[mythtv-users] HDPVR HD Recordings are in 4:3 format

[Karl Newman]

On Fri, Dec 13, 2013 at 9:06 AM, Michael T. Dean <mtdean at thirdcontact.com>wrote:

> On 12/13/2013 11:25 AM, Karl Newman wrote:
>
>> On Fri, Dec 13, 2013 at 5:41 AM, Michael T. Dean wrote:
>>
> ...
>
>> Sorry, I just realized that I wasn't clear. When I say I switched
>> hardware,
>> I meant my motherboard died and had to be replaced, and I lost my built-in
>> TV out (new MB has HDMI&  VGA only). There has been no change to the STB
>>
>> feeding the PVR-500. The converter changes the HDMI output of my computer
>> to the composite input of my TV.
>>
>>  Anyway, it's strictly a display issue because it
>>> happens with old recordings as well.
>>>
>>>
>>  Well, if that's the case, then you have X misconfigured and you're
>>> abusing
>>> the "Video aspect override" setting to make it appear correctly--the 2
>>> wrongs to make a right approach.  See
>>> http://www.mythtv.org/wiki/Display_Size  (Or you have Xinerama enabled
>>> and your "Monitor aspect ratio" setting is incorrect.)
>>>
>>>  It's entirely possible that X is misconfigured, but I fought with it for
>> quite a while and even to get it to stay in 720p I have to issue a xrandr
>> command in my .xsession script because I couldn't force the preferred mode
>> in my xorg.conf (it used to stick, but an update to X broke it). Hmm... I
>> just looked up man page for xrandr and I see there's a --fbmm option that
>> can set the display size, so I'll look into that. Maybe if I set that I
>> can
>> get rid of the override and have everything work right.
>>
> ...
>
>  The "Video aspect override" setting shouldn't exist and only provides a
>>> way for people with broken configurations to make it seem like things
>>> aren't broken without actually fixing the brokenness.  It only adds to
>>> confusion when users are configuring their systems, especially when it
>>> makes a broken configuration seem to work.
>>>
>>>  Yep. The "brokenness" in this case is primarily due to my
>> HDMI->Composite
>> converter, but I'm able to get it to work well enough for now. There comes
>> a point where you've fought enough with arcane config files and arbitrary
>> package changes and you just want it to fricking work.
>>
>>
> Sounds like you're using 1280x720 output on your HDMI that's going to an
> HDMI->Composite converter, which outputs NTSC Composite (which is assumed
> by your TV to be 4:3).  If that's the case, you simply need to tell your X
> the proper DisplaySize to use.  (While nvidia drivers allow you to specify
> a DPI value, doing so would require doing more math, so I'm giving examples
> using DisplaySize--which presumes that you did *not* specify DPI to the
> nvidia drivers--if you are using nvidia drivers.)
>
> If you have a 16:9 (physical aspect ratio--as in comparing the physical
> width/height of the) TV, you simply need to specify a 16:9 aspect ratio on
> the DisplaySize, such as:
>
> DisplaySize 325 182
>
> in the Monitor section of the X config file.
>
> If you have a 4:3 TV, you need to specify a 4:3 aspect:
>
> DisplaySize 325 243
>
> I'm guessing you need the former. Just make sure in your Xorg.log, you see
> something on the order of:
>
> (**) Dec 10 18:16:47 NVIDIA(0): DPI set to (100, 100); computed from
> "DisplaySize" Monitor
>
> (though you may well have different DPI--the important part is that it was
> computed from the DisplaySize, rather than from some (broken) --dpi setting
> on the X command line that your distro decided to create havoc by including
> or similar).  Also, FWIW, your needing to use xrandr to force the 720p does
> make it sound like your distro is doing something terrible like specifying
> a --dpi argument to X.
>
>
> Mike
>

I'm using Gentoo, and I'm pretty sure it doesn't do that (From what I've
seen, Gentoo doesn't generally presume to know what's best for their
users). Something changed in a version of X maybe ~8 months ago that broke
it. PreferredMode is completely ignored. I'm using the built-in Intel
graphics (i3 Sandy Bridge), not nVidia. But I will investigate the
DisplaySize first in xorg.conf and if that doesn't work, then as an
argument to my xrandr command.

Karl
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