[mythtv-users] Projectors

Mr. Demeanour mrdemeanour at jackpot.uk.net
Mon Jan 15 17:38:39 UTC 2007


Damian Surr wrote:
> A friend of mine runs his projector through Windows and seems to be in a 
> silly situation with the resolution. His Projector is wide screen, but 
> he can't set Windows up to use it wide screen, so it displays 4:3, 
> loosing the sides of his projector image. When he then plays a film wide 
> screen, he's loosing the top and bottom of this already reduced 
> resolution, so only the middle section of the project is being used.
> 
> Is this a problem with Myth too? 

No, and it's not a problem with Windows either. The problem resides in 
your friend (or perhaps in some limitation of his graphics card - but I 
doubt this).

> Should I be getting a 4:3 projector, or 
> is widescreen just fine? 

I use a widescreen projector with Myth, and it is "just fine". Before I 
used it with Myth I used it with Windows, and then also it was "just 
fine". You should buy the projector you prefer.

> It probably depends on the graphics card too, 
> but I've not got either yet so I'm open to all thoughts.

You should select a graphics card which can support the *native* 
resolution of your chosen projector.
> 
> Is the resolution the same for 4:3/widescreen projectors and the pixels 
> squash, or are the resolutions different?

The shape of a pixel will vary from device to device. But if the pixels 
"squash", that may indicate a problem (the shape of the pixels should be 
whatever shape they are, and not some other shape).
> 
> Oh yes, one more question. Am I right in thinking that
> most UK broadcasts are widescreen now? There seems to be a lot of 
> clipping most of the time on my TV screen.

No, that is not right, by any means. Firstly, I don't know if your 
remnarks are meant to refer to Freeview or analog; I can only speak for 
Freeview.

I haven't done any monitoring, but I would say that most new material 
(including current affairs programmes) on BBC1 and BBC2 are widescreen. 
Screenings of widescreen movies on BBC channels are generally also 
broadcast as widescreen.

Film4 screenings of widescreen movies are widescreen. But ITV3/ITV4 seem 
to be given to screening widescreen movies with the sides sliced off, as 
if we were still living in the eighties. UKTV History also lives in a 
little eighties-shaped box, except when screening David Attenborough 
programmes.

I'm prettty sure that some of these channels, and especially ITV3/ITV4, 
occasionally lie about the aspect-ratio of their broadcast, resulting in 
the need to adjust the AR manually. This is incredibly incompetent of 
them. You also sometimes get 4:3 programmes that have been black-banded 
(to fit on a widescreen display, presumably) and then scaled (to fit on 
a 4:3 display again), resulting in bands on all four sides of the 
picture. If they do this to save bits, then they are stupider than they 
have any excuse to be.

---
Jack.


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