*** Official Kodi (née XBMC) Thread ***

MeMeMeMe said:
I'd never noticed this. I tried it and tried a 720p vidoe: I have black bars around it. It's being scaled up larger than 720, but not to the full 1080 available.

The previous poster said AMD Steady Video was the culprit in his case. In mine it's greyed out and not selected or selectable. Any idea what's causing these black bars?
Click to expand...

I am not familiar with an AMD card or drivers, I prefer to use NVidia for my HTPC. Again check any options within those drivers for any processing, scaling etc being done.

Also read my above post when I note pressing the letter "M" and what can be changed etc.

Remember that not all material will completely fill the screen as it does depend on the aspect ratio they have been made in, and not all of them will be 16:9. But if the black bars are all around the film then you would need to look at what I have noted.
 
I've done both. I switched off all processing on the amd drivers - no change.
I have looked at the settings on the XBMC video options (the one you get from the M key), and I dont see anything that could cause it.

The funny thing is: when I alt-tabbed out, then alt-tabbed back, the video reset to full screen.

When I started another video, the problem was back. While the video was running, I hit the menu key to bring up the home screen - the video was playing behind the home screen. Now the video was full screen again. When i exited the interface back to the still playing video, it paused for half a second, and the black bars reappeared.

It seems to be linked to a resolution or timing change.
 
Overscan/Underscan settings in CCC.

This is set on a per resolution and per refresh rate basis.

And it's a total pain in the backside! On a few occasions it's jumped back to enabling Underscan on a couple of resolution/refresh rate combinations, so I need to have open CCC and the default Windows resolution/refresh rate dialog, and go through each one individually and set the Underscan to 0%
 
Afternoon :)

I'm hoping I already know the answer to this, let's see.

Video playback is great in XBMC, I've ripped a few blu-rays and they look lovely and crisp. One thing I did notice though was that black areas are very pixelated. You can practically see the squares changing shades.

Is this down to the fact that I'm using onboard graphics? Or is this down to the quality of the source?

Cheers
 
Not all the buttons work on my Media Centre Remote, like the i button which makes correcting movie info impossible without using a mouse to right click. Is there a plugin or something to get it fully functional?
 
Confused said:
Overscan/Underscan settings in CCC.

This is set on a per resolution and per refresh rate basis.

And it's a total pain in the backside! On a few occasions it's jumped back to enabling Underscan on a couple of resolution/refresh rate combinations, so I need to have open CCC and the default Windows resolution/refresh rate dialog, and go through each one individually and set the Underscan to 0%
Click to expand...

If that's the case, it must be because the video I'm trying to play is 1280x720 at 23.98 fps. I cant figure out how to set that combination. the only 720p options are 50fps and 60fps.

??
 
Skeeter said:
Not all the buttons work on my Media Centre Remote, like the i button which makes correcting movie info impossible without using a mouse to right click. Is there a plugin or something to get it fully functional?
Click to expand...


I use this....


http://xbmccustomregis.sourceforge.net/features.html


.....spend time reading the above page and then give it a go, it worked for me. The i button, and many others, now work a treat on my MCE remote.
 
MeMeMeMe said:
If that's the case, it must be because the video I'm trying to play is 1280x720 at 23.98 fps. I cant figure out how to set that combination. the only 720p options are 50fps and 60fps.

??
Click to expand...

In CCC, under My Digital Flat Panels -> HDTV Support, you'll want to add all the HDTV style resolutions/refresh rates to the display manager.

You'll then need to flick through 23Hz, 24Hz, 25Hz, 50Hz, 59Hz, 60Hz at your display resolution(s) and set the scaling on each of these individually.

Even then - occasionally, it'll flick back to being scaled! If anyone knows a way to completely disable this option, then I'll be very happy.
 
Mine is an HTPC, but I occasionally play games on it.

It's perfect - other than the stupid underscan that the AMD drivers insist on adding just because I'm using an HDMI cable. It was perfect when I was using VGA - but VGA is further away on the "input list" than the other HDMI devices going into the TV, so it's more effort to change inputs (I don't have an AV receiver yet with HDMI, but I'd still have similar issues by using HDMI)
 
I stopped using AMD type cards quite a while ago as I found better success with a HTPC when using NVidia. But when I did I would not install the CCC aspect but only install the driver itself.
Even though I use NVidia now, to carry the video signal by HDMI, I leave out the HD audio from the drivers as I carry that optically to my Logitech Z5500 speakers.

I used to find that the CCC aspect of the AMD drivers would be more inclined to "take over" certain processing functions of either Media Portal or, as I use now, XBMC.

If any of the above does not help I wonder if DVI is available for you, unless you need to carry the sound...?
 
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i have been using XBMC for a while now connected to my Panasonic Plasma TV through HDMI.

but I still do not get the film to fill the whole screen. Often have black bars at the top and bottom. Be them small or large.
Personally I would like the film to fill the whole screen without cutting anything off.

View mode is set as 'Normal' should i be doing something else?
 
Black bars at the top and bottom when watching a film is correct

This is because films are often at a wider aspect ratio (2.35:1 is common) compared to the 1.77:1 of a "widescreen" display.

You've got two options to make it "fill the screen" - neither of which are good.

Firstly - you can stretch it to fill the height - this makes everything stretched in the vertical plane, people become taller etc. This won't cut any of the picture off, but will distort everything. Circles won't be circles any more etc.

Secondly, you can "zoom" in on the image, which fills up the height, but you lose bits from the sides.


You're watching the films as they're designed to be watched, this is right - my opinion is to not screw with that!
 
Ok no problem. Thought I would ask.

Just sometimes depending on the film. There is 'more' area of black bars on top and bottom.

I guess in a ideal world. My 40" TV would fully display the film on the whole screen without any bars.

Thank you for replying though.
 
Magic_x_uk said:
Ok no problem. Thought I would ask.

Just sometimes depending on the film. There is 'more' area of black bars on top and bottom.

I guess in a ideal world. My 40" TV would fully display the film on the whole screen without any bars.

Thank you for replying though.
Click to expand...

It depends on the aspect ratio of the source. Anything that is 16:9 will fill your whole TV, anything else would result in black bars.
 
Confused said:
In CCC, under My Digital Flat Panels -> HDTV Support, you'll want to add all the HDTV style resolutions/refresh rates to the display manager.

You'll then need to flick through 23Hz, 24Hz, 25Hz, 50Hz, 59Hz, 60Hz at your display resolution(s) and set the scaling on each of these individually.

Even then - occasionally, it'll flick back to being scaled! If anyone knows a way to completely disable this option, then I'll be very happy.
Click to expand...

I don't have any option to set the different frequencies. The list of resolutions available to me at that place in CCC for 720p is just 720p@50hz, and 720p@60Hz. I have a wide range of 1080 frequencies, but just those two 720, and there are no other resolutions listed.
 
Confused said:
If anyone knows a way to completely disable this option, then I'll be very happy.
Click to expand...

Not sure if this will do the trick but have you tried:

HKLM/System/ControlSet001/Control/Video/{91357F10-E8FC-41DF-AB9F-FDA3D0E8698A}/0000/TVEnableOverscan = 0

and

HKLM/System/ControlSet001/Control/Video/{91357F10-E8FC-41DF-AB9F-FDA3D0E8698A}/0000/DigitalHDTVDefaultUnderscan = 0.
 
Quick question.

I am going to set up my old PC as a HTPC for the parents and was wondering how much could I underclock a Q8300 to keep it at reasonable performance for XBMC 1080p content yet power effecient as possible.
 
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