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

[Michael T. Dean]

On 12/12/2013 07:15 PM, Raymond Wagner wrote:
> On 12/12/13 18:24, Scott Smith wrote:
>> I have this problem or one simiar to it. All my HD content appears to be
>> in a 4:3 aspect. It is compressed horizontally. Forcing the aspect can
>> make it better.
>> Im not sure what changed.
>>
>> But i did notice the output from the frontend is reporting the desktop
>> as 2560x1080. Maybe the frontend thinks it needs to compress the
>> 1920x1080 into this?
> If your monitor is reporting its dimensions accurately, that should not
> matter.

Except, based on that screen resolution, I'd bet that Scott is using X 
configured with Xinerama (or one of its ilk, such as TwinView) enabled 
(even if he thinks there's only one monitor) /and/ using an old version 
of MythTV (not 0.27).  Since we can't get accurate aspect when Xinerama 
is enabled, we use the user-specified value for the "Monitor aspect 
ratio" setting, which defaulted to 4:3 until 0.27 (when it was changed 
to default to 16:9).  Even if you were to upgrade to 0.27 and it started 
playing back properly, you shouldn't rely on the defaults.  Anyone who 
has Xinerama enabled should specify the value properly.

So, Scott, if you do have Xinerama enabled, you need to specify values for:

Display on screen
Run on the specified screen or spanning all screens.

and

Monitor aspect ratio
The aspect ratio of a Xinerama display cannot be queried from the 
display, so it must be specified.

(which will only appear in the Appearance Settings section of frontend 
setup if you actually have Xinerama enabled).

Mike