[mythtv-users] screen resolutions - am confused about the basics

[Maarten]

On Thursday 29 July 2004 17:00, Craig Tinson wrote:
> I have a sanya 28" tv.. it's a widescreen.. but whenever I play a
> widescreen movie.. in mplayer for example.. I still get black bands at
> the top and bottom...
>
> I think I've figured out the problem.. but not sure how to fix it.. I
> have a Radeon 9200SE thats running at 800x600
>
> Am I right in thinking that I need to change the resolution so that it's
> 16:9 "shaped"? if so.. how'd I do it.. I only know about the regular
> resolutions.. 640,800,1024 etc etc.. and which resolution would I go for?

Well, youi could try ;-)  to multiply 480 by 16:9...  which gives 853.33. 
Or divide 640 by 16:9 which gives 360. Or do that with 800 --> 450.

Of these, certainly the 800x450 and 640x360 sound quite nice, and they are 
exact, whereas the first needs to be rounded up to 854.  But either will 
work; it needn't be precise.   Then what I do (and did, back in 1998 when a 
resolution of 1400x1050 was still unheard of) I take the modeline of a good 
working resolution and multiply all figures by my calculated factor. If 
you're lucky it works right away, if you're unlucky it's a starting point.
But... In your case you need to do more work for two reasons: one is that a 
TV, unlike a monitor, cannot be driven at any desired frequency. And the 
other is that you need two multiplication factors, one for horizontal and 
another different one for vertical.   So instead I'd recommend to google for 
"800x450 + modeline" or so and see if something useful comes up.

Good luck.

> Thanks again
> Craig (confused)

Don't be. It's not rocket science. ;-)

Maarten

-- 
Linux: Because rebooting is for adding hardware.