[Anastrophe]

just an (uneducated) thought, but while we are looking to get a dreamx dev/debug box for the lead dev, shouldn't we also look to get you guys an x2vga to play with this stuff?

(ok, it's not widescreen afaik, but it should help eh?)

[NEI]

or a hdtv projector like the sanyo plv-z2? afaik much cheaper and nicer than a hdtv! :-)

[Gamester17]

just an (uneducated) thought, but while we are looking to get a dreamx dev/debug box for the lead dev, shouldn't we also look to get you guys an x2vga to play with this stuff?

(ok, it's not widescreen afaik, but it should help eh?)

sounds line a good idea to me, then eveyone that don't have a real hdtv/projector can use a standard vga monitor for testing.are the x2vga really limited to 4:3 only?, or is that doiwn to the monitor used? are there others that use letterboxes to achive widescreen? i found this progressive-scan component vga box (requires component cable too, like this or this), has anyone tried that one?, or others?

[Troed]

get a sanyo plv z2

really if xbmc devs need hdtv-equipment is best to go for something than can do all the resolutions the xbox can do (480p, 720p, 1080i)

(i've got one myself .. connected to an xbox, running xbmc .. )

[frank10]

i just wanted to second or third iron chef's view.

i always run in 480p unless a movie is in higher res.

[otakujhp]

this might be what anomaly tried to say .. (?)

720p is a widescreen-only mode. now guess what happens if the source data is anamorphic, and xbmc can't detect it.

correct - it's impossible to stretch the image to the correct aspect ration using the projector (i have a sanyo plv z2) and the stretch-etc options in xbmc seldom does what i think they ought to :/

so, there have been a few instances where i've had had xbmc automatically select 720p as the "best mode", and i've had to manually downgrade to 480p to be able to stretch and get the correct aspect ratio.

just wanted to mention that are any of the developers hdtv-users themselves?

so, i can't run xbmc in 720p with a 4:3 aspect ratio? bummer...
i usually leave it in 480p with the auto mode switch disabled because i have a few letterbox style videos that xbmc launches in 720p 16:9, but they end up looking a bit funny. if i could run everything in 720p 4:3, i'd be wicked happy.
i should be able to select either 16:9 or 4:3 for both 720p and 1080i manually.

[jmarshall]

720p and 1080i should only be used for 16x9 screenmodes, as this is what they are. they each have a pixel ratio of 1:1 (ie square pixels) and due to the number of pixels, they have a frame aspect ratio of 16:9.

unfortunately, due to the fact that they were introduced at a time when many tv manufacturers hadn't yet fully switched to widescreen formats, there were a generation of 4:3 televisions which came with 1080i in 4:3, with usually the option to compress the image into a 16:9 frame size (leaving bars top + bottom).

just because you can display a 4x3 image with a 720p or 1080i source, doesn't mean you should.

certainly there should be nothing encoded in 720p/1080i that should be displayed in anything other than a 16x9 framesize.

if you want to achieve 4x3 display ratio in xbmc, you can alter the pixel ratio using the calibration tool to achieve a pixel ratio of 0.75 which should do the trick.

[Markeen]

just want to add my 2 cents...

i am using xbmc with a sharp 90 projector which supports 480p, 720p and 1080i (but has a 800x600 matrix).
i think the gui resolution shouldn't have anything to do with the video display resolution. we should be able to select the gui resolution and the video resolutions.
personnaly i use the 480p resolution for the gui because the skins are designed for this resolution, text is much more readable and thumbnails are bigger. but i'd also like the video to switch to a higher resolution when starting a widescreen movie.

so i think the xbmc settings should let the user specify which resolution he/she prefers for each of the different video types :
gui resolution -> selectable (i would use 480p)
4:3 video resolution -> selectable (i would use 480p)
16:9 video resolution -> selectable (i would use 720p or higher)

but maybe a simplier algorithm would be :
gui -> use xbmc settings resolution
4:3 video -> use highest 4:3 dashboard resolution (480p)
16:9 video -> use highest 16:9 dashboard resolution (720p or 1080i)

thank you for the great work !

[jsevakis]

i always keep this option off as well. upsampling, even on the dirtiest mpeg1 files, always looks miles better than 480p, and my hdtv set doesn't allow me to use 480p in non-anamorpic mode anyways. (blame philips. )

however, if we could just get stretch and zoom to work better, that would make playback much better in 1080i mode. i watch a lot of letterboxed 4:3 vcd's, and using zoom mode to crop off the black bars messes up the aspect ratio right now.

[jp110099]

most videos aren't encoded in 720p or 1080i, so wouldn't selecting this mode stretch and change the way an image looks? hdtv resolutions are 1.78:1, whereas most movies are 2:35.1 or 1:85.1, so wouldn't these videos look stretched?

[Butcher]

no, because xbmc has aspect ratio adjustment.

[jp110099]

no, because xbmc has aspect ratio adjustment.

but only if you select that auto widescreen thing that makes it 480p right?

[Butcher]

no, aspect ratio adjustment is separate from that. movies will only be stretched if they don't have any aspect ratio information in them.

[garfunkalow]

just a comment from me.. i have a 16x9 57" hdtv from hitachi, and i always have them upscaled to 1080i

on a side note... is there a way to make the fonts larger since they are really small?

keep up the good work!

[jmarshall]

sure - you need to generate some larger fonts and then put them into the skin.

all the necessary code is in place - someone with a hdtv just needs to generate the fonts (search on how to do this) and create a modified fonts.xml file.

as soon as this is done, i'll make sure it is added to the default skin so that all can enjoy it.