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jmk wrote:
<blockquote cite="mid1199312295.9447.69.camel@localhost" type="cite">
<pre wrap="">Hi George / MythTV Users,
On Mon, 2007-12-03 at 22:18 -0600, George Mari wrote:
</pre>
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<pre wrap="">David Linville wrote:
</pre>
</blockquote>
<pre wrap=""><!---->
<snip>
</pre>
<blockquote type="cite">
<pre wrap="">The best resolution you can get this way is wide-screen 480i. This is
the same way anamorphic DVD content works. You takes a 16:9 content
stream, send it out your STB S-Video output, it gets squished
horizontally to record at 720x480 pixels (4:3 aspect ratio) by analog
tuner/encoder card, and stretched back out horizontally by MythTV to
it's proper aspect ratio. The only difference between this and
anamorphic DVD is that DVD content is usually 480p (progressive) versus
480i (interlaced).
I just researched all this a few weeks ago when I upgraded from SD
DirecTV to HD DirecTV. The High-def DirecTV set top boxes (Dish too,
probably cable boxes also) let you set the format of the signal being
sent out any of it's outputs. You tell it whether you have a 4:3 or
16:9 TV, and you tell it how it should display programs that don't match
the aspect ratio of your TV - letter box, pillar box, squished
horizontally, etc. You can even cycle through the formats with a button
on your remote.
I get better results with Widescreen 480i than I did stretching 4:3
programs to fit my 16:9 TV. I see fewer artifacts, and just better
overall quality. It's not HD, but it's better than 4:3 SD, at least to
my eyes. Part of that could be that the DirecTV HD signal is less
overcompressed than the SD signal was, but whatever.
</pre>
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<pre wrap=""><!---->
A few quick, hopefully not too dumb, questions about this approach...
I currently have two standard DirecTV STBs which are connected via
s-video to ivtv cards. My main MythTV host is connected to a HD TV.
Unfortunately, one of my STBs is dying and I'm told by DirecTV it'll
cost $69 to replace. It appears that for an additional $30 I can get a
HD STB, so I am considering going that route.
When the HD STB is configured to display 16:9, does Myth automatically
detect this and display full screen? Currently, it appears that 16:9
content is being displayed in a 4:3 window. I can manually zoom/scale,
but I find this annoying and I'm wondering if this approach gets around
that problem.
Are there extra costs that I'm missing with this option? It looks like
it'll cost an extra $10/month for HD service. I'm assuming you felt the
picture improvement of capturing HD as SD was worth that.
If I get a new HD dish and HD STB, can I continue to use my working
non-HD STB? Just wondering if I have to replace both STBs, since the
second one isn't used all that often.
Thanks!
Joe
</pre>
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Joe, <br>
I do this with my HD satellite receiver. Mythtv doesn't
automatically detect the 16:9 content, you have to set that up in your
record profile. <br>
I changed my "high quality" profile to be widescreen, which is
anamorphic widescreen, while I left "default" as 4:3<br>
<br>
When I record from an HD channel, I use the high-quality profile, and
from SD, I use default. <br>
<br>
HTH<br>
<br>
Richard<br>
<br>
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