Topic: How many people interested in Theater View skins with "overscan headroom"? (Read 3512 times)

lalittle · « **on:** April 29, 2004, 07:55:34 pm »

According to Matt, if enough people are interested in the option for Theater View skins that account for standard overscan settings on TVs, MC may add them. The addition of these skins would not effect the people who spcifically don't want them -- these would most likely be "in addition" to the existing skins. Matt suggested I start a thread asking about this so we could see how much interest there is in this.

Put simply, these skins would allow people to calibrate the TV output from their computers to industry standard overscan specifications (which calls for a certain amount of overscan) and have the Theater View skins still display properly. Currently, the edges of Theater View skins get cut off when viewed on computer/TV systems that have the standard amount of overscan. These skins would not require any adjustment of the graphics card settings, and they would work regardless of how you set the overscan settings of your graphics card. If you manually eliminate overscan on your graphics card's TV output, you'll simply have a small amount of extra space around the edges of the screen in Theater View, or you could simply use one of the original skins.

This thread is simply to see how many people WOULD be interested in Theater View skins designed with overscan in mind, so it's not necessary to post responses about why you think these shouldn't be necessary, or how some graphics cards allow you to eliminate overscan. These topics (as well as the reason some people DO consider them necessary) have been covered in this thread: http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?board=11;action=display;threadid=20673.

Thanks,

Larry

BullishDad · « **Reply #1 on:** April 29, 2004, 08:07:00 pm »

Although I haven't yet sent my graphics card output to TV for Theatre View, it sounds like a good idea for people doing so. If I tried this and some of the screen was cutoff, I would not be happy about it.

It sounds like this can be done without affecting the computer screen view. I would not want to have the view at the PC shrink for everyone to accomodate this. But if there is an option that can turned on or off, then it would enhance MC10 for Theatre View users.

JustinChase · « **Reply #2 on:** April 29, 2004, 08:08:08 pm »

I always think having the choice is a great thing.

Please add them to MC.

lalittle · « **Reply #3 on:** April 29, 2004, 08:43:34 pm »

Quote from: BullishDad on April 29, 2004, 08:07:00 pm

It sounds like this can be done without affecting the computer screen view. I would not want to have the view at the PC shrink for everyone to accomodate this. But if there is an option that can turned on or off, then it would enhance MC10 for Theatre View users.

I'm not entirely clear on what you're saying, but I can tell you that this ONLY effects the Theater View skins, and all it would do is move the buttons and information in slightly from the edges of the screen, preventing them from being cut off when viewed on a TV set up to use a standard amount of overscan. The amount of difference really isn't that much, and the actual amount of information on each Theater View screen would not change at all.

Larry

Cocophone · « **Reply #4 on:** April 29, 2004, 08:58:54 pm »

Count me in!

paulr · « **Reply #5 on:** April 29, 2004, 10:43:39 pm »

I am for sure. I'll be building a HTPC soon and will be using TV outputs exclusively with it.

IlPadrino · « **Reply #6 on:** April 29, 2004, 11:35:58 pm »

Scarpad · « **Reply #7 on:** April 30, 2004, 05:24:56 am »

Quote from: lalittle on April 29, 2004, 07:55:34 pm

According to Matt, if enough people are interested in the option for Theater View skins that account for standard overscan settings on TVs, MC may add them. The addition of these skins would not effect the people who spcifically don't want them -- these would most likely be "in addition" to the existing skins. Matt suggested I start a thread asking about this so we could see how much interest there is in this.

I would be interested. They Work Great.

lalittle · « **Reply #8 on:** April 30, 2004, 06:19:26 am »

Quote from: Scarpad on April 30, 2004, 05:24:56 am

I would be interested. They Work Great.

Thanks Scarpad (and thanks to the other posters who took the time to respond here.)

Just to clarify, Scarpad is actually using the edited skins I sent him, so they seem to be working well.

Larry

Scarpad · « **Reply #9 on:** April 30, 2004, 07:03:06 am »

For right now I'm using a two screen setup. I'm going out to a 15: LCD and to a 30" Widescreen set via Svideo. I've monkeyed a little with a transcoder and Powerstrip and just have not been able to get a resolution set up that works. My HTPC is running a nvidia Ti4200 video card with the latest drivers. The regualr theater view screens are just slightly cut off in the full screen view, otherwise I'd have a slight border around the screen and I'd worry about burn in.

The tweaked screens lalittle has made pulls the icons over enough to be completely visible in full screen. I still use a monitor when I'm in standard view as anything other than theater view is slightly fuzzy to read.

skeeterfood · « **Reply #10 on:** April 30, 2004, 10:28:55 am »

Sounds like a great idea to me!

-John

BullishDad · « **Reply #11 on:** April 30, 2004, 11:30:48 am »

Quote from: lalittle on April 29, 2004, 08:43:34 pm

Quote from: BullishDad on April 29, 2004, 08:07:00 pm
It sounds like this can be done without affecting the computer screen view. I would not want to have the view at the PC shrink for everyone to accomodate this. But if there is an option that can turned on or off, then it would enhance MC10 for Theatre View users.

