TV-out distortion on Radeon8500LE *EDIT: Solved!*

[Ryukumu]

I'm using a Hercules 3d Prophet FDX 8500LE card. While I'm very pleased with the video quality on the TV-out, there is one problem that's kind of... well, irritating. Sometimes.

Whenever you watch a video clip (DivX, MPG, AVI, etc) the image outputted to TV will automatically go full-screen for the video. Nine times out of ten this isn't bad, as a lot of the video clips I watch are a normal 4:3 width/height ratio. But whenever watching something that's in Letterbox format (16:9) the image will be stretched to fill the whole TV screen. It'll be stretched vertically about 30%. Still watchable, but pretty irritating.

Can anybody help?

Note: Under the 'Displays' tab (Display Properties > Advanced > Displays) my monitor is set as the primary display, and the TV-out is set to 'clone' the primary display.

EDIT: New drivers from Hercules did the trick. Thanks to those who helped!

 

[rbV5]

I only use "Theater mode" for watching video files via TV-out, it keeps the original format ratio. Enable it in the Overlay tab in the advanced display properties. I also enable overscan.

 

[Ryukumu]

Theater mode was already enabled, and the 16:9 ratio clips were still stretching. Disabling theater mode would cause it to not output video at all... it'd just be empty black space on the TV. What's this 'overscan'?

 

[rbV5]

What's this 'overscan'?

Overscan is enabled in the advanced displays properties for the TV display. With overscan enabled, the output will crop the output image and fill the entire screen (4:3 ratio) eliminating the black bars on the top and bottom(but losing some of the whole picture) like normal broadcast TV.

I'm not at my rig right now, but it seems there is a setting for the file player to keep the aspect ratio. I'm using the latest drivers in XP, Theater mode keeps the proper aspect ratio for me.

 

[Ryukumu]

I'm not at my main computer either (I'm on vacation with a laptop), but this 'overscan' sounds like the trick. When I get home from vacation, I'll take a look and let ya know how it works.

 

[Ryukumu]

Hrm... well, I'm at my main rig now, and I see nothing anywhere about overscan.