DVD Viewing.

[basketcase]

Ok, I have another (probably tough) question. If you read my other post, you have probably guessed that I am building a Media Center PC.

My question is...
When I play a DVD in my PC and display it on my TV, the left and right edges bend and stretch as the picture changes. It is not a lot of movement, it just moves like a quarter to a half an inch in from the edge of the screen, but it is enough to be kinda annoying. It seems to happen when the picture has a light top half and darker stuff toward the bottom. Does anyone have a similar problem? I am wondering if it has to do with something in my system such as my video card, or if this is just normal.

My System specs:
AMD Duron 1200
MOBO, unknown.
384 meg ram PC133
80 gig, 7200 RPM HD
One DVD Drive
One 4x DVD RW Drive
Window XP Home, SP2
ATI Radeon 9000 64 meg w/ s-video out, with 6.5 catalyst drivers.
ATI TV Wonder PCI TV Tuner

I am using a fairly high quality s-video cable, so I don't think that is the problem. I use the ATI Multimedia Center for DVD playback.

Thanks.

 

[SinclairSpeccy]

Bowing distortion is a problem with CRT (at least all CRT's I have ever used - I always buy cheap), pulled this from Colour Distortion ...

"Bowing" results when the large quantity of electrons necessary to draw white actually disturbs the electrical balance needed to draw the screen, causing the electron beam to draw wide in areas where white is dominant. I can only assume that the brighter the image the more the distortion.

Have you tried a normal DVD player on the same television? If thats OK, see if you can adjust the gamma, brightness and contrast output to the television.

 

[SinclairSpeccy]

Bowing distortion is a problem with CRT (at least all CRT's I have ever used - I always buy cheap), pulled this from Colour Distortion ...

"Bowing" results when the large quantity of electrons necessary to draw white actually disturbs the electrical balance needed to draw the screen, causing the electron beam to draw wide in areas where white is dominant. I can only assume that the brighter the image the more the distortion.

Have you tried a normal DVD player on the same television? If thats OK, see if you can adjust the gamma, brightness and contrast output to the television.

 

[basketcase]

Bowing distortion is a problem with CRT (at least all CRT's I have ever used - I always buy cheap), pulled this from Colour Distortion ...

"Bowing" results when the large quantity of electrons necessary to draw white actually disturbs the electrical balance needed to draw the screen, causing the electron beam to draw wide in areas where white is dominant. I can only assume that the brighter the image the more the distortion.

Have you tried a normal DVD player on the same television? If thats OK, see if you can adjust the gamma, brightness and contrast output to the television.

Yes I am just switching from a regular DVD player. It did not do this. But, it kinda seems like the video output from the computer is not the same as the DVD player. It is like the DVD player cut off about a half an inch or so on the left and right of the screen. The only reason I noticed that is the letterboxes seem to take up more of the screen on the PC output than when I play it on the old DVD player.

So, you'll say, just expand the desktop to go over the edge of the screen... But I already did that. If I go much further, it will be a little too much of the desktop.

But... I am rambling... If it is because of the gamma or brightness, that would still happen even if I cut the edges off, so I will try changing those settings, and see if that helps.

Thanks

 

[basketcase]

So, I solved the problem. I downloaded a freeware program called Media Center Classic. It looks like the old Win Media Player from years ago. But, through that program I was able to alter the aspect ratio a little bit so the final result was the same as my stand alone DVD player. It's like it cut of a little on the left and right (barely any) but there is no bowing now.

The picture quality is way better than my old Mintek DVD player too!!

And coolest of all, my Remote Wonder works with Media Center Classic without any setup.