Problem with aspect ratio

[Haeggi]

Hi,
I have a problem with the aspect ratio on some tv-movies.
I run newest Win TV on a 22" 16:10 Screen with 1680*1050.
In WinTV Konfiguration I selected aspect ratio 16:9. (I remember there was also some 16:10 Option in some older version, but the problem was the same)

So here is the Problem:



As you can see, there is enough space horizontal AND vertical to fit this picture to my screen. It only happens on some (old?) movies.
I sucks to have a big Flatscreen and the movie is still only in the middle.
Is this a problem of WinTV or of my monitor? Any suggestions what to do?

[Chris]

The actual image looks fine (but it's hard to tell - do you have anything a bit clearer - e.g. a face, car or building?).

I suspect that the broadcast is widescreen that has been letterboxed into 4:3. In that case, what you are seeing is normal.

[Haeggi]

I attached an other one.
So the problem ist the tv-station sending the "wrong" ratio ?
Isnt it possible to stretch it manually?

[Taras]

Looks as if its being squished vertically .... If its only happening on old films it could be infact the tv station.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aspect_ratio_%28image%29

What is likely being done is 1.85 being squished to 1.78 (16:9) ratio. I could be wrong but its the most likely ..

I don't know which Hauppage card you have and nor how your receiving rtl But if your feeding the signal via a set top box check the settings on there.

[TheNewGuy]

It is possible to get black bars on all four sides. The same thing happens on set top boxes. It happens when you're using a widescreen tv, and the broadcaster transmits a 4:3 movie which contains lettered box widescreen. ie, not so long ago everyone had 4:3 TVs, so they often added black bars to the top and bottom of the picture when they did the transfer to tape for TV. When they broadcast those older movies now, they transmit in that 4:3 format, and the set top box (or wintv in this case) does the normal thing to show a 4:3 on a widescreen tv, adding black bars to the left/right. It has no knowledge that the 4:3 picture contains a widescreen picture somewhere inside each frame.

[Monshi]

Images like that my TV zoom into with the correct aspect ratio, a piece of software on a computer should not have that problem.

In the broadcast are included WSS-flags that indicate the correct aspect ratio, I believe the TV reads those and selects the correct zoom.

An example provided, this is originally a 16:9 transmission that is transmitted, with black bars, in 4:3 via analogue cable.
As can be seen, if the image was stretched to fill the window it would still have the correct aspect ratio.

On previous inquiry regarding this matter I have been told:

• The analogue tuner do not support WSS-flags
• It may become possible in future version of WinTV to remove the black bars

Do I need to add, Dscaler with my old Terratec-card can handle the image above correctly. Dsaler no fun though on Vista and with my Hauppage-card.

[Chris]

If your TV displays it correctly it must be using either:
a) Active Format Description - embedded in digital streams and tells the decoder how to zoom/crop the image to fit the screen. No PC software supports this, other than ShowShifter DVB (discontinued years ago). This is more complex than the regular WDD/AR flag.
b) Black detection - if your analogue cable is zoomed, your TV is probably doing black detection. DScaler can do it too.

WinTV reads the regular aspect ratio flag. This is either 4:3 or 16:9 and it works fine in WinTV 7.

[TheNewGuy]

Just to add a bit more info to what has already been said above:

- black screen detection is not possible due to incompatibility with Microsoft DXVA, which passes undecoded video data directly to the video renderer
- AFD is more often than not, not transmitted.

Your TV is most likely doing black screen detection. Of my two TVs, one of them does this. Its not practical for WinTV to do this.

[Mr X]

what about a manual zoom option in the future?

[Monshi]

If your TV displays it correctly it must be using either:
a) Active Format Description - embedded in digital streams and tells the decoder how to zoom/crop the image to fit the screen. No PC software supports this, other than ShowShifter DVB (discontinued years ago). This is more complex than the regular WDD/AR flag.
b) Black detection - if your analogue cable is zoomed, your TV is probably doing black detection. DScaler can do it too.

WinTV reads the regular aspect ratio flag. This is either 4:3 or 16:9 and it works fine in WinTV 7.

B) Nope, no black detection.
Note that it is an analogue signal I am talking about.
There is aspect ratio data embedded in the analogue signal in most of the channels, not all though
I have all variations
Letterboxed with correct flag
Letterboxed with sad black bar
Anamorphic that is not flagged
(had for a time anamorphic with correct flag, that was nice)
And old fashion 4:3 sometimes on all channels.

I take a look at Dscaler on my old computer and check a couple of channels.

Dscaler handles the signal exactly as my TV. Instantly when I switch to a lettebox-channel with a correct flag Dscaler adapts the window to the correct aspect ratio. When the channel later sends an old fashioned 4:3 program dscaler adapts instantly.
Switch to the anamorphic channel, without flag, and Dscaler shows it as 4:3 and lastly to letterbox with no flag the black bars are present.

Dscaler is set to "automaticly detect aspect ratio embedded in signal".
Yes, it works, without black bar detection. In Dscaler and in my TV but not WinTV.



but, still... not a big issue. I should go digital but bought my current TV-card three months before the cable company made the switch to digital mirroring of the channels. totally clear digital signal, no coding...
And stupid Hauppauge-card has only one antenna contact. If I connect both the analogue cable and the DVB-T antenna the digital signal drowns in all the noise from the cable. So no free DVB-T channels for me either.

Oops, sorry for the OT.