Black Bars on Recorded TV

[Slug]

I recorded my first movie on the weekend on my new VMC/HTPC - (Prime, good movie it was too!!).

While viewing it 'LIVE' all was great, in full screen splendor. When I playback the recording however, I get two large black bars above & below the displayed content.
Is there some sort of Record Setting in VMC to set the viewing mode?

[bill24]

are you in full screen or window you may need to try other screen sizes
your video card may have a seting as well nvidia has a control panel to set tv

on my setup any thing over 1280 x 768 will put a bar above & below

[Slug]

Cheers Bill.

Just wondering tho' why when viewing the program live it is in 'full screen' - but when replaying recording it's 'letterbox' (if that's the correct term??).

[AdrianW]

Check the Zoom setting - for a normal 16:9 TV, the zoom setting should be set to level 1.

[Slug]

Originally Posted by AdrianW

Check the Zoom setting - for a normal 16:9 TV, the zoom setting should be set to level 1.

I'm afraid I still don't get this. If the Zoom setting is incorrect (I'm currently interstate & can't check), how is it that the movie played fine in 'Live TV' , but with the black bars when I replay the recorded file?

My understanding is that it relates to the aspect ratio of the broadcast - if broadcast as 16.9, surely it should display identically when played live or as recording with the same VMC/TV settings?

If someone was to say that there was a setting in VMC to convert 16.9 broadcasts to 4.3 when recording TV, I'd understand - but surely this isn't the case??

[TheRob]

I've never used Zoom, but perhaps the settings are saved separately for Live Tv and recorded playback. You might have the zoom set to 2 on Live TV so you don't see the black bars, but during playback Zoom is set to 1 so that you see them. So it's worth checking what the current settings are.

Have you been through the TV setup wizard in the Media Center interface?

[AdrianW]

Originally Posted by Slug

If someone was to say that there was a setting in VMC to convert 16.9 broadcasts to 4.3 when recording TV, I'd understand - but surely this isn't the case??

You're right, media centre records exactly what is broadcast (assuming we're talking about a digital tuner, not analogue).

What TheRob says about different zoom settings is correct, VMC remembers the zoom setting for each media type, so it's possible that live & recorded TV could have different zoom settings.

The various zoom settings are held in the registry here:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Curre ntVersion\Media Center\Settings\VideoSettings

[Slug]

Thanks Guys - I'm interstate ATM. I'll check out the zoom settings when I get back home.