<div dir="ltr"><div class="gmail_extra"><div class="gmail_quote">On Fri, Dec 13, 2013 at 5:41 AM, Michael T. Dean <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:mtdean@thirdcontact.com" target="_blank">mtdean@thirdcontact.com</a>></span> wrote:<br>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex">On 12/13/2013 12:07 AM, Karl Newman wrote:<div class="im"><br>
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On Thu, Dec 12, 2013 at 7:16 PM, Michael T. Dean wrote:<br>
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On 12/12/2013 08:05 PM, Karl Newman wrote:<br>
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On Thu, Dec 12, 2013 at 12:36 PM, Michael T. Dean wrote:<br>
<br>
FWIW, there is no reason anyone in the world should ever set the Video<br>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex">
Aspect Override setting--except for the never-gonna-exist-in-reality<br>
person<br>
who has 100% of all video sources providing incorrectly-encoded video<br>
that<br>
gives the wrong aspect ratio information, or you've misconfigured X such<br>
that it's telling MythTV the display is using some incorrect aspect.<br>
<br>
</blockquote>
I have to use the Video Aspect Override setting to force my 4:3 videos<br>
<br>
recorded on a PVR500 to display correctly on my 4:3 CRT SDTV because it's<br>
passing through an HDMI->Composite converter that is accepting a 720p<br>
signal. (Without the override they are squashed horizontally). I tried<br>
other video mode settings in X (thoroughly) but the aspect was still wrong<br>
so this is what I stuck with. It causes no other issues for us, though, so<br>
it's no problem.<br>
<br>
</blockquote>
This sounds like you have your recording profile set up to use 4:3 but are<br>
sending 16:9 to the PVR-500, so you've been using the "ignore the<br>
recording's specified bitrate" to work around the fact that you're encoding<br>
it incorrectly (i.e. 2 wrongs to make a right). It should also mean that<br>
any properly-encoded widescreen video will display incorrectly on your<br>
system.<br>
<br>
</blockquote>
No, the PVR-500 is still recording 4:3.<br>
</blockquote>
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That doesn't seem to be what you're saying, below.<div class="im"><br>
<br>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex">
This problem only occurred when I<br>
switched hardware such that I no longer had a native TV-out and had to use<br>
the HDMI->Composite converter. I'm not sure if the default HDMI EDID modes<br>
even have a 4:3 option (but it doesn't really matter because the 720p looks<br>
best with this converter).<br>
</blockquote>
<br></div>
If the converter is doing 720p output, why do you say the PVR-500 is recording 4:3? I've never seen 1280x720 video (pixel aspect ratio of 16:9) marked with a display aspect ratio of 4:3--and the Composite cable doesn't even support carrying aspect information (with the exception of the wide-screen signalling (WSS) flag--but I think that's only even used/recognized in a very small number of areas in the world, and not by MythTV). If it's really 720p output, it's almost definitely 16:9 format. Now, it's possible that your STB is outputting 4:3 and your converter is stretching the 4:3 input to 16:9 (making people short and fat/making circles into horizontal ellipses) and breaking the aspect ratio or that your STB is stretching the 4:3 to 16:9, at which point recording as 4:3 would "unstretch" the video and put it back to the right aspect (another 2 wrongs to make a right--but only if the video is output at 4:3, as it would break if you ever sent out 16:9 widescreen from the STB--but in this case, the 2 wrongs may actually be the best option if you have to use a 720p (versus a proper 4:3) output from the converter), but you really need to give information on the configuration of the inputs and outputs of all the pieces that handle the video for me to know exactly what's going on.<div>
<br></div></blockquote><div><br></div><div class="im">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.<br>
<br>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex">
Anyway, it's strictly a display issue because it<br>
happens with old recordings as well.<br>
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<br></div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex">
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 <a href="http://www.mythtv.org/wiki/Display_Size" target="_blank">http://www.mythtv.org/wiki/Display_Size</a> (Or you have Xinerama enabled and your "Monitor aspect ratio" setting is incorrect.)<br>
</blockquote><div><br></div><div>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.<br>
</div><div> </div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex">
FWIW, one of these 2 issues is almost definitely the problem the OP, Scott, is facing, also.<div class="im"><br>
<br>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex">
I don't record any 16:9 content, but<br>
some DVD rips do display incorrectly (16:9 fills the screen when it should<br>
be letterboxed instead). We use videos infrequently, though, and it doesn't<br>
really bother us. The problem will go away when we buy a new TV, but we're<br>
not in any hurry...<br>
</blockquote>
<br></div>
Still, the "Video aspect override" setting is /always/ saying to ignore the display aspect ratio encoded in the video and to use the one you've selected, instead. By definition that means that if you have to set the "Video aspect override" setting (on a system with a properly-configured X display) you have improperly-encoded video. (And if you have to set the "Video aspect override" setting and you're certain the video is properly encoded, you have a misconfiguration of X or you have Xinerama enabled and you haven't told MythTV the "Monitor aspect ratio".)<br>
<br>
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.<br>
</blockquote></div><br></div><div class="gmail_extra">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.<br>
<br></div><div class="gmail_extra">Karl<br></div></div>