Hacking Windows 7 Media Center

Default TV/Video Zoom Registry Settings

by Michael Healy @ 9:15 am on April 27th, 2009 in dvd ripping, tv listings, windows 7 with 10 Comments

It seems that this technique doesn’t solve the situation for most users and we’re looking for another method for correcting the zoom setting issue. If you have any suggestions or tips be sure to post a comment below.

Zoom Sometimes it seems that while browsing through the channels Media Center has it’s own opinion on what zoom level should be used for certain content. Well, the short answer is that it does. There are a few registry settings that will let you change the default zoom setting for specific types of video content.

Currently, Media Center saves default zoom modes for four different areas: ASTA/ClearQAM, DVD, TV (Analog) and Video. Each of these settings is assigned a value from 0-3 corresponding with the four zoom modes:

0. Normal
1. Stretch Standard to Wide
2. Stretch Wide to Standard (Cropping Sides)
3. Smart Stretch

To edit the default values for these video modes open regedit in Administrator mode (start –> type “regedit” –> ctrl+shift+enter) and navigate to:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Media Center\Settings\VideoSettings

On the right scroll down until you find “ZoomMode_ATSC”, “ZoomMode_DVD”, “ZoomMode_TV” and “ZoomMode_Video”. Double-click any of these entries and replace it with the value from above to set the default zoom mode for that mode.

Update: Some users are reporting that their registry entries are still being changed by Media Center. To prevent this right-click the VideoSettings key and select “Permissions”. In the Permissions dialog press the “Advanced” button, select each of the users listed and press “Edit”. Select the checkbox to Deny “Set Value” to each of these users. This will prevent the registry entries from being changed by Media Center.

Unfortunately, after changing these values to deny writing Media Center ignores these values completely. If anyone comes across a solution for this conundrum let us know in the comments below!

10 Comments

Comment #479 from StephenBarash [Reply]

Doesn’t work for me. Made the change, started MC and I change a channel to an SD to normal, and all the channels including the HD channels change to normal. Change a channel to zoom, and they all change to zoom.

Hmm, maybe its because my HD channels come from QAM and not ATSC?

Comment left April 28, 2009 at 10:55 pm Permanent Link

PAtriarken
Comment #480 from PAtriarken [Reply]

The default zoomlevel regentries, gets changed each time you are pressing the zoom button(via Details or directly using ctrl+shift+z)

Modifying these entries via regedit is stupid at best. You will need a background application to store and maintain a mirror registry entries allong side say a channel entry. The Zoom level preference for a particular channel can then be invoked after the channel changes.

Comment left April 28, 2009 at 11:54 pm Permanent Link
Comment #484 from Richard Miller [Reply]

Seeing the same problem, I am using ASTC and DirecTV HD (using S-Video cable) Media Center is completely ignoring the registry settings.
DirecTV is set to zoom 3 and ASTC is set to zoom 1, if I channel up or down to a HD channel on DirecTV say “CNN HD” channel 202 Media Center will ignore the zoom 3 setting in the registry and Media Center thing it’s a real HD channel will reset the registry for TV to zoom 1

Comment left April 29, 2009 at 12:24 pm Permanent Link
Comment #495 from Bear64 [Reply]

Thanks for the update Michael. I think these keys are completely ignored, but appreciate your effort.

Stephen

Comment left April 30, 2009 at 11:57 pm Permanent Link

Steve
Comment #5687 from Steve [Reply]

In the UK on terrestrial freeview, which transmits aspect ratio flags, stepping up and down with the Ch+/Ch- buttons results in MC7 ignoring the aspect ratio. However, changing channel from a 16:9 programme to another channel showing 4:3 picture results in the correct aspect ratio being set.
I think there might be something a bit more fundamental going one here!

Comment left December 14, 2009 at 5:19 pm Permanent Link

Richard Miller
Comment #6506 from Richard Miller [Reply]

DirecTV guide in Media Center has now removed the HD logo, check your guide in Win7 and see if the aspect ratio fixed.

Comment left January 10, 2010 at 12:19 pm Permanent Link
Comment #6792 from Eros [Reply]

So if i understand, there’s no solution to assign a particular zoom setting to a specific channel and store this setting for future use ?

I’m getting crazy to find out a solution as i already found for different DVB players (as ProgDVB does), to set ZOOM on a CHANNEL and auto save it.

If anyone got the solution…please drop me a line…
Thanks

Comment left January 20, 2010 at 9:01 am Permanent Link

Terrman
Comment #10139 from Terrman [Reply]

This worked fine in Vista, but is apparently broken (or excluded) in Win7? Geez Microsoft, how did you let this fall through the cracks and why hasn’t an update/fix be produced?

I mean come on, this is a real issue – fix it!

Comment left April 23, 2010 at 12:56 pm Permanent Link

leinieman
Comment #10798 from leinieman [Reply]

It’s extremely irritating and difficult to explain to my wife who wants to go back to her (4) VCR’s. Helllp!

Comment left May 9, 2010 at 9:58 am Permanent Link

Andrew Mc
Comment #13535 from Andrew Mc [Reply]

Hi, I have had windows 7 reinstalled (two weeks ago) after having to replace a motherboard,etc and only have the zoom issue now. Beforehand it kept the zoom 3 setting no worries, without resetting to zoom 1 like it does now. I will continue to play with basic settings and see what I can find out.

Andrew.

Comment left July 6, 2010 at 6:11 am Permanent Link

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