Re: Vista media center, ATSC HDTV, and 853x480

That is my opinion also that the resolutions shown in the file label(s) are incorrect.
A SD program file size is about 2GB per hour an HD program file size is about 8GB per hour so I suggest that you check the size of the recorded file. I would also be interested to know if the reported resolutions differ between CBS HD (1080i) and ABC HD (720p).
Also a 720p program would look blurrier on your 24" monitor firsrt since it is bigger and more importanly since it is being upscaled to the higher resolution whereas on your 19" monitor very little scaling if any is being performed.
"RCMe" <rcme_1_nospam@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message news:uCxc$Cw8HHA.5164@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
The monitors are connected to two different computers. The 19" connected to a Windows Vista computer and the 24" connected to a Windows XP computer.

Playback scenarios:

1) Play recorded TV from HD channels in Windows Vista MC on 19" monitor. The show video is displayed to fill the horizontal dimension of the monitor with the expected bars on top bottom due to 1280x1024 monitor resolution. Unable to determine actual show video image size from Vista MC or whether Vista MC is scaling 853x480 image or displaying an actual 720p image, although the image does look "sharp".

2) Play recorded TV from HD channels in Windows Vista WMP on 19" monitor. The show video image can be scaled to whatever the WMP window is sized to. This can be a smaller window to fullscreen. WMP reports the image size as 853x480, but when WMP is fullscreen (1280 wide with bars top and bottom), the image does look "sharp". The WMP "video size | 100%" feature does nothing, regardless of the WMP window size. From Windows Explorer, the Public | Recorded TV folder, file properties report the video size as 704x480.

3) Play recorded TV from HD channels in Windows XP WMP on 24" monitor. The show video image can be scaled to whatever the WMP window is sized to. This can be a smaller window to fullscreen. WMP reports the image size as 853x480. When WMP is fullscreen (1920x1080), the image is noticeably "blurrier" than when the WMP window is sized smaller. The WMP "video size | 100%" feature does nothing, regardless of the WMP window size.


I did some searching on TheGreenButton, and it appears there may be a bug in Windows Vista MC, in that it is incorrectly marking the video size of recorded TV.

Can anyone confirm this? Does anyone else see this problem with recorded TV from HD channels in Vista MC?

-rcme



"JW" <JW@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message news:EAF34B72-7D29-4A9C-971F-8D291593510C@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
When you switched from the 19" standard screen monitor to the 24" widescreen monitor did you go back through the TV setup in MC and change the settings for your display?
When watching "Men in Trees" on you widescreen monitor does the video extend all the way to the sides without any sidebars or distortion? If yes then it appears that you are in fact watching an HD program in HD? I don't have an HD tuner so can not confirm that the possible resolutions being stated where you saw them are not the actual resolutions of the encoded files but are carryover in the file headers from the days when MC only handled SD programs in DVD format which is 704x480.

"RCMe" <rcme_1_nospam@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message news:eyZRTOQ8HHA.600@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Thanks for your reply JW,

All the TV shows were recorded on channels greater than 1000 (i.e. 1121, 1361, etc.)

As a test, I just recorded a short bit of the ABC show "Men in Trees" from channel 1121. The Titan TV guide indicates this show is "HD". I checked the recorded show properties and again, WMP lists the video size as 853x480.

Interestingly, on the Vista computer, from Windows Explorer I was able to get the properties for the file from the Recorded TV folder and it lists the show video size as 704x480.

What's going on here? Is there any way to actually determine the video size for Vista MC recorded TV?

-rcme


"JW" <JW@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message news:1690E452-A073-4A61-91AB-96DFFCC4EE64@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
As I stated before all digital OTA channels are not broadcast in HD and each network such as ABC uses may use multiple channels ABC-1, ABC-2
It appears that you are either using your analog tuner( channel number not grater then 1000) or you are using a SD Digital channel broadcasting in 843x480
CBS,NBC and the PBS channels broadcast in 1080i when broadcasting HD resolutions OTA. ABC and FOX broadcast in 720P when broadcasting HD resolutions OTA.
I also have a 4:3 aspect ratio 1280x1024 19" monitor and my graphics card upscales all graphic and video inputs to that output resolution over either my VGA or my DVI connection.
I assume that your graphics card is also upscaling all of your outputs to your 16:10 aspect ratio 24" monitor.
"rcme" <rcme@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message news:45404F15-B1FC-44C1-8302-6EA13866DF08@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
These shows were all recorded using Vista MC from the digital OTA channels
for the respective broadcasts (i.e. ABC, NBC, CBS, PBS, etc.).

