No Original 4:3 Apsect Ratio on 16:9 TVs

[Former user]

Original [issue 194](https://code.google.com/p/genplus-gx/issues/detail?id=194) created by starlord.email on 2011-11-05T14:17:39.000Z:

What steps will reproduce the problem? 1.Start a Game 2.Enter Menu 3.Enter Option Menu then Video Menu 4. Select Apect: "Original 16:9"

What is the expected output? What do you see instead? A 4:3 Screen like on other emulators, which fits to the screen. I am seeing a 4:3 Screen but with a black boarder on all sides. Means there is a smaller 4:3 screen in the middle of the TV Screen which is not necessary because you can stretch the whole 4:3 Screen to the complete hight of a 16:9 TV.

What version of the emulator are you using (official, SVN revision,...)? 1.6

Please provide any additional information below (Emulator settings, Console setting,...)

[Former user]

Comment # 1 originally posted by ekeeke31 on 2011-11-05T14:50:23.000Z:

I don't understand your issue, you can't have 4:3 on a 16:9 TV without black borders on left/right side.

As for vertical borders, this is how it is supposed to look, you can adjust vertical scaling to fit your own TV byy using SCALED mode but accurate aspect ratio is how a real Mega Drive will look on your TV.

[Former user]

Comment # 4 originally posted by ekeeke31 on 2011-11-05T14:54:04.000Z:

Also, if your 16:9 TV has a 4:3 mode, I strongly advise you to use this instead oh having the emulator compensates 16:9 upscaling (which ORIGINAL 16:9 option does), this will give you much better video quality.

[Former user]

Comment # 5 originally posted by starlord.email on 2011-11-05T22:32:11.000Z:

No ekeeke. If I connect my Mega Drive to the TV I have a correct 4:3 Picture in the middle of the TV. Also other emulators like Wii64, SNES9x GX etc. are showing the correct 4:3 Picture. Genesis GX displays a picture which is too small.

I used as workaround the scaled method. Normally it should look like this if I choose 16:9 (Original): http://www.hdtv-praxis.de/praxis/formatchaos/bildschirm-16zu9-anamorph-in-4zu3.jpg

However it's similar to that: http://www.hdtv-praxis.de/praxis/formatchaos/bildschirm-16zu9-bild-4zu3-letterbox.jpg

[Former user]

Comment # 6 originally posted by ekeeke31 on 2011-11-05T22:48:25.000Z:

No way those borders are supposed to be that high, at least it doesn't for me. Also, top and bottom borders have absolutely nothing to do with 16:9 correction.

That's probably because you are using PAL games with console region set to AUTO in System Settings, or have this option forced to EUROPE, which in both cases emulate a PAL system.

A PAL Mega Drive will display such vertical borders and has different aspect ratio than NTSC, which this emulator faithfully reproduces.

SCALED mode default values (0,0) will force NTSC aspect ratio to ensure games are always displayed full-screen, even when emulating PAL Mega Drive.

[Former user]

Comment # 7 originally posted by starlord.email on 2011-11-13T18:25:04.000Z:

Indeed. The Top and Bottom boarders are independent of the 16:9 correction. The vertical boards are correct, but the horizontal boarders seems to be not correct. Is it possible to stretch the image to have a "full" picture.

The smaller high of the picture (which are the root cause for the horizontal boarders) results from the different lines. NTSC has 525 active lines and PAL has 576 active lines. To get the same presentation the PAL games were rammed. To get the correct view you have to stretch the picture vertically.

[Former user]

Comment # 10 originally posted by ekeeke31 on 2011-11-13T19:19:07.000Z:

Ok, after reading your message again, it seems to be a confusion with what you call "vertical borders". For me, vertical ones are the ones on top & bottom.

Anyway, my first answer still stands: it's how games are supposed to look on a PAL Mega Drive.

PAL Mega Drive is emulated when "console region" is set to EUROPE or when it is set to AUTO and you are loading a known PAL game (either from region indicator in ROM header or info from internal ROM database, some games being incompatible with NTSC consoles).

[Former user]

Comment # 11 originally posted by ekeeke31 on 2011-11-13T21:14:34.000Z:

And to be exact, PAL video signal is 625 lines (interlaced), out of which approx. 576 hold active display. NTSC is 525 lines (again, interlaced) with approx. 480 lines available for active display.

Genesis active height however is fixed to 224 lines (non-interlaced), which maps to the 448 centered lines of active video signal, the rest being filled by border color. For that matter, 448 lines approximately match the height that most 60HZ CRT TVs can show (because of overscan) so genesis picture appears fullscreen. PAL TVs, however, show more lines within the same display area (i.e lines are "thinner") , but since genesis active height does not change, it results in higher visible borders and squeezed image.

A few PAL optimized games use a higher resolution mode (240 lines, only works on PAL Mega Drive) to improve image aspect but borders are still visible (just slightly reduced).