Widescreen users: WMP10, PureVideo, and widescreen DVDs?

NoxTek

NoxTek

The Geek Redneck
Joined
May 27, 2002
Messages
9,300
For the life of me I cannot seem to get DVD video to display in widescreen in Windows Media Player 10 when using nVidia's PureVideo decoder. It always displays with black bars on all 4 sides of the video, like so:



As a matter of fact I've tried turning off PureVideo and just using normal overlays and I STILL can't get WMP10 to render the video properly.

I'd really like to use PureVideo anyway...

My video card is an eVGA 7900GT CO SuperClock and the monitor is a Viewsonic VX2025WM. :D

I'm using ForceWare 91.31

Anyone got this combination working?
 
I can't say for sure, but that looks to me like picture centering, something you can tweak in the nvidia controls, having to do with how the panel displays non-native resolutions.
 
In my ATI card control center there is a control to set video aspect ratio to "Match the source video". You should find a similar control setting for the NV card.
 
Another thought; make sure that you have "enabled the full-screen mode switch" in the WMP advanced settings.
 
I prefer Media Player Classic. You can select different stretch modes. You have aspect, aspect + touch the L/R edges, aspect + touch top + bottom edges, full stretch, etc.
 
Dew said:
I prefer Media Player Classic. You can select different stretch modes. You have aspect, aspect + touch the L/R edges, aspect + touch top + bottom edges, full stretch, etc.
Click to expand...

Don't think you can take advantage of PureVideo in Media Player Classic. Someone correct me if I'm wrong here though.
 
I just knew I'd have people talking about adapter scaling and stuff...

no no no no.... let me assure you this is running the monitor's native resolution, hell you can't make WMP switch resolutions anyway to my knowledge. There is no 'monitor centering' going on here in any way. I guess I should have taken a screenshot with the fullscreen WMP10 controls showing so this confusion wouldn't have happened.
 
It looks like the movie is being run at its native resolution? There must be some option for scaling it to the screens res.
 
Dew said:
I prefer Media Player Classic. You can select different stretch modes. You have aspect, aspect + touch the L/R edges, aspect + touch top + bottom edges, full stretch, etc.
Click to expand...

Yes and in fact I was able to get full widescreen playback (16:9, black bars on top and bottom filling my 16:10 screen) in MPC by using the 'Touch outsides of window' scaling setting in fullscreen mode, but I really want to use PureVideo decoding. It totally blows away software DVD decoding in terms of visual quality. I don't think there is a way to get that working with MPC. :(
 
I would ask this question in the HTPC forum. I've seen people ask this question before and they were able to help... I just don't remember what the answer was.
 
Im interested on finding this out as well...

please let me know if you find anything Falcon.
 
NEODARK said:
Im interested on finding this out as well...

please let me know if you find anything Falcon.
Click to expand...


Will do!

I checked out the HTPC forum here and I did find a couple of people with the same issue, but no solutions except to use VLC or Media Player Classic, and that would keep me from using the PureVideo decoder. :p

I'll let you know if I find a solution!
 
Exactly.

The point is to use the purevideo decoding. And as far as I know WMP is the ONLY thing that works with it.

thanks
 
Tried WMP 11 Beta (which is totally freakin' AWESOME by the way) and no dice, same issue.

I've researched the issue on the MS newsgroups and various video sites, and it seems there is no solution thus far. The problem seems to be that WMP or the DXVA renderer doesn't know how to handle 16:10 resolutions. If you have a 4:3 display or a display that is actually truly 16:9, the problem doesn't occur.
 
If this is not a settings problem, then it must have something to do with your model monitor. We both have 20"ws, and use the PV decoder with WMP. It should make no difference that I'm using an ATI card and you're using a NV card. I agree that the Pure Video decoder is worth the effort.
 
There is a very active discussion going on over on AVS Forum>Video Components>HTPCs, entitled "Purevideo with ati or nvidia cards". If you suspect that the difference in the video cards we are using is a factor in your issue, then I suggest that you try to sneak it into that thread :)
 
So upon further investigation it's not just when using PureVideo to render DVD video - it's ANY widescreen video. It happens in Windows Media Player, Media Player Classic, etc.

I've tried Forceware driver versions going back to the 84.xx sets with no change. Totally uninstalled PureVideo, etc.

Very aggrivating. one of the main reasons I bought a widescreen monitor was to watch movies. :p I can't believe this problem isn't more widespread...
 
I've figured out what's going on now, and I feel really stupid.

After really digging in my DVD collection I found some DVDs that play perfectly scaled. And the difference between these and the ones that don't?


Come on... I bet you video gurus can guess already...


The ones that don't scale properly are actually encoded in 4:3 aspect ratio video, the video just has black bars added to make the movie appear to be in widescreen format. THAT'S why they scale perfectly on a standard 4:3 aspect ratio monitor, but don't scale up properly to fit the screen when viewed on a 16:9 / 16:10 monitor. To make these play properly we would need some option to tell the player to continue scaling the video until it reaches the left/right sides of the screen, and the top and bottom be damned (because they are just black borders)

What's the solution? Hell if I know... I'd say a player that can do some sort of dynamic scaling/zooming beyond the boundries of the screen. "Zoom Player" used to be a kickass free player that could do this sort of trickery, but it's now payware and probably wouldn't have worked with nVidia's PureVideo decoder anyway.
 
the problem is wmp. i have this same problem with my ati card. wmp is just stupid.
 
The latest version of WinDVD 7.0 supports PureVideo as well. It works and looks fantastic on my VX2025wm.
 
Yeah, Letterboxed dvds suck.
If you're using Media Player Classic you can use the Pan&Scan controls to zoom the image in. Using the numpad keys is the fastest way, although once you find the right setting you can enter it into a profile. Also "touch window from inside" is generally the preferred video frame setting.
 
squeezee said:
Yeah, Letterboxed dvds suck.
If you're using Media Player Classic you can use the Pan&Scan controls to zoom the image in. Using the numpad keys is the fastest way, although once you find the right setting you can enter it into a profile. Also "touch window from inside" is generally the preferred video frame setting.
Click to expand...


Touch windoe from inside, or touch window from outside? If I do inside the picture doesn't stretch to the side edges of the screen.

Also on my machine I've been able to get PureVideo to work with MPC, but the video is always shifted towards the top of the screen.
 
d][g][tal said:
The latest version of WinDVD 7.0 supports PureVideo as well. It works and looks fantastic on my VX2025wm.
Click to expand...


Hmm I'll have to give it a try.

I found a version of PowerDVD that works with PureVideo, but for some reason it didn't look near as nice as DVDs played in WMP. I know, weird... *shrug*
 
Heres the deal...

I'm sure you already knew this, but here goes...

Your monitor's native res = 1920x1200

DVD max res = 720x480

Hardware and software DVD decoders scale "widescreen" DVDs to 853x480 so that the pixels are truely square.

WMP10 & PureVideo show your movie with a 1:1 pixel ratio

sooo...the widescreen movie is 853x480 centered on a 1920x1200 screen.

You will not beable to get rid of *most* of the black bars until you get HD-DVD or BluRay.

Then you will be able to view a 1920x1080 movie centered on a 1920x1200 screen.

You are correct that some movies place black bars on the 720x480 image (scaled to 853x480) to attain a 4:3 640x480 image.

All in all, 1:1 pixel ratios are the holy grail for video nerds. You just have to match your display with the resolution to eliminate black bars.

Anyone know of a 853x480 native display? LOL

Hope this helps! ;)
 
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