User interface adjustment

[jeidson]

I am considering purchasing this product and dumping Sage TV because of the simply way BeyondTV handles the 16:9 ratio on my Sony HDTV. With Sage it's taken weeks of screwing around and the picture still isn't as nice as the default setting from BeyondTV!

I'd just like to have someone verify this for me. Is there no way to adjust the UI with this product? With my TV, all of the menus are unusable since they fall off the edges. With Sage, there are overlay adjustments built into the application.

Thank you

[jmcclain]

Don't understand. You like how BTV handles the 16:9 display better than SageTV, but you want to do something different? Have you tried pressing "G" while viewing LiveTV or clicking on the "options" while watching and just changing the "aspect" ratio? If you are doing this, why/what are you trying to change in the "overlay" menus?

-Jeff

[jeidson]

Sorry about the confusion - when I click the options button and change the aspect ratio to fit my TV, the live TV content fits perfect. However, that doesn’t appear to change the menu size along with it. The menu still hangs off of the edge on all sides so it's difficult to see the volume control and other text written on the screen.

[cmasters]

With Sage you have the default 16:9 ratio (just like BTV) which you can then tweak pixel by pixel. You can also modify the x and y offsets. All this is done from within the UI. If that takes you weeks there is another problem going on .

The Overscan compensation you are referring to does not exist yet in BTV but is supposed to come in the next release.

[MannyTC]

Originally posted by jeidson
Sorry about the confusion - when I click the options button and change the aspect ratio to fit my TV, the live TV content fits perfect. However, that doesn’t appear to change the menu size along with it. The menu still hangs off of the edge on all sides so it's difficult to see the volume control and other text written on the screen.

You should be able to modify the customsetting.xml file to make the GUI smaller to fit on your screen better.

[jeidson]

Ok, thanks cmasters for the info on the new release. I have not seen any forms that discuss its release date, so I'll probably hold off purchasing this.

You are right about the Sage TV settings. Fact is, there are SO many UI and property adjustments you can make, that it's almost overwhelming! I finally got everything to work ok - using the Sonic decoders from TheaterTek produce the best picture, but I could never get the image to fit my screen without the black bars down the sides. On the other hand, the Hauppauge decoders give me a full screen, but everything is stretched . After trying to using PowerStrip and spending hours on making adjustments, I just finally gave up on Sage! I was about to plug back in the TiVo until I tried BeyondTV out!

[cmasters]

We have been using the Sage 2.0 beta for so long I assumed you were using that too. 1.4 does require too much config file editing.

You should be able to modify the customsetting.xml file to make the GUI smaller to fit on your screen better.

I think this only lets you modify the AR's and not the UI.

[MannyTC]

Originally posted by cmasters



I think this only lets you modify the AR's and not the UI.

There are crop settings for the UI in each of the Aspect Ratio sections that are modifiable. My understanding is that this way is their first attempt at addressing this and 3.5 will have it adjustable right inside of the UI.

[cmasters]

Let me know if that works. I understood it that XML settings would be their first attempt for Overscan UI control and would be introduced in 3.5 not 3.4.

Here is a thread about it...
http://discuss2.snapstream.com/vb/sh...threadid=10468

Not that they could not have snuck it in a 3.4 release.

[jeidson]

Ok, I will give it a try. I am not in front of the PC now, so I will check it out this afternoon. Once I open the XML file, will the overscan settings be simple to find - similar to the sage.properties file? I’ve had BTV installed for 3 days, so I’m not as familiar with all of its functions as I am with Sage.

[MannyTC]

My bad. I misunderstood what those settings were for. They are to crop the video to get rid of the "noise" on the edges of the picture if present. I did find the post by RKUO that talks about it coming in 3.5.

Sorry folks