Aspect Ratio – Exacq

Why do these areas appear?

When displaying camera streams in Live mode in the ExacqVision Desktop Client you may notice gray or black “bars” to the side or above and below the image. This is due to conflicting display aspect ratios.

The Client software adapts the live camera viewing panel(s) to the video stream provided. It does this to prevent cropping the stream displayed, preventing you from seeing activity in the camera’s field of view.

Black will appear within the individual camera panels.

Gray will appear outside the camera panels filling in the display window area.

Conflicts may arise when:

Your cameras stream a different aspect ratio than your displaying monitor.
Example: Your monitor is 16×9 and the operating system is set to a resolution that matches a 16×9 aspect ratio, but your cameras are streaming 4×3 aspect streams.
You are displaying multiple camera streams that have different aspect ratios.
Example: You are currently displaying three streams that are 4×3 and one that is 16×9.
You are displaying one or more fisheye streams that are not dewarped. Fisheye streams that are not dewarped will always display circular with black regions filling the areas outside this circle since the live panel is rectangular.

NOTE: These should not be confused with camera Association toolbars which permit you to select the color and opacity of the background that appears under Association icons.

Client Settings

The ExacqVision Desktop Client software provides some controls on how you wish to adapt the Live display within each client instance.

Navigating to Configuration mode, using the gear icon from the top-left tool bar, then highlighting the Client node near the top of the navigation tree opens the Client settings page.

Under the Video Panels section is a drop-down selector for Panel Size. This will default to the Content setting.

Content – Each panel adapts to fit the stream assigned to it. The predominate stream aspect ratio “wins”. If three of the four streams displayed are 4×3 then the one 16×9 stream will be fit into the window using “bars” to make up the empty space inside the panel.
Window – Panels will resize based on the aspect ratio of the ExacqVision Client window. A free-floating window can be resized/reshaped as the user desires. As the aspect ratio changes the camera panels displaying “bars” will change to suit. A maximized Client window will cause the panels to respect the aspect ratio the operating system uses.
16×9 – Forces all panels to remain in 16×9 aspect ratio regardless of the ratio of the Client window.
4×3 – Forces all panels to remain in 4×3 aspect ratio regardless of the ratio of the Client window.

As mentioned above, the ExacqVision software adapts to prevent any one camera stream from being cropped to prevent a user from missing activity occurring in the camera’s field of view.

If this is problematic for the site/user, the best solution is installing and/or configuring all cameras for the same aspect ratio. Avoiding empty areas outside of the camera panels may also mean making sure that your display matches the necessary aspect ratio.