[mythtv-users] Playback looks at screensize not at monitor or windowsize

Fri Jun 12 15:47:09 UTC 2015

Hoi Michael,

Friday, June 12, 2015, 12:47:54 PM, you wrote:

> On 06/12/2015 05:18 AM, Hika van den Hoven wrote:
>> Hoi Michael,
>>
>> Friday, June 12, 2015, 8:58:25 AM, you wrote:
>>
>>> On 06/11/2015 08:56 PM, Hika van den Hoven wrote:
>>>> Friday, June 12, 2015, 2:00:30 AM, you wrote:
>>>>
>>>>>    I recently got a new extra monitor for my workcomputer and was
>>>>>    experimenting with displaying mythtv on there. The configuration is
>>>>>    two monitors (1920x1080 and 1600x1200) in one screen (3520x1200)
>>>>>    I have tried both displaying mythtv in a full window on the new
>>>>>    screen and in a smaller one 1280x720. Everything goes ok until I try
>>>>>    playback, either live or recorded. I get a display with 16:9
>>>>>    stretched out to 3520:1200 or 44:15. It seems Mythtv looks at the
>>>>>    screen size and not at the monitor or window size.
>>>>>    I set up the windowsize in Screen Settings with "Use GUI size for TV
>>>>>    playback" checked. Above there I now can select which screen to
>>>>>    display on (0, 1 or All) but of cause they are all the same, the
>>>>>    monitors are organized in one screen. Also I can select an aspect
>>>>>    ratio (16:9, 16:10 and 4:3) bot not 44:15. It actually says there it
>>>>>    cannot query a xinerama display and I should specify it, which I can
>>>>>    understand. But I cannot, for the right values are missing.
>>>>>    Could  this field be split in two or to some running percentage, so
>>>>>    you can specify something? The three possibilities are nonsense for a
>>>>>    xinerama display, it will always be two or more monitors linked
>>>>>    together. Either that or it should look at the GUI setting for the
>>>>>    aspect ratio.
>>>>>     I can get a somewhat
>>>>>    decent display by falsely telling the 16:9 picture is 4:3.
>>>> I found the solution. I suddenly remembered you can adjust settings
>>>> through mythweb. I set XineramaMonitorAspectRatio to 2.933333
>>>> It now shows up like that in The Screen Setting. But you still can not
>>>> edit it there. It should be a free fill field.
>>> You should use the frontend settings editor to set the Appearance
>>> settings properly, and you shouldn't ever insert disallowed values
>>> directly into settings with MythWeb's
>>> (dangerous/broken-because-it-allows-invalid-values) settings editor.  If
>>> you have any kind of Xinerama-type multi-monitor display (including
>>> TwinView or what-have-you), you *must* set the 2 Appearance settings:
>>> Monitor aspect ratio
>>> The aspect ratio of a Xinerama display cannot be queried from the
>>> display, so it must be specified.
>>> and:
>>> Display on screen
>>> Run on the specified screen or spanning all screens.
>>> and should not (ever--for anyone, even without Xinerama) set the
>>> Playback setting:
>>> Video aspect override
>>> When enabled, these will override the aspect ratio specified by any
>>> broadcaster for all video streams.
>>> where, if (for anyone at all) it seems like "Video aspect override"
>>> needs to be set to get a proper display, you have misconfigured
>>> something else (like, for example, your X configuration for
>>> DPI/DisplaySize).
>> I fully agree with what you say above. Only Nvidia deals with
>> multi-monitor in a way impossible with other drivers and MythTV
>> doesn't seem able to deal with that. As said One X screen containing
>> both monitors. It is like Xinerama but actually incompatible with it.
>> MythTV is not the only one not understanding it. Most applications
>> that are aware of the two monitors are not properly able to
>> distinguish them. Window managers do full-screen to both and Vbox
>> also sees two but cannot distinguish them. As said the selection of
>> "Display on Screen" does do nothing, because both monitors are on the
>> same X screen. It should either forget underlying hardware or look
>> deeper, which is possible.
>>
>>> It seems you're saying you think you need to set "Monitor aspect ratio"
>>> to 44:15, but that's not right because neither of your monitors has a
>>> 44:15 aspect--one is 16:9 and the other is 4:3 (assuming square pixels,
>>> which is almost definitely the case).  Since (I'm pretty sure) you're
>>> going to be displaying the video on one or the other monitor (and don't
>>> want it stretched across both monitors with some funky stepped
>>> letterboxing--not to mention an annoying bezel break in the picture),
>>> you simply specify the aspect ratio of the monitor on which you're
>>> displaying the video.
>> Won't work

> ...until you configure your system properly :)

>>> Since you seem to be saying that it doesn't work when you specify a
>>> proper value for "Monitor aspect ratio", I can conclude that you have
>>> some other (related) setting misconfigured.  For example, if you do not
>>> specify "Display on screen" (or specify it incorrectly), you may get
>>> some strange behavior, possibly exactly what you're seeing.  Similarly,
>>> if your X configuration for DPI/DisplaySize (for /either/ monitor) is
>>> incorrect or incorrectly calculated (if not specified), you'd get broken
>>> behavior, such as you're seeing.
>> It is all set correctly. Only MythTV and others expect two driver
>> instances and two X screens, one for each monitor. This is the only way
>> with a none Nvidia driver. The way Nvidia deals with it is actually
>> more logical, properly splitting between monitor and screen and really
>> creating one screen spanning both monitors.
>> MythTV tries to understand it but only comes halfway, while it should
>> be simple if, when set, it would only looks at the GUI size settings,
>> forgetting the underlying hardware.

> You're saying your screen is 3520x1200, so do you actually have to 
> scroll to see the top/bottom of the screen on the 1920x1080 screen? If
> not, your screen isn't 3520x1200.
No and yes, the top 24 and bottom 156 pixels are invisible. In X a
screen is a virtual construct!

> What do you get from:

> xdpyinfo

default screen number:    0
number of screens:    1

screen #0:
  dimensions:    3520x1200 pixels (894x305 millimeters)
  resolution:    100x100 dots per inch

> Mike
> _______________________________________________

Tot mails,
  Hika                            mailto:hikavdh at gmail.com

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