Re: Widescreen?

From: Robert Schlabbach (robert_s_at_gmx.net)
Date: 10/29/04 

Date: Fri, 29 Oct 2004 15:57:33 +0200

"Toby Groves" <news@iconia.org.uk> wrote in message
news:mje4o01bupu4761eca530v6t5raqb92ah9@4ax.com...
> I accept that it's a limitation of the hardware, but given that ALL
> current NVidia cards have this problem, I'd expect MS to at least
> offer an option in MCE to treat the output device as a 16:9 aspect
> display and produce an anamorphic image which could then be stretched
> laterally by the display.

That'd boil down to non-square pixel support, which would also be useful to
owners of certain plasma widescreen displays which are in 16:9 format but
only have a 4:3 pixel ratio (i.e. the pixels are not square).

> Using the DVI or VGA outputs directly is all very well if your TV
> supports this type of input, but the majority don't, at least in the
> UK and Europe. Given that the TV-Out is going to be the only viable
> means of connection in most cases and that widescreen sets are very
> prevalent, I find this to be a staggering oversight on Microsoft's
> part.

Microsoft is well aware of a number of things, but only so much can be done
in each product release. Surely the product will evolve further with future
releases...

> All that said, where do I go now?
>
> I have a 16:9 TV which can accept RGB, S-Video or composite (yuck!)
> inputs. How do I go about getting MCE to produce a proper 16:9 image
> on the TV?

Hmmm, how about adding a 1024x576 resolution (either through the "Custom
resolution" feature in the latest NVIDIA display drivers, or through third
party tools such a PowerStrip)? If you manage to get the resolution to the
TV output, MCE would recognize and treat it as widescreen...

> I've seen a few sites which detail how to produce a VGA to RGB cable,
> with a bit of circuitry to convert the sync signals, as the red, green
> and blue connections are electrically compatible. Even if I go this
> way, however, am I going to be able to produce a widescreen image that
> the TV will accept?

That'd go through SCART, right? One of the SCART pins (pin16?) signals
widescreen. If you'd always use widescreen mode, you'd just wire that pin
to the HIGH signal level...

> At present it would seem I'm dead in the water :(

You have a display type that's not supported by MCE 2005, that's your
problem.

Regards,« 

-- 
Robert Schlabbach
e-mail: robert_s@gmx.net
Berlin, Germany

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