I'm not entirely clear on what you're saying, but I can tell you that this ONLY effects the Theater View skins, and all it would do is move the buttons and information in slightly from the edges of the screen, preventing them from being cut off when viewed on a TV set up to use a standard amount of overscan. The amount of difference really isn't that much, and the actual amount of information on each Theater View screen would not change at all.

Larry

When I said "view at the PC", I meant Theatre View as viewed on a PC Monitor".

I don't mind if everything gets moved slightly towards the center, but I wouldn't want a large border (say 1 inch) around the entire Theatre View screen. I think I was imagining more of an effect than you implying.

Bishop · « **Reply #12 on:** April 30, 2004, 11:54:42 am »

I am most definately interested in seeing this happen. I currently using the Ajou (sp?) as it has the least of the edges cut off on the TV screen compared to the other skins.

I'm using a Ti4200 with Svideo out to the TV.
This computer also hooks up to a 48" HDTV via DVI. Can we possibly add 16x9 ratio skins in there too? As Theater view just doesn't look right on it currently.

Thanks

Scarpad · « **Reply #13 on:** April 30, 2004, 03:14:25 pm »

my 30" set is widescreen and it looks ok. I wish we were able to customzize our own screens I know we can do this now but XML is somewhat arcane to me, we we had a screen editor of sorts

lalittle · « **Reply #14 on:** April 30, 2004, 03:22:13 pm »

Quote

I don't mind if everything gets moved slightly towards the center, but I wouldn't want a large border (say 1 inch) around the entire Theatre View screen.

I'm not clear what you mean by "border." In the modified screens, the Theater View "background" still covers the entire screen -- it's just the actual buttons and info that move in slightly. Is this what you're asking about? This does NOT mean that it "adds" a border -- it simply moves the buttons in a little.

This DOES mean that the buttons and info will appear slightly further from the edges of the screen when viewing Theater View on a PC monitor, (which doesn't look "wrong" -- it just looks slightly "different") but this is a necessary side effect if you want to use standard overscan settings on your graphics card's TV output.

If you want Theater View to be right up against the edges of the PC monitor, you'd have to use the original skins, but if you do this, you can no longer use normal overscan settings on the graphics card's TV output since this will result in the edges of the buttons getting cut off on the TV

Larry

BullishDad · « **Reply #15 on:** April 30, 2004, 05:23:03 pm »

I apologize for any confusion I've created. Maybe I should have stayed out of this thread because I haven't tried to output Theatre View to the TV. However, I may try this in the future so I'm all for using overscan compensation if that will correct the problem when viewing on a TV.

What I have been imagining (and it may work differently) is an adjustment to the Theatre View skin that uses less than the full amount of PC monitor real estate than is available. An analogy would be a 95% copy reduction. The resulting page has everything on it, just a little smaller. The "border" as I called it, would be the perimeter around the screen that the programmer would avoid putting any buttons, text or graphics. That perimeter would serve as the cushion for the overscan effect.

lalittle · « **Reply #16 on:** April 30, 2004, 07:49:12 pm »

Quote from: BullishDad on April 30, 2004, 05:23:03 pm

The resulting page has everything on it, just a little smaller. The "border" as I called it, would be the perimeter around the screen that the programmer would avoid putting any buttons, text or graphics. That perimeter would serve as the cushion for the overscan effect.

This is exactly what the modified skins do -- the background stays the same, but the buttons aren't placed quite as close to the edges of the screen.

Larry

gpvillamil · « **Reply #17 on:** May 01, 2004, 03:25:35 am »

Sounds like an excellent idea.

Also, a theater view skin with a mostly black background would be helpful - to avoid burn-in issues.

lalittle · « **Reply #18 on:** May 01, 2004, 04:13:25 am »

Quote from: gpvillamil on May 01, 2004, 03:25:35 am

Sounds like an excellent idea.

Also, a theater view skin with a mostly black background would be helpful - to avoid burn-in issues.

When I tested this on my system, the regular windows screen saver came up normally, which the best way to eliminate burn in.

A mostly black background could actually be MORE of a problem for Theater View skins since this could mean even more contrast between the text/buttons and background, which is the opposite of what you want to avoid burn in. It's best to set the screen saver to come up after a relatively short period, and let this save the screen from burn in.

Larry

lalittle · « **Reply #19 on:** May 04, 2004, 04:40:09 am »

Matt,

I believe that's 10 people so far (including myself) showing interest in this option. Is this enough to lead you to consider this option? Given that not everybody who uses MC uses Theater View, and not everybody who uses Theater View reads this forum, and not everybody who reads this forum sees every single post, etc., I'd say that 10 people responding shows a decent amount of interest in this.

Thanks for considering this,

Larry

StarBand Guy · « **Reply #20 on:** May 04, 2004, 06:04:36 pm »

I think it sounds GREAT!

tjobbins · « **Reply #21 on:** May 11, 2004, 07:27:49 am »

I would like this too

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Author Topic: How many people interested in Theater View skins with "overscan headroom"? (Read 3512 times)