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[Mr Ed]

I'd love to know more about this "flag" as well.

I've seen some TVs and projectors switch to 16:9 based on the information the XBOX sends them, so it is sending some flag, however non-standard it is.  My HDTV ignores all of those types of signals and I have to manually switch every device (well except for ones that output in 720p or 1080i since it knows those are 16:9)  One reason I've been happy with my 720p upconverting DVD player.

From what I understand there are different flags or something that can be sent, on different TVs look for different ones.  So you could blame the XBOX or you could blame the projector as some of them do auto switch aspect ratios based on the information the XBOX sends.

If you have more info. on the flags and any standards as to how a 480i or 480p signal tells the TV if it is 4:3 or 16:9 I'd like to know about them as well.

[raydn]

10h    D3DPRESENTFLAG_WIDESCREEN

There is the flag.

If i am right about this (please dont flame me). A many xbox games dont do widescreen 16:9 but display in what appears as 'widescreen' 10:11 aspect then change the games 3d matrix.

but, when I was patching games from interlaced to prog the flag is usually changed from 120h or 20h to 0h(auto) or 40h. Now if the above 10h was added to 40h to get 50h in theory would send prog widescreen flag.


for example

I-Ninja can be patched to run 720p using 50h and changing the resolution a bit

food for though...

[Mr Ed]

QUOTE(Devedander @ Jan 18 2006, 12:19 PM)

Well in 720 and 1080 the 16:9 switches automatically

There is no flag for 720 and 1080, as there is no NON-16:9 mode in those resolutions.  

QUOTE(raydn @ Jan 18 2006, 05:54 PM)

many xbox games dont do widescreen 16:9 but display in what appears as 'widescreen' 10:11 aspect then change the games 3d matrix.

I was not aware of this.  Most games that support 16:9 seem to do it pretty well as the objects don't look short and fat, which they would if they just scaled a 10:11 model in the 3d matrix.

[Devedander]

QUOTE

At the time the Xbox video game system was developed, there was not an established standard for alerting a monitor to a 480p wide-screen mode switch. Therefore, the console does not send a mode-switch signal while outputting in 480p, 720p, or 1080i mode. The console does send such a mode-switch signal while in 480i mode, as an established signal standard did exist for this mode when the Xbox video game system was developed

suxors....

Now how does the Ps2, which is older, support widescreen?

[Mr Ed]

Ah interesting.  So if the PS2 does switch in 480p mode (I have no idea, I don't use sucky game systems   ) they must have used a non-standard flag and hoped it would become the standard.

It's odd that MS didn't just implement what was common at the time even though a standard hadn't been approved.  MS doesn't have a good track record for being sticklers for standards.  

[Mr Ed]

QUOTE(raydn @ Jan 20 2006, 07:43 AM)

what i'm gonna do is take a look at how ty the tiger 3 does it as this game can switch on the fly from the game menu!

Ok, and it is running 480p and not 480i?

[twistedsymphony]

yeah the PS2 handles the flag well...

The way I got around this is by defaulting my projector to full screen in 480p. Then I defaulted the Xbox to letterbox.

Since the PS2 and Gamecube handle the flags properly they change the default of my projector. With the Xbox games when letterbox is set they display letterboxed when they support widescreen, and full screen when they don't.

Little annoyances like these remind us that MS isn't in the home theater business. The 360 has some similar quarks.