[mythtv-users] Widescreen

Allen T. Gilliland IV alleng4 at yahoo.com
Thu May 29 10:44:29 EDT 2003


I have a widescreen tv and although I haven't hooked
it up to mythtv yet ... here's some info:

first of all ... all widescreen tvs come with a number
of "format" options which allow you to control how the
signal is displayed.  Usually this includes "normal",
"stretched", "4:3".  "normal" is what you use for
anamorphic dvds, and with tv broadcasts it widens the
entire picture.  "stretched" widens a tv broadcast by
leaving the middle part of the image unchanged and
gradually stretching the edges of the image on the
sides.  "4:3" just has black bars on the sides of the
screen and displays tv broadcasts without changing
them.

Personally I can watch tv in "normal" mode just fine. 
It is obviously a little bit distorted, but you get
used to it.  I don't care for "stretched" ... it has a
kind of weird wavy effect on the edges.  And of course
"4:3" is fine if you don't mind the black borders.

That being said you should have no problems connecting
mythtv in either "normal" or "4:3" mode ... at the
very least "4:3" will act just like a normal tv.

I'm not really sure how you were going to get any
actual widescreen recordings anyways ... everything
that is broadcast over cable is 4:3 anyways.  And like
others have said ... mythtv doesn't handle widescreen,
so everything is just rescaled to 4:3 for you no
matter what res you are playing.

When all is said and done I would recommend the
widescreen tv.  As hdtv continues to become the
standard you will want to have a widescreen
television, and its guaranteed that mythtv and tivo
will adapt for those changes.  I'm sure you'll be
kicking yourself later when everything is widescreen
and you bought the standard tv and have to watch
everything letterboxed.

-- Allen

--- matt at mattmarsh.net wrote:
> 
> >hm? Analog TV -> digital TiVo -> analog S-Video ->
> digital MythTV -> 
> >analog S-Video or analog VGA -> digital LCD? I hope
> you don't expect any 
> >picture/audio quality to remain. 
> 
> hehe, it's not quite as bad as that, it's actually
> just
> Analog TV -> digital TiVo -> digital MythTV ->
> analog S-Video/VGA -> digital LCD
> (I'm going to use the MythTiVo plugin to MythTV to
> playback the recording 
> from the TiVo over the network)
> 
> >Why not replace the TiVo with MythTV? 
> >That's what it's for.
> 
> That would be fine, but then I'd need to build two
> MythTV frontend boxes
> in order to play back to two different TVs and I
> can't afford that...
> Money always limits some things...
> 
> >Better go digital DVB or analog TV -> digital
> MythTV -> digital DVI -> 
> >computer LCD
> 
> The last step using DVI to a computer LCD would be
> nice, but I can't
> really find a nice looking computer LCD which would
> look as good as
> a TV in the bedroom... picky I know... but...
> Of course if I go that route I'd have to put a TV
> tuner card in the box
> too which I wasn't going to bother doing as it is
> only going to be used
> as a MythTV frontend.
> 
> >>In which case maybe I'll have to go for a 4:3
> >>TV instead. I would prefer to use a widescreen
> >>if possible, but if I have to go to 4:3 then
> >>it's not the end of the world.
> >>
> >Unless you use DVB, almost all TV is 4:3 anyways.
> OK, movies are often 
> >sent with black bars. If you hack MythTV, I guess
> it should be possible 
> >to resize the player window, then, like I
> suggested. Somebody will have 
> >to implement that, though. And the resolution is of
> course not as good 
> >as if it were broadcasted as 16:9.
> 
> >>If it can't play 16:9 MPEGS correctly, how does
> >>it get on with DVDs in widescreen formats? Do
> >>they work well or look dumb?
> >>
> >MythTV (the TV module) can't play DVD at all. You
> can start an external 
> >player from a Myth button, e.g. Xine or Ogle.
> 
> Yeah, well that's what I was meaning really... I
> suppose what I'm asking
> is, if I launch Ogle for example, will it size it to
> fill up the screen?
> And if so, I guess that will make a 16:9 movie look
> bad?
> 
> >>This is why widescreen TVs generally do more
> >>clever stuff than just stretching... they tend
> >>to stretch them wide to fit the screen, and
> >>then stretch them high too, but not by as much
> >>but still it is then higher than the screen, so
> >>it chops a bit off the top and the bottom. You're
> >>left with something which looks reasonable.
> >>
> >uh, that's like intentionally messing up the
> picture.
> 
> Well maybe, but that's what widescreens do in order
> to deal with the
> broadcasted 4:3 analog TV. And at least the
> implementation of that on
> my Sony widescreen TV looks fine.
> 
> Matt
> 
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> mythtv-users at snowman.net
>
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