Widescreen playback on Panasonic plasma

[ozkelron]

I send downloaded content to my Panasonic Plasma via a cloned nvidia desktop setup using a DVI to HDMI cable. This works beautifully most of the time, Video playback using Windows media Player 11 is automatically displayed fullscreen even when windowed on my monitor. However, I am having trouble trying to display wider format movies correctly and don't know where I should be tweaking. My Plasma is set to display 16:9 aspect ratio but when I send a 560x240 file (2.35:1?), it gets squished whereas I want it to display letterboxed. Any help welcome.

Ron

[jagabo]

What resolution are you sending to the Plasma? And what resolution is your desktop?

WMP is a poor player with few options. Try MPC, VLC, or KMPlayer -- players with which you have control over the aspect ratio.

[ozkelron]

My desktop is 1920X1050 and I send 1080i to the plasma. I have FFDshow which is invoked when I play video files on WMP11, could a setting in there be changed to allow letterboxed 2.35:1 content? I also have VLC so I'll try that @ home tonight, thanks for the advice.

[jagabo]

Try this with ffdshow: go to Start -> All Programs -> ffdshow -> Video Decoder Configuration. In the left hand pane of the dialog select Output. In the right hand pane make sure "Set pixel aspect ratio in output media type" is enabled.

[ozkelron]

I've tried your advice but no change occurred on the plasma display. I also looked around in the Nvidia control panel and tried a couple of changes - such as dropping back to 720p but to no effect, "Short Circuit" still plays scrunched up from the original cinemascope format. I don't really want to change from the cloned twinview - but will that be the culprit, might separate desktop settings fix it?

[jagabo]

Your setup is very similar to mine. I have the desktop running at 1920x1080 in clone mode. The computer monitor is hooked up with a DVI cable and runs at 1680x1050, panning over the larger desktop. The TV is a 1080p model running with 1:1 pixel mapping via a DVI->HDMI cable. Did you try VLC yet?

[ozkelron]

Yes, I tried VLC and also DIVX player and the same thing happens, i.e. no black bars top and bottom on wider than 16:9 content. Does your system letterbox widescreen format? The TV has no problem playing DVDs in widescreen format

[jagabo]

Yes, I tried VLC and also DIVX player and the same thing happens, i.e. no black bars top and bottom on wider than 16:9 content. Does your system letterbox widescreen format? The TV has no problem playing DVDs in widescreen format

Yes, everything plays with the correct aspect ratio on my system. 4:3 is pillarboxed, 16:9 fills the HDTV screen, and wider material is letterboxed. This works with DVDs, MPG files, AVI files, etc.