What is Smart View

Smart View is a user configurable combination of non-linear stretch and zoom.

Smart view combines 3 things

1. A configurable amount of non-linear stretch
2. A configurable amount of zoom (cropping)
3. A set of conditions to decide when to apply stretch+crop or do nothing

Smart View 10+10 would be 10% non linear stretch + 10% zoom.

Lets see Smart View with a 2.35:1 film compared to the existing view modes

So how does smart view compared to the default view modes

Normal

Smart view is not necessarily better, but it can reduce the size of the black bars.  You will notice we could control how aggressive the black bar removal was with different smart view settings, we will explain that later.

Non-linear Stretch

You will notice that default non-linear stretch view made the movie look very stretched.  We had to stretch by 32% to remove the black bars.  In Smart 10+10 we only stretched by 10%, but we still had a black bar.  In the more aggressive smart view settings (15+15) we stretched by 15% and were able to completely removed the black bars.  Here is a side by side comparison of the first pictures above.

Zoom

To remove the black bars with the default zoom view we lost 32% of the picture's width (16% from each side).   Here is a visual comparison of how much picture is lost using 32% Zoom 'vs' Smart10+10 'vs' Smart 15+15.

Hypothetical Partial Zoom

Lets imagine we had a partial zoom mode, and let's just zoom enough get the same black bars as Smart 10+10.  To achieve the same black bars size as Smart 10+10 we would need to zoom by 21%.  Here is a comparison of the picture loss with a 21% zoom compared to Smart 10+10

How do we enable smart view in MediaPortal?

You can enable the view mode in mediaportal configuration

Looks simple enough doesn't it? By default smart view is set to 10+10 mode

MediaPortal Expert Configuration

If we have MP configuration on 'expert mode' we can see additional options for smart view

Smart View customization

Prefer stretch vs' Prefer Crop vs' apply both effects

If we have a 1.85:1 video then it only takes ~5% stretch or zoom to make it fit a 16:9 screen.  So this setting lets mediaportal know if you would prefer to stretch or zoom or do a small amount of both.

Do nothing if horizontal resolution matches display

If you have a 1920x817 (2.35:1) HD video playing it will have perfect 1:1 pixel mapping with your 1080P screen.  In this case we may not want to distort the video by stretching or cropping, so we have the option to do nothing and keep our perfect 1:1 pixel mapping for this best quality picture available.

Do not crop/stretch videos less than...

If videos are really low resolution, for example an SD 4:3 360P video, then we may not want to lose what pixels we already have by cropping.  Also these ultra low resolution videos don't take as well to stretching.  In this case we have the option to do nothing and just enlarge the video edges to the screen edges (Same as Normal view mode in mediaportal).

Don't non-linear stretch image more than...

Here we can set the maximum amount of non linear stretch that will be used.  If we wanted to have a partial zoom with no stretching we could set this to 0%

Don't zoom/crop  image more than...

Here we control the maximum amount of zooming/cropping that can occur.  If we wanted to just have a gentle non-linear zoom with no cropping we could set this to 0%

Questions

I just want a configurable zoom percentage I hate stretching the image

You can do this just set stretch=0% and the amount of zoom you would like

Can I leave smart view on all the time?

Yes, if the video is the same AR ratio as the screen you will not get any viewing or cropping

What will smart view look like with a 16:9 video?

If your display is 16:9 then It will look exactly the same as normal view

What will smart view look like with a 4:3 video?

Click here

What will smart view look like with a 1.85:1 video

Click here