Auto Refresh Rate Change for Selected Video File (WIP)

[RussKingUK]

Hi,

I've made a small modification locally to the MediaBrowser and MediaInfoProvider source which now enables media browser to change the refresh rate of the display to something more appropriate for the selected media, eg. 50hz for 25fps, 60hz for 30fps etc, etc. Would the dev team be interested in taking a look at the implementation and tidying it up a little for general release?

Something to still consider is how to change back to the default refresh rate (i.e for Live/Recorded TV) once the media file has finished playing? Unless you already have something in your architecture that allows us to determin that, the cleanest way is probably to create an MSAS Sink which resets the display refresh rate whenever Live TV or a Recorded TV item is initiated. I know it's a little clunky but I can't think of a better way to achieve this using the MediaCenter managed code library.

Kind Regards,

Russ.

[RussKingUK]

Are users really not interested in a feature such as this? I have been trying desperately to find a solution to this problem since ReClock stopped working in Windows 7 MCE. Perhaps users already have a strategy to change refresh rates based on the selected media. If so, please ley me know what you are doing as I'd love to know. I'd rather not have a reliance on FFDSHOW though.

Anyway, just in case anybody is taking an interest in this, here is a quick update.

I have changed the way this works slightly. I have borrowed a concept from the the ReClock product. MediaBrowser will now not be responsible for changing the refresh rate itslef. Instead, the only change to MediaBrowser is that a vb script will now be triggered whenever a media item is played. This vb script will be run with various details about the selected media being passed into it as arguments. This would allow power users to then script events which they would like to happen based on the details of the media being played, i.e change refresh rate, resolution, dim the lights, whatever they want.

Now that MediaBrowser is going retail, would something like this be available in the retail product. I would hate to lose this functionality now that I have only just managed to get it back.

[JohnnyFu]

I was looking for such a feature when I installed my first HTPC, three weeks ago. I actually couldn't believe that neither 7MC nor XBMC support refresh rate changing based on the source frame rate.
I don't understand why auto-refresh-rate-changing isn't implemented on the most popular Media Centers for best possible playblack experience.

In the meantime I figured MediaPortal supports auto-switching refresh rate. But since I spend two weeks to setup 7MC/MediaBrowser properly I don't want to swithc to MediaPortal. So I have set my HTPC to 24Hz and only watch 24p sources for now. Btw, there is also a 7MC plugin to change refresh rates, search hack7mc.com

These frame rates should be supported
for PAL (25fps): 50, 75, 100, 120, ... Hz;
for NTSC (29.9fps): 60, 90, 120, ... Hz;
for film (24fps): 48, 72, 96, ... Hz.

In order to prevent tearing and get smooth video playback this is a MUST HAVE feature for every decent Media Center.

kind regards
Johnny

[Riccardo_Margiotta]

I'm guessing you're OSJF on the tracker, so make sure to click the star at the top to vote for that feature. The more votes and therefore the more popular a request is, the more likely the developers are to implement it.

Russ, I'd suggest adding the info in your previous posts to the 'Design' tab of the request.

[JohnnyFu]

Thank you Riccardo, done that.

[genro]

Apparently the latest version of Media Control 6.06 now provides the ability to do auto-refresh rate change without minimizing Media Center! I haven't tested it out yet, but seems promising:

http://damienbt.free.fr/

[slaman]

This is a good idea actually... unfortunately, I can't use it because I need to set my overscan to +15% in ATI's CCC for it to fill my TV screen. If I use Media Control's auto refresh rate changer, it just uses the underscan and there's a thick black border around the video.

[genro]

This is a good idea actually... unfortunately, I can't use it because I need to set my overscan to +15% in ATI's CCC for it to fill my TV screen. If I use Media Control's auto refresh rate changer, it just uses the underscan and there's a thick black border around the video.

I saw your post regarding this on the Media Control forum. That is a bugger...maybe Albain/Damien can look into this.

[aproetz]

If your TV supports JustScan as a screen size option it sorts the problem, set CCC underscan to 0%. Worked for me.