The Vista MC computer has a 19" LCD (1280x1024) via VGA connector and the
Windows XP computer has a 24" LCD (1920x1200) via DVI connector. Although, I
am not clear what impact this would have in this case.

When viewing the shows from the Vista MC interface, they all fill the
horizontal dimension on the 19" monitor (i.e. 1280). As such, my expectation
was that they were all broadcast/recorded as 720p.

However, when viewing in WMP (in either Vista or XP), since WMP is able to
scale the image, it is not clear what the "actual" image size is. When I
started viewing these recorded TV shows on my Windows XP computer
(1920x1200), I would "fullscreen" the shows to 1080p (1920 wide with expected
black bars on top and bottom due to 1200 vs 1080), at which point they would
appear to be slightly "blurry". I suspected that WMP must be scaling the 720p
shows to create a 1080p image on the 24" monitor, thus creating the less than
optimal image.

I then tried to get WMP to resize its window to the expected 720p dimension
(to get the optimal image on a smaller window), and found that setting WMP to
"100%", didn't do anything (the WMP window just stayed where it was last). At
which point I checked the WMP properties for the recorded TV shows and found
that they are all 853x480 (according to WMP).

I have downloaded other 720p video (i.e. movie trailers, etc.) and the WMP
properties show the resolution on those to be the expected 1280x720.

Also, when viewing the downloaded 720p videos, they can be set to fullscreen
(1080p, creating some blur), however, setting WMP to "100%" will resize the
WMP window to the expected 720p window size. However, this doesn't seem to
work with the Vista MC recorded TV shows, setting them to "100%" doesn't
change the WMP window to the expected 720p size. In fact, setting WMP to 100%
doesn't seem to work at all with the Vista MC recorded TV shows, as the WMP
window just remains at whatever size it was last set to.

Is there some other way to determine the video properties for the Vista MC
recorded TV shows? The Windows Explorer (Vista and XP) file properties don't
provide any video details for these Vista MC recorded TV shows.

-rcme


"JW" wrote:

No all OTA digital channels are HD channels there is enough bandwidth
available for the networks to transmit both HD and SD digital broadcasts
simultaneously using sub channels.
Check with Titan TV.com to make sure what the schedule for actual HD
programs is on the individual channels and sub-channels in your area. Just
because the HDTV watermark is present does not mean that you are watching
the program in HD It may just mean that it is "filmed" in HD and then of
course it will only actually be in HD resolution on an HD resolution capable
digital channel and will be in SD resolution on a regular analog digital
channel or possibly in SD on a digital sub channel.
The normal clue that you are watching an actual HD program is that there are
no black or gray sidebars showing on widescreen display.
What type of display are you using with what resolution over what interface?
"RCMe" <rcme_1_nospam@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:uJIdbMD8HHA.3916@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
>I have a Vista Home Premium box with an HVR-950 HDTV tuner. The >Vista MC
>works fine and I have recorded a bunch of OTA HDTV shows (or what I >thought
>were HDTV). Shows like Lost, Survivor, CSI, Dancing with the Stars, >Leno,
>Letterman, Warplane, etc. However, when playing them back in Windows >Media
>Player (Windows Vista and Windows XP), the WMP video properties for >ALL
>these recorded TV shows indicates a resolution of 853x480. That's >not HDTV.
>What's up? I had thought that these shows would have been broadcast >in at
>least 720p, as almost all have a "HDTV" watermark in the corner.
>
> When watching these recorded shows in Vista MC and with WMP on my > Windows
> XP computers, they do look to be better than 480p, however, now I > am not
> so certain.
>
> Are the shows being broadcast in 853x480? Is Vista MC for some > reason
> down-converting these shows to this non-HDTV resolution? Or has > Vista MC
> somehow tagged the file incorrectly? Or is WMP getting the > resolution
> wrong?
>
> -rcme
>








.