ViewModeSwitcher 0.3 Download

Description:

The idea of ViewModeSwitcher was to help MediaPortal (connected to a wide screen) to handle all kind of signals (4:3, fake 16:9 (letterbox), and 16:9) without change the zoom mode via remote all the time.

Users of the old TV engine should read the hint how to create a rule for their setup.

ViewModeSwitcher offers:

• switching to a defined viewmode (Stretch,14:9 etc.) depending on parameters like the video aspect ratio and the video width and height. This is a feature that maybe more interesting to uses of a wide screen, like my self.
• switching automatically to the "zoom" mode if a letterbox (fake 16:9) broadcast is detected. Most useful for wide screen users as well.
• set an overscan value (crop the picture) depending on parameters like the video aspect ratio and the video width and height. That makes it possible to define an overscan for SD broadcast and records, but leave HDTV untouched.

The detection of aspect ratio changes requires a codec that supports it (i.e. DScaler, PureVideo, Cyberlink PowerDVD).

Of course, you can still change the zoom mode manually.

The behaviour of ViewModeSwitcher is based on a ruleset, that can be defined in the configuration.

 

The configuration for my “4:3 PAL” rule that switches automatically to “Stretch” for example looks like this: (notice the new letterbox option!)

 

If you are not sure which values you have to use, you can look in the MediaPortal.log. If the logging is set at “Information” level, you should find something like this (after the playback as started).

[Info.][5]: PlaneScene: video WxH : 768x576
[Info.][5]: PlaneScene: video AR : 768:576

The Aspect Ratio is calculated by using the AR values and divide the width through the height. 768/576 = 1.3333333333333333333333333333333

This is how a normal PAL 4:3 broadcast should look like.

A 16:9 PAL broadcast may look like this:
PlaneScene: video WxH : 1024x576
PlaneScene: video AR : 1024:576

1024/576 = 1.7777777777777777777777777777778

This is how my 16:9 PAL rule looks like:

These two rules together are doing a decent job for me. But without harming HDTV.

Users of the old TV engine have to do some changes to the rule mentioned above.
If you switch MediaPortal into the "Debug" log mode, you will see something like:

[Debug][ViewModeSwitcherThread]: VideoAspectRatioX 768
[Debug][ViewModeSwitcherThread]: VideoAspectRatioY 576
[Debug][ViewModeSwitcherThread]: VideoWidth 0
[Debug][ViewModeSwitcherThread]: VideoHeight 0

That means that the old TV engine does not provide the values of width and height the same way like the normal media player does (the one that the new engine uses). Because of this you have to change your rules to tolerate this by settings the values of min and max width and height to 0. You still need the original rules if the plugin should help you under myVideo.

Letterbox detection

Letterbox detection requires analysing of the content of a broadcast. With other words... the plug grapps a frame from the stream and analyses if it contains black bars in the upper and/or lower part. Of course this is a process which requires processing power (CPU) and should only be activated if your system has enough idle time left during the playback of TV streams.

If you have designed a rule with enabled letterbox detection (normally a 4:3 rule) you can configure the following options.

• Disable letterbox detection globally: If this value is enabled letterbox detection is disabled even if it its set in a rule.
• Check interval: Sets the frequency how often the plugin is checking for letterbox broadcasts. Because the detection is CPU demanding, this value should not choosen to low.
• The zoom is changes after x ....: This value defines how often the plugin has to analyse a signal with same letterbox result. Before its is allowed to changed the zoom mode. This option makes the detection much more reliable, but increases the time that is required to detect a letterbox signal. If you want to change the mode directly after the first detection set this value to 1.
• Black level tolerance: Black is not always black. Here you can define how black the "black bars" have to be. 0 is absolutely dark, 1 is absolutely bright. the default is 0.1
• Upper and Lower box checkboxes: Allow you to choose which area of the picture is analysed by the plugin. The most reliable setting is enable both, but that requires more CPU power.
• The 8 percent values let you choose the position of the rectangles to analyse.

More informations could be found in the discussion thread.

This test version is tested under MyVideo and the MyTVPlugin (TV engine 0.3) with the lastest SVN.
It is also tested width the old TV engine. Read the hint above!

I hope you like it.

 

Version history:

08.02.2008 V0.3:

• Some bug fixes.
• Fallback rule added (ViewModeSwitcher can now fallback to a predefined zoom mode if no rule fits)
• New option to rescan the rules after channel change. (This also resets the letterbox detection)
• Import/Export functions for the complete plugin settings. Makes it easier to exchange settings via the forum.
• MPI setup routine.
• configuration icon.

12.04.2007 V0.2: Letterbox detection added

30.03.2007 V0.1: Initial release

Submitted On:

08 Feb 2008

Submitted By:

lkuech (lkuech)

File Date:

08 Feb 2008

File Author:

lkuech

File Version:

0.3

File Size:

31.06 Kb

File Type:

mpi

Downloads:

5797

Rating:

Total Votes:2

Comments:

from bigj - This is a good plugin. Thankyou very much for your efforts lkuech.

from cheffe97 - this is a must plugin for wide screen users! Thx lkuech

from cics - Thank You for the plugin. It is now a joy to watch live-tv on my old widescreen CRT tv.

from pilehave - Great stuff. Must-have for widescreen-displays.