Screen aspect ratio Options

[weezypenguin]

How about the ability to change the screen aspect ratio ( to go from widescreen to normal) without going to the settings.
Or is this already possible?

[Rev Drew]

interesting. I honestly don't know and have always assumed that since it is a WDTV HD media player that it would naturally output in the HD format..

does using the composite output make any difference? I don't think i have ever tried that with the live.. since my tv is 1080p I'm not sure I want to..

anyone have any input on this one? I am curious now too..

[weezypenguin]

what i mean is the aspect ratio. When i watch some carttons with the kids like Batman. It does not fill the screen it has the blac k bars on the side if i have it set to widescreen, and if set to norma has bars on the top.
just if you could change this easily you would not have to worry about any possible damage to my tv.

[WDUser]

Damage? (IMG:style_emoticons/default/blink.gif) What damage could there possibly be from the black bars, which are bound to be shown if viewing a widescreen video with the TV set to normal or vice versa (unless you want the image to be cropped)? I don't know if a "live" switch while watching is possible, but if not, that's why you posted in the wishlist section, right?

[red rider]

Weezy is probably talking about "burn in" on a plasma screen.

Regards
RED

PS I love the fact that the WD knows what aspect ratio the file is, and outputs correct A/R automatically... BRILLIANT!

[weezypenguin]

OK so i am offically confused.
it seems when i get some older cartoons (for the kids of course) it shows them in the old 4:3 ratio but all the movies come out ok i.e 13:9.
this is when the box is set to widescreen. if is et it to normal the cartoons come out fine but now the movies do not fill the screen. ona tv this can be eaily done from the root menu but for the wdtv you have to go into the setiings etc.
does this explain it any better???

[WDUser]

You probably meant 16:9, not 13:9. Anyway, run MediaInfo on the files and check what the actual aspect ratio of each is. Then you can figure out just how the player and TV's normal/widescreen settings are combining (or conflicting) to mess up a particular file's display aspect ratio.

[Avon B7]

What he means is to have an option that doesn't require the WD TV Live adding the black bars to 4:3 content when the WD TV live is set to 'widescreen'.

I would also like to see this option.

At the moment the only way the WD TV Live will send 4:3 content without black bars to a 16:9 TV is if you set the unit to 'normal' (instead of 'Widescreen') but this will sometimes play havoc with widescreen content. That is why he asked about an option to switch screen setting without having to dig into the menus.

The puritans will say that no such option should exist as if your TV is widescreen and your content is not, then the black bars are necessary to avoid distorting the image. That's all well and good but a lot of people find watching slightly distorted 4:3 content more pleasurable than watching 4:3 content on a 16:9 screen with black bars at either side.

And as someone has already mentioned the bars will lead to plasma screens aging unevenly.

AFAIK the WD TV Live is the only video device I have that does this. Everything else I have (or have had) would leave the bars in the hands of the display device.

A simple toggle option for screen setting (widescreen/normal) would be the easiest solution to implement