[KevinSartori]

I'm using XBMC on AppleTV with a 50" 720p DLP HDTV. I've noticed that my 720x480 DVD MPG rips display slightly wider than 4:3. To me it looks like it's actually displaying with a pixel aspect ratio of 1:1, the ratio of the frame being 3:2 instead of the correct 4:3. If I hit CodecInfo, it shows PAR 8:9 and DAR 4:3, but I have to go to Video Settings and change View Mode from Normal to Stretch 4:3 to get it display correctly.

It isn't really that big of a deal for me to remember to do that, but shouldn't all 720x480 video material be displayed at 4:3 ratio by default? Is there a setting somewhere that I'm missing?

[bobo1on1]

There's a good chance your rips are incorrectly marked as anamorphic widescreen, that would produce this effect.

[KevinSartori]

I don't think that's the case, as the image doesn't fill the entire screen. They are displaying just slightly wider, i.e. 1.5:1 instead of 1.33:1.

[KevinSartori]

I should mention that when I play a widescreen MPG, it displays properly at 16:9 (1.77:1). I only have the problem I mentioned with 4:3 DVD MPG files (TV shows and such).

Here is a screenshot in Normal mode:



Here is a screenshot in Stretched 4:3 mode:



You can see that the Normal shot is slightly too wide. Don Johnson didn't gain the weight until later in his career . Stretch 4:3 is displaying at the correct ratio. Either way, I would expect that a non-anamorphic 720x480 MPG should playback with an identical ratio in either Normal or Stretch 4:3 View Modes.

[elupus]

The slightly to wide is most likely due to a setting. Look for allowed aspect ratio error in settings. by default set to 3%

[KevinSartori]

Thanks, elupus, that was it! I'd previously been using XBMC for Xbox and I don't believe that option was available there. Once I set it to None, there was no more image distortion. I guess the idea of the option is to decrease the size of the black bars by allowing the image to slightly stretch. But still, why in the world is the default set to 3% and not None? I would think the "default" would be to not distort the image at all, but make the ability to do so an optional user setting.

Heck, on some level, I think I'm even against an option like this. I think correct aspect ratio is important. The whole option seems strange to me and counter to what I would expect from the ultimate media player.

Thanks, and problem solved on my end, but it still kills me to think that there are folks out there who are using XBMC and watching some programming slightly distorted and don't even realize it...

[jmarshall]

I thought I'd already changed it to None by default, but looks like I missed it. Will force-change it to default of None for release (this will override any previously saved setting, but that will likely affect very few people).

Cheers,
Jonathan

[KevinSartori]

Awesome, thanks!