Fullscreen widescreen DVD playback

Discussion in 'Software' started by Bogus283, Mar 31, 2007.

  1. Bogus283

    Bogus283 Private E-2

    Windows media player 11 doesn't seem to want to use the correct aspect ratio for dvd play back on my 19" wide screen display. The video's play back in 4:3 with empty space on the left and right when in full screen mode. Anybody know what setting i need to adjust to get DVDs to play in 16:9. I'm using the monitors native 1440x900 at 60hz
     
  2. BirdBath

    BirdBath Sergeant Major

    4:3 is Wide screen format, this is why you get the "Border" around the movie.

    16:9 is the standard format.

    If the movie was saved as 4:3 wide screen you can't adjust it.
     
  3. Bogus283

    Bogus283 Private E-2

    4:3 is definitely Full Screen and 16:9 is definitely wide screen.

    The movie was saved in wide screen format, and will play using wmp11 on my room mates monitor, which is conveniently also a 19" wide, in full screen without any of the annoying boxes to the left and right. In fact, if i hook my monitor to his pc it'll play without the annoying boxes. So i'm sure it isn't the monitor.

    We're using the same codecs, but to be sure that wasn't the problem i've tried with the codec that comes packaged with nero 7, the one with interactual player, and the one with powerdvd. i uninstalled and reinstalled all of the codecs and wmp several times.

    PowerDVD 4 provides plays without the annoying boxes, but is inconvienient to use.

    I'm fairly certain the problem is somewhere in media center but i've no idea where to find it.
     
  4. BirdBath

    BirdBath Sergeant Major

    I got them backwards. :eek:

    Anyway, what are these annoying boxes?

    Can you describe them? Are they pixelation or actual boxes?

    If the movie plays properly on powerDVD your right its WMP 11.

    When you say media center I get a little lost. Which OS are you running?
     
  5. Bogus283

    Bogus283 Private E-2

    whoops, meant media player not center. i've got xp pro installed. the boxes aren't pixelation, rather sections of the screen that aren't used, its just blank space, the video plays as in a perfect square in the middle of the screen. theres even an option in media player to change the fill color for the unused space. i'll try to upload a screen.


    [​IMG]

    It looks much the same in fullscreen, it just lacks the controls and the like. i've set media player to fill the empty space with green to make it more visible. you really can't miss it. if you look you can tell the difference between the actual video space and the normal black letter box bars. i'm not trying to get rid of the bit of black at the bottom and top, i'm aware that that's normal. It's the sea of green im worried about
     
    Last edited: Mar 31, 2007
  6. BirdBath

    BirdBath Sergeant Major

    I'm sure you have already tried this but

    On the Tools menu, click Options, and then click the Performance tab.

    Click Advanced.

    Check the Enable full-screen mode switch check box.


    From your screenshot it looks like a customization. I'm also sure you have tried this already but is there a disable button for the custom look. If it allows you to fill in the background color doesn't it allow you to remove the boxes?
     
  7. Bogus283

    Bogus283 Private E-2

    the enable full screen mode switch box is checked and as far as the custom green thing goes, i used that same menu to do it, there's a lil box to the right of the full screen mode switch box called 'video border color' it's normally set to black. i just set it to green so you could better see the area i was talking about.
     
  8. BirdBath

    BirdBath Sergeant Major

    [​IMG]


    If you go into the change video border color can you not remove or disable it?

    Sorry posted while you were posting.
     
  9. Bogus283

    Bogus283 Private E-2

    nope it just brings up a color palet
     
  10. BirdBath

    BirdBath Sergeant Major

    Gotta check my daughter's comp. She has WMP 11.

    Get back to ya.
     
  11. BirdBath

    BirdBath Sergeant Major

    All right.

    When your playing the movie go to the "Now Playing" tab at the top left and hit the arrow to get the drop down screen.

    Choose: Enhancements > Video settings

    Now down in the bottom left corner you will see a tab for Video Zoom Settings.

    Choose this tab and then choose:

    Fit Video to player when starting > then choose the check box beside 100%

    Restart the player and see if this works.
     
