4x3 video being displayed windowboxed in 16x9 area

[macrocephalus]

I'm running Mac OS X and connecting to my PS3 via WiFi (the PS3 is on WiFi, the Mac is wired) but I don't think either of those facts has anything to do with my problem, which is that all 4x3 standard-definition video I stream from my Mac to my PS3 is being displayed in a windowboxed 4x3 area inside the 16x9 display of my TV. I have a Sony XBR tube TV that displays 480p and 1080i, but for some reason the PS3 is staying in 1080i mode and displaying the 640x480 4x3 standard-definition video inside the 16x9 1080i high-definition viewing area instead of switching to 480p (or 480i) output. High-res material, by contrast, displays properly.

Is there any way to stream video such that high-def (and anything higher-res than standard-def) is displayed this way but standard definition material is displayed in 480p to take best possible advantage of my TV?

TIA!

[Subject2Change]

To my knowledge that is on the PS3 and not with PMS as I believe it sticks with whatever the Menu in the PS3 is set to, and only games have the option to change the display resolution. So if your set to 1080p when the PS3 turns on and you are in the menu, that is how all your videos will be displayed however I am not entirely sure this is true just what I have seen from my experience. And SD material on an HDTV should be displaying as pillarboxed (Black on the left and right and not on the sides) you can use the view mode option to scale it up to this if it is in fact giving you just picture in the center with window boxing around the entire image (around all 4 sides) or if you want to stretch out to 16x9 and crop top and bottom or stretch out and distort.

For me I have a lot of SD video and often need to scale up so I get away from the windowboxing to get to pillarbox (which I dont mind).

[macrocephalus]

I'm not positive, but I think that back when I used EyeConnect (before it stopped working entirely many months ago) I'd get 4:3 video displayed in 480p. It's not like the PS3 can't do it at all -- it switches to 480p for regular DVDs, after all. At any rate, I think what you call pillarboxed is what I'm calling windowboxed -- vertical black bars on the left and the right such that the 4:3 video takes up the center 12:9 portion of the 16:9 video area.

I just wish that for standard-def material, I could get the PS3 to display it in 4:3 so that it would use my whole TV, because as things stand, I get pillar/windowboxing PLUS letterboxing, since the 16:9 area is letterboxed inside my 4:3 TV. So I guess the question is, does PS3 Media Server have any settings that I haven't found for the output format of the video it streams to the PS3? Or does the PS3 itself handle that all by itself, and PS3MS just sends the video over in whatever its native resolution is?

[Subject2Change]

I work as an Assistant Editor in Manhattan and the whole Window Boxing, Letter Boxing, Anamorphic, SD, HD, Codecs and such with clients is a bit that I go through every now and then as everyone has their own terms for it as there is no standard that everyone uses. And yes what I was calling pillarboxing (left and right side of video has black bars while top and bottom do not) is what I get as well from SD footage. However to my knowledge I don't see how an HDTV can display 4x3 natively without any sort of scaling or cropping as they are a 16x9 resolution and screen. As I have played PS1 and PS2 titles on my PS3 which it displays at 480 however it is in fact pillarboxed. I do not have any experience with an EyeConnect so I can't speak for it, however what you are getting on an HD screen to me seems normal. As when you convert 16:9 to 4:3 you will get cropping or a letterbox around.

I mean if you set your PS3 to 480p only mode for output, what happens? Does it center the screen and pillarbox it or does it give you the full image undistorted not cropped, etc?

[macrocephalus]

I guess I wasn't clear about my TV -- it's a 4:3 Sony XBR400. It displays high-def by squeezing its scanlines together somewhat, so high-def material occupies the vertically centered 16:9 portion of the 16:12 (AKA 4:3) screen. When I watch a regular DVD, the PS3 outputs 480p video, and if it's 4:3 material, the whole tube is filled with the picture. (If it's an anamorphic widescreen disc, the TV does the same vertical squeeze trick to give me a 16:9 image area.) When I watch 4:3 standard-def material via PS3 Media Server, however, the PS3 is putting out a 1080i signal, so the 4:3 image is windowboxed inside the 16:9 high-def image area that's already letterboxed inside my 4:3 TV. IOW, I have a smaller 4:3 image rectangle inside a larger 4:3 screen, which is what I'm trying to avoid. See what I mean?

[Subject2Change]

Ahhhhhh I see. Ya, not really sure about that then. All I can think of is that the PS3 can't determine from streaming media how to adjust the TV resolution to. So if the PS3 is set in menu mode to 1080p then anything from the Video, Music, etc will auto scale to that where as Games and DVDs discs are being read it and understands to change the resolution on the TV to the best possible output.