Newbie question -- how to know if DVD is playing without d..

Archived from groups: alt.tv.tech.hdtv (More info?)

So I've told the DVD player that the TV is 16x9. And I have the TV set
to play widescreen. But I am sometimes not sure if I am viewing a dvd
with an undistorted picture.

With letterbox movies I know what size picture to expect, but I'm
sitting here watching an NFL playoffs dvd. The picture fills the entire
16x9 screen and I can't decide if I'm looking at an undistorted picture.
I mean, football palyers are wide even when they are not distorted.

Any advice?

-- BeeL

Archived from groups: alt.tv.tech.hdtv (More info?)

With the overwhelming number of formats for modern American TV, it
would be nice if some computer module inside the TV would simply display
the specs on the input signal the TV is processing. You could toggle
the info display on and off like VCRs do with time/tape.

Otherwise we TV owners who sit in the dark must guzzle the suds along
with Bill Turner. Ack.

winfield



Beel wrote:
> So I've told the DVD player that the TV is 16x9. And I have the TV set
> to play widescreen. But I am sometimes not sure if I am viewing a dvd
> with an undistorted picture.
>
> With letterbox movies I know what size picture to expect, but I'm
> sitting here watching an NFL playoffs dvd. The picture fills the entire
> 16x9 screen and I can't decide if I'm looking at an undistorted picture.
> I mean, football palyers are wide even when they are not distorted.
>
> Any advice?
>
> -- BeeL

Archived from groups: alt.tv.tech.hdtv (More info?)

Look for something in the picture that is supposed to be a circle and if it
is egg shaped something is not set properly.

--
Ron Stewart
Santa Rosa, Calif.
"Beel" <beel54@comcast.net> wrote in message
news:C5OdnY_rFIiD_Y_eRVn-1g@comcast.com...
> So I've told the DVD player that the TV is 16x9. And I have the TV set to
> play widescreen. But I am sometimes not sure if I am viewing a dvd with an
> undistorted picture.
>
> With letterbox movies I know what size picture to expect, but I'm sitting
> here watching an NFL playoffs dvd. The picture fills the entire 16x9
> screen and I can't decide if I'm looking at an undistorted picture. I
> mean, football palyers are wide even when they are not distorted.
>
> Any advice?
>
> -- BeeL

Archived from groups: alt.tv.tech.hdtv (More info?)

Beel wrote:
> Ron Stewart wrote:
>
>> Look for something in the picture that is supposed to be a circle and
>> if it is egg shaped something is not set properly.
>>
> If the gods of dvd can't implement Winfield's idea, the least they
> could do is to attach a "feature" on each dvd that just displays circles.
>
> -- BeeL

That's a great idea, BeeL. Simple and elegant. Heck, DVDs & TVs
already display menus. Why not a simple geometric shape?

Owner: T.V., display a circle
tv: how?

Owner: pi r-squared
tv: corn-bread are squared, pie are round . . .

winf

Archived from groups: alt.tv.tech.hdtv (More info?)

On Wed, 31 Aug 2005 18:26:52 GMT, "Ron Stewart"
<ron8074@sbcglobal.net> wrote:

>"Beel" <beel54@comcast.net> wrote in message
>news:2dCdnZ2dnZ0N30GRnZ2dnS0Jjt6dnZ2dRVn-yp2dnZ0@comcast.com...
>> Ron Stewart wrote:
>>> Look for something in the picture that is supposed to be a circle and if
>>> it is egg shaped something is not set properly.
>>>
>> If the gods of dvd can't implement Winfield's idea, the least they could
>> do is to attach a "feature" on each dvd that just displays circles.

>All the MGM movies have a lion growling in the center of a circle at the
>intro of their movies. I'm sure some others have something similar.

I have a suggestion for those who like me live in "SCART-land".

My TV have no option to automatically set the display ratio
_correctly_ based on the 16:9 / 4:3 information signal that exists in
the SCART connector.
This is probably a "design bug". Anyway, the TV provides manual
settings so I speeded up the decision process by building a simple
circuit (light emitting diode - zener diode - resistor) to indicate if
the signal is in 4:3 ratio. It lights up for a high voltage which
means 4:3 signal.

This is especially useful with DTV in my part of the world because
both 16:9 and 4:3 with various content aspect ratio is common.

I don't know if it is common in "component land" for DVD-players to
provide the WS information flag that I think should be there on all
produced DVD:s and put in into the signal as WSS (?) information, but
it would anyway need a complicated circuit to extract the information.


The spec sheet for my TV says it can use the WSS information but since
all my signal sources use only the SCART signaling, I don't know if
that means only the flag within the signal and if that acuatlly works.
If it works, the presented idea with the info box should not be too
far away together with a USER choice of what display mode is chosen
based on this signal. (Maybe it is far too optimistic to think that
the designers would actually make this work the way I like ....)
/Jan