  12. Bogus283

    Bogus283 Private E-2

    no dice, i've tried 200% too.

    also, in case you were curious, video files that are widescreen dont have this problem, they play without the green area as they should. it's only dvd's that have aspect ratio problems.
     
  13. BirdBath

    BirdBath Sergeant Major

    Are the DVD's playing from a disk in your drive or are they files on your computer?

    I only ask because I am thinking region code if they are disks. It's a long shot though, you say they play with Power DVD and Nero Vision so its probably not that.

    Damn, man. How long has this been going on?
     
  14. Colemanguy

    Colemanguy MajorGeek

    Right click then uncheck video size -> fit video to play on resize, then recheck it. I have the same problem it doesn't seem to stick the setting right, but doing that fixes it until you restart media player. And no its not a region issue because the dvd is playing.
     
  15. Bogus283

    Bogus283 Private E-2

    its pretty much always been like this, though it was ok for like one day when i upgraded to wmp11. then it went back to the same old same old. i was pretty well contented with it until i realized that my room mates computer didnt suffer from a similar affliction and was perturbed.

    also it doesn't matter if i play from the actual dvd or from the hardware, it has the same problem regardless. though if i rip it to avi and play it i get fullscreen
     
  16. Bogus283

    Bogus283 Private E-2

    Didn't help, it still isnt scaling right.
     
  17. BirdBath

    BirdBath Sergeant Major

  18. Bogus283

    Bogus283 Private E-2

    reinstalling media player 11 for the fifth time provided no change. this is driving me up the wall.

    i did find a new options menu in the dvd settings, i hadn't noticed it before because when a dvd is playing the same button opens the audio codec menu. it's got all kinds of fancy settings, but after playing with it im fairly certain that most of the options are for incredibly subtle things, and that the options menu also thinks i have a 4:3 monitor and won't let me change the aspect ratio.
     
    Last edited: Apr 1, 2007
  19. BirdBath

    BirdBath Sergeant Major

  20. Bogus283

    Bogus283 Private E-2

    I'm using a GeForce 5700. also, i've got a video decoder else it would just error out whenever it tried to play a dvd.

    Ran the program to make sure i had an mpeg-2 encoder anyway. turns out, i do.

    i've got the latest full version of the k-lite codec pack install and im using ac3 1.11 to decode dvd audio
     
  21. BirdBath

    BirdBath Sergeant Major

    Do you have any Plug-ins for the player?

    If so, try shutting down any plug ins you have running.

    This is a last resort. This is bugging the s#*t out of me.

    Your card is kind of a gaming card eh? Are there any settings in the nVidia control panel that might effect DVD playback?
     
  22. Bogus283

    Bogus283 Private E-2

    Alas, disabling the plug-ins didnt work either and as far as i can tell there isn't anything in the nVidia control panel that would inhibit dvd playback.
     
  23. housiemousie2

    housiemousie2 Corporal

    Just out of curiosity... did your display come with a CD? I had "issues" with my playback, forgetting I had not used the monitor's CD since everything else looked/worked fine, until I installed the software (also included the Nero Suite.)
    All kinds of options came alive after I did that. It also took a few away, but they weren't ones I needed, since it was only removing the extra range in Display Settings, that are not fit for this new monitor.

    Anyway, just a thought. Hope you get things sorted out soon!
     
  24. Bogus283

    Bogus283 Private E-2

    it did come with a cd, but the disk is useless, containing only the guide in several languages and a link to the webpage where you can find the driver. which i've installed to no avail.
     
  25. Bogus283

    Bogus283 Private E-2

    i managed to get the player to use the full screen for video by running the player on a second monitor and playing with some of the dual monitor settings.

    unfortunately since i had to do it this way, it's just a zoomed image of what the other monitor is displaying rather than an upscaled rendering of the video so it's pretty low quality. especially since the other monitor is using a lower resolution and different aspect ratio...
     
  26. Bogus283

    Bogus283 Private E-2

    upgraded my DVD burner's firmware, still having the same problem.

    the burner is a Sony 810a-DRU, video card is an Nvidia 5700, and the monitor is an acer al1916w.

    i'm pretty well out of things to try so if anybody has any additional suggestions, i'm open to just about anything.
     

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