Auto resolution for 1080i/p

[sonicblue]

Is it possible to have automatic resolution switching for 1080i and 1080p content? For example I would like free to air TV 1080i50 channels to be output as 1080i50, and 1080p50 media files output as 1080p50. It seems you can do this for 480/576 resolutions but not for 1080.

Cheers

[MrQuade]

You can't and there isn't any real need to. Its not like there is anything tricky about a 1080i50 to 1080p50 upscale that you'd need an external video processor for.

[sonicblue]

Thanks.

It's my TV's deinterlacing I'm trying to take advantage of, where it will detect and lock to 2:2 cadence and weave fields to 1080p . On Samsung TV's for example there is usually a "Film Mode" setting which has an Auto1 and Auto2 setting. Auto1 tries to lock to 2:2 cadence and give you 1080p, whereas Auto2 will use a more generic technique of field interpolation for moving parts of the image, more akin to what the Wiz uses. Not that it's particularly bad, actually in blind tests it can be hard to tell the difference unless consciously scrutinising the image, or if you have a very large screen and/or short viewing distance.

Can I ask you a slightly different question, do you feel the colour blue is somewhat "enhanced" on the Wiz? I have Blue boost set to 0 (off) in the video enhancements section, but I still think it's doing something to the blues. Is there some way to log into the Wiz and actually set the blue boost to a negative number to see if it can reduce it further below 0?

[MrQuade]

Film mode shouldn't make a difference for 1080i vs 1080p when receiving a 50Hz signal. The original film source will have been shot at 24Hz, and then converted to 50Hz for transmission on Australian TV. The resulting transmitted frames will not be interlaced at all due to the low framertate of the source, so a 1080i transmission will look identical to a 1080p transmission.

1080i vs 1080p should only be evident on higher framerate material like sports transmissions, and in that instance, film mode should not be kicking in.

I've not noticed any blue enhancement on my units.

[sonicblue]

The resulting transmitted frames will not be interlaced at all

I presume you're referring to some kind of dynamic flags in the metadata inside the MP4 stream which tell the Wiz whether the content is interlaced or not? Interesting, I did not know they were using that technique yet. I was under the impression they were just transmitting 50 discrete fields of 1920x540 which required further deinterlacing to 1080p by the receiver or display. In any case, I can observe the Wiz switching between weave and simple field interpolation for moving parts of the image on 2:2 content (easier to spot on computer animation content eg. ABC3) and doesn't appear to be taking advantage of metadata to avoid having to deinterlace for its 1080p output.

[prl]

... Is there some way to log into the Wiz

Yes. You can use either telnet or ssh. In older firmware there was no root password set. In newer firmware you have to set a root password in MENU>Setup>Network>Password before you can log in (always as root).

and actually set the blue boost to a negative number to see if it can reduce it further below 0?

Yes and no. You can input a negative value using:
echo -4 > /proc/stb/vmpeg/0/pep_blue_boost

but the effect is the same as setting it to 0.

[sonicblue]

Yes and no. You can input a negative value using:
echo -4 > /proc/stb/vmpeg/0/pep_blue_boost
but the effect is the same as setting it to 0.

Thanks. Curious to know, are there any other hidden video processing controls that are only accessible from telnet/webend? I really am convinced that Wiz is applying its own "flavour" of video processing to the image , and would like to be able to configure those parameters if possible.

[MrQuade]

Do you actually have many 1080p50 media files?
If it concerns you, It might be worthwhile just to set all 1080x50 material to output at 1080i50, and then manually switch in the times you have 1080p50 source material. I'd imagine that you'd only get that for home movies and the like.

[sonicblue]

Do you actually have many 1080p50 media files?
If it concerns you, It might be worthwhile just to set all 1080x50 material to output at 1080i50, and then manually switch in the times you have 1080p50 source material.

Surprisingly I do have quite a few 1080p50 videos. Some of them are downloaded youtube videos at 1080p60.