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DV-PAL 720x576 on screen 1280x1024: impossible to display 4:3

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Moe
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Hi everyone,

I've been trying all different settings in BrightAuthor, but without any success, so maybe you can help me.

I have H264 video material in DV-PAL 720x576 (anamorphic pixels, pixel aspect ratio 1,0940). This material needs to be presented on an EIZO S1901 screen (native resolution 1280x1024).

The video should be letterboxed, filling the screen horizontally with black bars on the top and bottom, displayed aspect ratio should be 4:3, so no distortion of the original.

However, using BrightAuthor and setting screen resolution in the presentation properties to 1280x1024 and view mode in zone properties to "letterboxed and centered" does not result in a centered 4:3 image, but in a stretched 5:4 image with identical black bars around the image.

I tried "Scale to fit" in view mode but it only stretched the image to full screen, distorted to the 5:4 aspect ratio.

Changing the screen resolution in the presentation properties to 720x576 (only 50p available) or 720x480 60p (the screen needs 60 Hz, 50 Hz results in an error box on top of the image) or any other available resolution does not help.

However, on a Full-HD screen it works perfect: presentation properties screen resolution to 1920x1080 and view mode to "letterbox" shows a 4:3 image.

Somehow I have the suspicion that the Eizo misinterprets the pixel count of 720x576 as square pixels and therefore displays an 5:4 image, but there could as well be another reason for it's behaviour.

Has anyone heard of similar issues and could give me an advice?

A feedback would be highly appreciated!

 

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    Brandon

    Remember that you can change the size of the zone so it's not the entire output screen.

    You should be able to adjust the zone size and set it to Scale to Fill to get the proper output dimension of 1280x960

    Friendly reminder, the forum is intended for user-to-user discussion. For troubleshooting problems and to ensure a timely answer from a BrightSign representative, please submit a support ticket.
  • 0
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    Moe

    Dear Brandon,

    thank you very much for your quick reply!

    I've tried the 1280x960 in presentation properties, is it this what you mean with "change the size of the zone"?

    Unfortunately, this does not result in a 4:3 image, but just adds black bars left and right and squeezes the image even more horizontally (with view mode Scale to Fill. Letterbox with 1280x960 results in 5:4 image with black bars all around). Same behaviour for HDMI and VGA.

    When I connect the screen to a PC or Mac and play the file with VLC player the aspect ratio is fine, same with Raspberry Pi playing the file with omxplayer. So the problem does not seem to be the screen itself, it must have something to do with the combination Brightsign HD222 and the 1280x1024 screen (not just the Eizo, on a NEC LCD2170 I have the same problem.).

    I don't know what to do now.

  • 0
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    Allen H. Porter

    players support multiple zones (a.k.a. layers) and you can set the size/resolution of the zones independent of the overall presentation size.  Up in the top left corner of BA you can see Layout   |   Playlist.  By clicking Layout you can customize the zone.

  • 0
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    Bright Scripters

    Since pixels are anamorphic, you could try and reformat to square pixels first.

     

     

  • 0
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    Moe

    Ups,

    thanks a lot, Allen H. Porter, for the clarification, I completely forgot about the layout options for zones, embarrassing!

    Choosing 1280x960 and Scale to Fill seems to work! However, I found out that the orginal video has narrow black bars left and right. To get rid of them I could either use VGA output and adjust the screen settings (only works analogue) or rerender everything in 1280x1024 with square pixels and zoomed-to-fit 720x576 without black bars.

    I am still wondering why the HD222 plays the video in the wrong aspect ratio in a 1280x1024 zone with "letterbox" view mode while Raspberry etc. play it correctly, but now I have a workaround so I am happy for now.

    Thanks a lot to everyone for your help!!!

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