Incorrect aspect ratio for HD 4:3 content

Kodi
1

I recently migrated from LibreELEC to CoreELEC, due to lack of support of Kodi 18 for S905. Didn’t learn of CoreELEC until I had everything configured, otherwise I wouldn’t have bothered with community builds. Everything seems to be working great except this kinda odd encode of 4:3 content which was upscaled to 1080. The file is 1440x1080, in LibreELEC 8.2.3.1 (Kodi 17.6) it was played correctly as 4:3, but in CoreELEC 8.95.6 it is stretched to 16:9. Other SD 4:3 content is played correctly with vertical letter boxing. I tried CoreELEC 8.95.1 after I came across a post about something regarding 4:3 content being broken since 8.95.2, but it didn’t make a difference.

Any ideas?

2

You forgot to set the correct view mode?

3

if you mean in video settings, then I tried both normal and original, no difference.

4

For such (wrongly flagged?) videos there are more options. While playing a video choose Settings (first icon from right under timeline) then Video settings => View mode -> Custom. Then first try to turn on Non-linear stretch. If that doesn’t help there are more options under View mode to try.

5

Can you upload a sample of your video, thanks.

6

https://mega.nz/#F!PuYHyQrT!K10U4E3nZl9zBz7xduj1zg

everything up to season 5 is in 4:3.

The only thing that fixes the AR is changing the pixel AR.

7

I downloaded “Futurama.S02.E10.1080p.x265” and see that it has 1440 x 1080 resolution.

This is a “special case” because this resolution can be played in proper 4:3 format or in proper 16:9 format if anamorphic aspect ratio is used.

This sample plays correctly if you in go to Video settings and set "View mode => Stretch 4:3. No need to play with pixel ratio.

8

Not exactly sure how 1440x1080 can be ambiguous, it’s clearly a 4:3 ratio. Also, it plays correctly in Kodi 17 (albeit LibreaELEC, haven’t checked Kodi 17 CoreELEC).

9

Look up on Wikipedia how “Anamorphic” works. Or maybe this article can shed more light on the subject.

Besides that,1440 x 1080i is a standard broadcast resolution for HD/16:9 material, along with 1920 x 1080i. Here in Europe there are a number of satelite programs on Astra 19.2°E (which I know of) that broadcast HD/16:9 material in this 1440 x 1080i resolution.
Just watched one today and remembered it: “LA 1 HD” on Astra 19.2°E / 10729 MHz V, you can maybe check out…

10

My terrestrial broadcasts are 1440x1080 and 16:9

11

I’ve experience this on all iphone 5s created videos. It seems to start when kodi added a video setting
“orientation”. To fix it, you need change the orientation setting to 90 while playing.

12

I thought that all terrestrial broadcasts changed to 1920x1080. Where is 1440x1080 still in use?

13

Two HD channels of saorview.ie … RTÉ One and RTÉ 2

14

So I looked it up and what you’re saying makes sense, however I got a mi box 3 running Kodi 18 RC1 and it plays the video just fine. There’s no RC1 CE release, only RC2 (CE 8.95.6), so I installed RC2 x64 on my PC and it also plays the video just fine. I know this is not an apple to apple comparison but clearly the way CE Kodi 18 handles it is incorrect.

15

btw, no change with the latest release either (8.95.7 - v18 RC4)

16

This is a quote from @afl1 when we discussed this in the team chat.

1440x1080 is HD lite, used by first HD camcoders, is always 16:9. This format is still used by exotic providers. (DIGI TV Romania).

What is correctly? For HD is no 4:3. For 4:3 in HD is used 16:9 with black stripes. If we remove this patch we fix this shitty movies only and damage all HD lite content.

17

The issue is fixed. Try the latest nightly builds.

18

Sorry haven’t seen the last post until now. Came to write that the issue has been fixed in 8.99.1.1 or 8.99.2 (I missed the 8.99.1.1 update, so not sure which).

Great work, thanks!

19

I noticed similiar thing, with that 1440 resolution, but 16:9 content.

But problem is, that certain LIVE TV (TVHeadend) has 1440x1080, Normal TV with own tuner plays it as 16:9 (it should be that way), but Live TV through CoreELEC + TVH shows it 4:3. Its exactly as described here https://forum.libreelec.tv/thread/1542-solved-incorrect-aspect-ratio-with-some-tvheadend-channels/ or here https://forum.libreelec.tv/thread-200-post-5921.html#pid5921.

I can see

// assume widescreen for "HD Lite" channels
      // correct aspect ratio will be detected later anyway
      if ((m_hints.width == 1440 || m_hints.width ==1280) && m_hints.height == 1080 && m_hints.aspect == 0.0f)
          m_hints.aspect = 16.0 / 9.0;;

within DVDVideoCodecAmlogic.cpp, so I guess maybe those m_hints.width etc are not propagated during Live TV as for example this patch did in past for h264 content, where users reported same issue https://github.com/tarvip/SPMC/commit/888e68177cfe01de9ca53f53194d42c44840cd1c ?

I observed this on both 3.14 and NG builds, and honestly I didnt noticed before. Maybe because in my country was recently switch from DVB-T MPEG2 to DVB-T2 HEVC terrestrial, so no possible h264 patches would apply on that source.

@afl1, maybe you could check this? Its hard to reproduce this, as again, same as before, when I record stream, its played fine, 16:9. The problem is, when its streamed live from DVB-T2 stick :frowning: