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4:3 Aspect Ratio 'Framing'


GiGo

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I've recently got into retro gaming and a lot of games for the gameboy etc... are all 4:3, I've also been watching some old school shows like Cheers and Taxi, of course these are all 4:3 ratios. On my Batocera Retro box the emulators support 'frames', ie it frames the game with either gameboy screen or N64 console or artwork for the game you are playing, it's lovely, so can we do something like this for shows that are marked as 4:3?

If people aren't sure what I mean, something like below;
Before;image.thumb.png.adc926464dc7278376071ecda5200436.png

After;
image.thumb.png.c3ad9c8fd749f1e3773aee6a721f07d8.png

I know a lot can vary on screen resolution, ie 720p, 1080p, 2160p etc... and there would need to be the artwork would need to be created and then stored and of course pulled from somewhere, theTVDB might be a good start if they were interested in such a thing, or a more 'exclusive to emby' feature that has user generated artwork that only emby users get, I don't know the logicistics but I do hate seeing black bars down the side of my screen.

I suppose a starting option could be the backgrounds rotating behind the video, it won't be 'custom' artwork but could be nice rather than having black bars?

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4 hours ago, Luke said:

Hi, you don't think that's distracting?

Personally I don't, maybe a small border could be useful to help seperate the video from the frame graphic, I hate having black bars at the side of the screen, not fused when they are top and bottom.

Was curious if others would find this a good idea or not.

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crusher11

This is horrible. WWE used to do this when presenting 4:3 content on DVDs and Blu-rays of old matches. There's a reason they stopped. 

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unisoft
On 27/12/2021 at 08:27, crusher11 said:

This is horrible. WWE used to do this when presenting 4:3 content on DVDs and Blu-rays of old matches. There's a reason they stopped. 

1. There is also an issue of random picked images looking odd at the sides with bits of the image shown as no usual metadata provider has an image option exclusively made for black bar framing.

2. A lot of tv content that is 4:3 is actually still in a widescreen 1920x1080 size with encoded black bars (in the UK at least as public did not like native 4:3 and widescreen switching via AFD (Active Format descriptors) due to TV's jumping around particularly when adverts were widescreen native HD and then switched back to native 4:3 ). So the broadcasters decided to broadcast in 1920x1080 16:9 all the time on HD channels, and present the 4:3 inside of that space with encoded black bars. Its similar on SD channels where 4:3 is encoded inside widescreen anamorphic 720x576/704x576).

3. I think Emby would have to transcode content to strip the black bars off in this scenario to then show the image where the black bars are.

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19 hours ago, unisoft said:

1. There is also an issue of random picked images looking odd at the sides with bits of the image shown as no usual metadata provider has an image option exclusively made for black bar framing.

2. A lot of tv content that is 4:3 is actually still in a widescreen 1920x1080 size with encoded black bars (in the UK at least as public did not like native 4:3 and widescreen switching via AFD (Active Format descriptors) due to TV's jumping around particularly when adverts were widescreen native HD and then switched back to native 4:3 ). So the broadcasters decided to broadcast in 1920x1080 16:9 all the time on HD channels, and present the 4:3 inside of that space with encoded black bars. Its similar on SD channels where 4:3 is encoded inside widescreen anamorphic 720x576/704x576).

3. I think Emby would have to transcode content to strip the black bars off in this scenario to then show the image where the black bars are.

Completely agree with your points. I didn't think about some 4:3 content being encoded as 16:9 as not to loose everything.

Having given it some thought, I am thinking maybe decoration of the show may not be the best option, however how about some kind of 'screen' decoration, Batocera has loads, heres one; 
default.png

I am of course not saying just use these, but users could create a few different type of 'TV Sets' from the decades and Emby could recognise the year of broadcast and then select a decoration from that decade to use, of course thats if it's encoded in 4:3 if it's not of course it skips the decoration.

For me having a decoration like this would make watching the show a lot more authentic :) 

Crude example with an emby logo added and the 'Clear logo' of the show posistioned at the top :D
image.thumb.png.f0b51c913a2863d681b64ba7c53c0bd0.png

Edited by GiGo
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