Will Magic Lantern remove the "letterbox" HDMI output of my Canon 700d ?

Started by Dihelson, May 05, 2016, 12:42:36 PM

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Dihelson

Hello, fellows,

This is my first post here after many years. Currently, I am planning to use some Canon T5i and 5D Mark II cameras for live broadcast using live view and preview mode along with softwares like wirecast, or even Xsplit to youtube. I never had plugged an HDMI on my cameras before, and to my surprise, when I did it, expecting I would see the whole 16:9 screen filled with image, No way! With 700D, image is letterbox in any 1080 monitor, it´s just a rectangle in the middle of the screen. Using 5D Mark II, even using Magic Lantern 2.3 the image is blurred upon the rectangle and under it, and cropped on the sides ( black bars ), which anyway transforms usable image into a rectangle also. With magic lantern I got to remove the overlays on preview, but can´t get the image to fill up the whole 16:9 I need to broadcast. If I´m not mistaken, I´ve seen people using these cameras for live broadcast through HDMI, and I haven´t seen any letterbox images on it. What´s happening here ? Is there any way magic lantern could fix this, some parameter I am forgetting to set ? BTW, what´s the HDMI outputs of these cameras on preview mode ? 1080p or 1080i ? I connected to an avermedia 1080i PCI capture card and it worked. Some people say that if you plug an HDMI 1080p into a 1080i will not work, or the contrary, plug a 1080i into a 1080p capture card won´t work, is it true ? I´m deciding what a second and a third card should I purchase in order to connect all of them. Thanks in advance.
Canon 5D Mark II, 700D, Panasonic Fz200 | Canon 24-70mm f2.8L | 17-40mm f4.0L | 70-200mm f2.8L IS II | 50mm f1.8 | Blackmagic, Avermedia 4K cards

Dihelson

Well, after almost a week, nobody answered to my question. Although with Magic Lantern I could remove all overlays and even those top and bottom black bars, I could not remove the left and right black bars from the live view of my 700D. If I don´t find a way to fill all screen, I would have to crop image to a 16:9 format, which I will lose resolution. I use it most for live streaming through HDMI output. Capture softwares like Wirecast recognize this output with black bars on the left and right sides.
Canon 5D Mark II, 700D, Panasonic Fz200 | Canon 24-70mm f2.8L | 17-40mm f4.0L | 70-200mm f2.8L IS II | 50mm f1.8 | Blackmagic, Avermedia 4K cards

Dihelson


Since there´s 210 people seeing this topic, I imagine that they want to know the answer too. At least for now, I could find, regarding the question, that with ML, you can remove top and bottom black bars, but not the left and right ones.  DSLR sensor is 3:2 aspect ratio, not 16:9, so, if you use Magic Lantern, you can use parameter remove overlays to "Always" and this will output a 3:2 video through HDMI directly from the whole sensor. In order to get 16:9 aspect, you have to crop. Using softwares like Wirecast for instance, you can crop using the crop and zoom function. Obviously, it won´t be 1920 x 1080 nor 1280 x 720, but something in between, but will be very good and HD. So, for people interested, that´s what I´ve found till now. All the best.
Canon 5D Mark II, 700D, Panasonic Fz200 | Canon 24-70mm f2.8L | 17-40mm f4.0L | 70-200mm f2.8L IS II | 50mm f1.8 | Blackmagic, Avermedia 4K cards

axelcine

Yeah...? Mnjeh? What exactly are you talking about? I own the 700d, but I don't have the HDMI hardware you mention, so I cannot reproduce your setup.
And I'm sure that goes for almost all of us in the ML Universe.

Second: Why on Earth are you using ML 2.03? Use the latest nightly. ALWAYS and EVERY TIME. And when a new update comes around, install that one. ALWAYS. You have a top notch camera. Why feed it with outdated software? 2.03 was a genious's invention, but it has been improved so totally much, that today there is no better software/hardware match.
EOS RP, 5dIII.113/Batt.grip, 5dIII.123, 700d/Batt.Grip/VF4 viewfinder + a truckload of new and older Canon L, Sigma and Tamron glass

Dihelson

Hello, Axelcine, are you sure you replied on the right post ?
What HDMI hardware are you talking about ? I never mentioned here what ML versions I use. On 700D, which I reffer on this topic, I use the latest nightly build version and this topic is about my experiences trying to remove the letterbox HDMI output from the 700D. Many people currently use DSLR canon cameras for live streaming to the internet, as you can see:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EktX-BjnNr8 - DSLR for Wirecast - Part 1
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ArnTRbTIw4 - DSLR Cameras for Broadcasting with Wirecast
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5QwrwGPwjPo - Facebook Livestream From Desktop & DSLR
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g7gk9sp2z6o - Connecting a Camera Directly to Your Wirecast Computer
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=In9GSDLp5Aw - Using Canon cameras as a webcam

Live broadcast is the new fever...

Canon 5D Mark II, 700D, Panasonic Fz200 | Canon 24-70mm f2.8L | 17-40mm f4.0L | 70-200mm f2.8L IS II | 50mm f1.8 | Blackmagic, Avermedia 4K cards

axelcine

Yea, you have me confused quite a bit, because you ask about the HDMI output. And you only get a small picture - letterbox - on an HDMI device.

Both cams are 1080progressive, not interlaced, as far as I can figure out from the manuals. I have never tried to send progressiv to any device demanding interlaced, but I think, you'd normally get problems. But you set one of your cams (which one) up with Avermedia 1080i capture card and it worked. Or did both work? Interesting.

Nahh... you said yourself that even with ML 2.03 the image from your mkII had some flaws - I simply fail to understand why anybody would try that - but then again several people use the old and venerable 2.03 as a sort of reference...

The only thing you can stream live via HDMI is whatever you can display on the rear display screen. And the resolution you get is the same resolution as on the rear LCD. The rear LCD has 920,000 pixels (5dII). That includes the margins that display around the video frame (vertical or horizontal, depending upon the video mode).
EOS RP, 5dIII.113/Batt.grip, 5dIII.123, 700d/Batt.Grip/VF4 viewfinder + a truckload of new and older Canon L, Sigma and Tamron glass

Dihelson


Hi, Axelcine,

Thanks for the information. I confirm everything you said about "HDMI out is what you have on the screen". When in preview, I have great resolution, but if I press the record button, resolution goes down, this is a characteristic. I confirm that the signal is really interlaced, since in one experiment, I input video to an Avermedia card which supports only 1080i and it works nice, but when I input to a Blackmagic card which we need to choose resolution first, all of them failed ( 1080p, etc ) ( black screen ), but 1080i 59fps works fine. Thanks for the insights and replies on this question. I see you have great knowledge on DSLRs which I hope you share with us, mostly these parts related to the HDMI output, which I still have some little doubts.
Canon 5D Mark II, 700D, Panasonic Fz200 | Canon 24-70mm f2.8L | 17-40mm f4.0L | 70-200mm f2.8L IS II | 50mm f1.8 | Blackmagic, Avermedia 4K cards

axelcine

Thanks for the kind words - I'm not sure I deserve them. I'm really not that experienced with streaming video, but I'm like a little child when it comes to experimenting. You gave me several interesting inputs, so I'll be back when I think I have a workable plan. There must be more than one way to get a video stream out of the cams - will the resolution be satisfactory? Good luck.
EOS RP, 5dIII.113/Batt.grip, 5dIII.123, 700d/Batt.Grip/VF4 viewfinder + a truckload of new and older Canon L, Sigma and Tamron glass