360 extender shows Wrong Aspect Ratio!

[Heat7]

hello i posted this earlier in the windows 7 and xbox 360 thread but i feel this is VERY important and i might not the only one with this problem as others might not realized it.

My 360 extender connection is fine and everything plays well but, I just found out some inexcusable issue with media center extender. When i play my videos/movies in my PC though both wmp and media center my stuff plays perfect. Now when i play them in my 360 extender their ASPECT RATIOS ARE messed up!! their not in there original aspect ratios/frames! every types of A.R is stretched , missing picture from top bottom and both sides. even 2.39 videos are affect in the sides. I check the zoom settings and it says zoom 1 "normal aspect ratio" but its clearly not. I'm missing up to 30% of video frame in some videos and i don't like that at all.

again in my P.C the videos play perfect. its the xbox 360 extender that they don't . I don't know whats wrong, im thinking it could be my 2007 32inch vizio t.v that could be the problem but if i connect my laptop with an rbg cable to it the ratios are correct and so is playing normal dvd's and stuff on it.

 

[Heat7]

just called 360 about this and found out that the same thing happens if you play a workable video for the xbox 360 video library, it does the same thing. takes off from OAR.

apparently if you play video from a PC to the 360 wireless or wired the xbox will change the OAR. This is for the white xbox. I don't know about the new black ones but this is a real problem nobody notices!! that is serious imo. this is stupid because i'm pretty sure if you insert a dvd to a 360 it will play it without messing with the aspect ratio unless you do a change. same thing with buying videos in the marketplace and zune. I still need to see if i add a video into the 360 HD or plug in a usb with a video , if it will work but i doubt it.

 

[Heat7]

I can't believe no one finds this a serious problem. It basicly makes the media extender worthless because the 360 doesn't want to transcode the full image

 

[shanndogg]

Heat7,

I brought this up a few weeks ago and did not get any concrete info on this. It appears as though it is a flaw either within WMC or the Xbox that has to be fixed. You can see my original post here:

http://www.sevenforums.com/media-center/160663-media-center-displays-wrong-aspect-ratio-through-xbox-360-a.html

I have the new Xbox 360S and it does the exact same thing you described. I have tried everything to get it to display correctly- nothing seems to work unless the file is 1920x1080. For example, I had a file that was 2.35:1 (1920x816)- WMC-> Xbox did not display it correctly although it played fine on my PC. I re-encoded the file to the original full 1920x1080 and tried it again. That file appeared to display correctly on the Xbox. It sucks because I am losing about 30% encoding efficiency from a 2.35:1 source, but it looks like nothing can be done until Microsoft fixes it somehow.

It is most likely that many do not realize the problem as you can see from my original post it distorts the picture around 1". To me it was obvious, but maybe not to others.

 

[Heat7]

finally someone else who notices this problem!

i called xbox and I'm 95% sure it is a problem with xbox 360 as when i tried playing a file in the xbox library NOT the wm extender, the same thing happened. if wmc player files perfectly in the pc, EVEN when its playing a file from another PC then its not the problem.

Also thanks for telling me the problem happens with an HD wmv file as well. The problem is basically with any format apparently.

I'm going to call xbox again soon, complain and notify them about the situation since when they transferred me to the windows media extender people they are the ones that help me find out its an xbox problem and told me to notify them but i didn't have time to call back.

 

[shanndogg]

That is interesting that you have the same problem playing through library. I did not experience this- it seems to only be when going through WMC. When you say the library you mean when you are on the dashboard and then scroll to "my xbox" then go to "Video Library" and play from there right?

I tested a cropped WMV file (1920x816) through both WMC and "Video Library." When playing through "Video Library" it seemed fine (I checked with the markers on the side of the TV and against the original disc playing from another input). However, when playing through WMC it was definitely resized incorrectly.

I also tested a cropped MKV file and it exhibited the same incorrect size when playing through WMC. Unfortunately, "Video Library" cannot play an MKV so I couldn't check that one there.

Lastly, I tried a cropped AVI in both WMC and Video Library. Size was ok in video library, but not when played through WMC.

For all above files, when playing on my PC in both WMC and WMP it was sized correctly.

So, I only experience the problem going through WMC to Xbox. As mentioned, when I play a full size file (1920x1080) it plays fine all around. You would think WMC would do something to the 1920x1080 file as well since it can't play the 1920x816 file correctly but it doesn't which is weird.

 

[shanndogg]

Also what type of files are you trying to play and what are their aspect ratios?

 

[Heat7]

Most of the files have are mp4's with 6channel audio so xbox player can't play them as well as some mp4/m4v vids with 2 channel. also some .avi's and 1 mkv file that still can't player str8 in the wmc extender with the divx mkv codec. it shutters alot -.- .

but yea I just tested a sample video that came with my PC called "HP" and it was missing frame from all 4 sides AND IT WAS A HD WMV FILE at 1280x720. i'll try other files playable through the xbox player but im sure they will be bad as well.

I don't have any 1920x1080, 1080p videos the t.v i have doesn't support that. but most of them are 720p in different aspect ratios of course like 2.35 , 1.85 even 1.66.1.

Only the 2.35/2.30 (same thing) are the least affected and take out a bit on the sides.

so yea like i said im going to try an avi or something that can play through the xbox player and see if the same happens.

 

[Heat7]

Ok so i called xbox again to awkwardly notify/complain about this issue.

The agent figured got up to speed with the issue and we realized it even messes with regular pictures! he seems very enthusiastic about getting this problem fixed in the next xbox update and hopefully it will get fixed.

Btw anyone know if the same thing happens in ps3?

 

[shanndogg]

I don't get why you are having problems with full framed sources like 1280x720. Any of my full 16:9 files play fine, but anything that has been cropped to the display aspect ratio are totally messed up in WMC (but not when played the "Video Library").

Are they going to notify you at all if they find a fix for it?

 

[Heat7]

yes any type of full frame 16:9 pictures and videos do the same as all other files which is TAKE off some of the frame!

Check again if your full frame videos are the same as you playback in your PC. If they show correctly in your xbox then the only answer is that your new black xbox plays them good but NOT my white one thats not even a few months old.

they said they will e-mail me about the update and even call me lol