pain, and setting this adjustment as a global default will cut off the top portion of 4:3 videos. Is it possible to tell the builtin player to do that, and if it is, how?
