[mythtv-users] GUI size vs. video size

[Bruce Markey]

Bruce Markey wrote:
> Curtis Stanford wrote:
> 
>> OK, I've seen messages about this before but I still think the 
>> situation stinks so I want to see want others think.
>>
>> I'm using an EPIA M10000 box with the latest VIA binary drivers for X 
>> windows. This driver has an overscan setting for use with TV's which 
>> works quite well. Of course, using this setting results in all the 
>> mythtv GUI stuff being cut off on all four edges. Adjusting the 
>> "Screen setting" (i.e. GUI width, height and offsets) fixes the GUI 
>> problem but screws up the video which was quite fine before thank you 
>> very much.
>>
>> My only choice seems to be to set the X driver to "underscan" and then 
>> try to adjust both the "Screen setting" options and "Overscan" options 
>> to try and get both the GUI and video to look right. After quite a 
>> number of tries, I never could get this to look right. Not nearly as 
>> good as letting the X driver to the overscan for me.
>>
>> So, why can't we have a setting to "inset" only the GUI so I can take 
>> advantage of the overscan setting in the X driver but still be able to 
>> see all of the GUI? Seems to be a much simpler solution, at least for 
>> other people out there in this situation.
>>
>> Thanks for listening.
> 
> 
> I listened and I feel your pain. I'm using nVidia TVOverScan
> at 1.0 to try to align scan lines and am aware of the same sort
> of problems. I imagine people using PVR-350s for TV-out are up
> against the same thing. The main problems is that theme designs
> are not aware of the NTSC "title safe" and "action safe" areas.
> The secondary workaround/solution is that MythTV no longer has
> a 'fullscreen' mode separate from the GUI dimensions.

[Opps, hit the send button by accident. Sorry]

Televisions are designed to deliberately overscan so that
the picture fills the entire tube and edges won't be exposed.
TVs, epically older ones, may not have stright edges and have
rounded corners. The picture may not be exactly centered and
the amount of overscan may vary. Therefore there is supposed
to be an 'action safe' area 5% in from each edge and 'title
safe' area 10% from the edge in broadcasts. This allows everyone
to see anything important and read anything they are supposed
to see on screen. Unfortunately, many pages on most MythTV
themes push text right up against the edges. If you look at the
menus for DVD players, VCR and DVRs they don't do this. They
may have graphics that go off the edges of the screen but all
text has plenty of border space.

The GUI adjustments wouldn't be needed if the themes followed
this standard. The GUI adjustments can compensate but even then
there is a tight tolerance in trying to match the edges. Further,
TV tubes have the most distortion and color convergence problems
near the edge and text at the edges tend the highlight these
problems.

So, it would be nice if someone was kind enough to cobble 
together a theme with at least 5% border space on every page.

Back in the olden days (earlier this year?) myth opened a
different window for each page and the TV window was a separate
window that could be toggled between GUI size and fullscreen.
Until a recent update (my procrastination =), the HOW-TO
described how to adjust the fullscreen TV and GUI independently.

However, this multi window interface was annoying and Isaac
did a fantastic job of putting everything in one window. The
down side is that there is no longer a fullscreen mode. If
there was a fullscreen mode, you could do exactly what you
want, display TV in the full X display area then adjust the
GUI to fit your TV.

I started to look into this at one time but I don't know Qt
well enough to figure out how to make it change dimensions
when switching from the GUI pages to the Xv display.

--  bjm