Aspect Ratio detection

Forums › Home Theatre (incl HTPC) › Aspect Ratio detection

allstarnz

1693 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

# 21451 27-Apr-2008 16:04

Ok, so we have this new fan dangled TV in the house, and now the same thing has come to the fore that i've had in my room.

When switching between something like Sky Sport 1 and TV One, the TV won't automatcially change between pillarbox (SS1) and full screen (TV1)

I know there's something called aspect ratio fixing that can fix this based on a flag, but don't know a lot about it to be honest.

Must a certain type of input be used for this to work (eg SCART, RGB etc)

cyril7

6964 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

Subscriber

# 126592 27-Apr-2008 16:12

Sky boxs signal via line23 (Wide Screen Signalling) so to tell the display what AR the source is, they also signal via pin8 of the SCART for SCART capable displays. If its 16:9 most modern panel displays will acknowledge this and display it correctly, however once on that channel you can manipulate it with the AR button/control to zoom or buger about with it to your hearts content. Most modem displays also have a setting that determines what it does if the flag is 4:3, this is often just the default AR for that input, so with that you can tell it to strech it across the full 16:9 display or simply show it as 4:3 within the 16:9 display (ie pillarbox it), however when a 16:9 flagged channel is selected it should change back to full 16:9.

Some can have the AR flag over ridden others not, what display do you have, how have you got it connected.

Cyril

richms

22519 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

Subscriber

# 126613 27-Apr-2008 18:01

Whats the TV?

Samsung LCDs cannot do it, despite it being pretty much the norm across other LCD tvs.

Richard rich.ms

marmel

1575 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

# 126616 27-Apr-2008 18:49

My Toshiba LCD will do it but I could only get it to work when I was feeding the signal in via HDMI from a Sony HD recorder.

Funnily enough all channels worked apart from the crime channel, CH71. This was the first fulltime w/screen channel on sky so this probably had something to do with it. I did ring Sky and query why the extra signal wasn't being broadcast on this channel to tell the TV what aspect it should be but despite speaking to several CSR people no one knew what I was talking about.

I haven't got the HD recorder anymore so not sure if it is still an issue.

allstarnz

1693 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

# 126619 27-Apr-2008 18:59

richms: Whats the TV?

Samsung LCDs cannot do it, despite it being pretty much the norm across other LCD tvs.

well, funny you should say that, it is a Samsung. Once Sky finally get their s___t sorted out, this shouldn't be an issue, but it's quite annoying for the meantime

Thanks for your help guys.

eXDee

4025 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

# 126664 27-Apr-2008 23:36

Ours doesnt switch on our bravia, but ours goes Old pace box >composite> philips dvd recorder >component> onkyo receiver >component> sony bravia d series

marmel

1575 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

# 126666 27-Apr-2008 23:41

eXDee: Ours doesnt switch on our bravia, but ours goes Old pace box >composite> philips dvd recorder >component> onkyo receiver >component> sony bravia d series

Suprised you have any signal left after running through all of that!

richms

22519 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

Subscriber

# 126670 28-Apr-2008 00:11

eXDee: Ours doesnt switch on our bravia, but ours goes Old pace box >composite> philips dvd recorder >component> onkyo receiver >component> sony bravia d series

Yeah, it will be getting stripped by the dvd-r when it decodes the pal signal, the dvd-r I had for a while would frame buffer everything as well so it was getting reclocked by it.

Direct component to the avr from the other scart should do it, and look better as well.

Richard rich.ms

eXDee

4025 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

# 126673 28-Apr-2008 01:11

marmel:
eXDee: Ours doesnt switch on our bravia, but ours goes Old pace box >composite> philips dvd recorder >component> onkyo receiver >component> sony bravia d series

Suprised you have any signal left after running through all of that!

It would be all good if the damn sky box was component!