Wolf359

I hope someone can help, I just got service and for some reason, several channels are showing up as window boxed. The HD and the standard (non digital) channels seem to display correctly, its only certain digital chanells that are giving me trouble. Discovery, History, Travel, Science Channel, and a couple others. Thoughts, please?



I have a Motorola HD DVR hooked up through HDMI. And if anyone else has this service or box, I can't figure out how to access any kind of service menu with this sucky remote. Settings button seems to do NOTHING.

CKMorpheus

Could they be HD channels playing 4x3 video?

Jay G.

Or 4:3 channels showing letterboxed programing on a HDTV? I know those channels show a lot of letterboxed programming nowadays.

Is this what it looks like?



If so, that's normal. If you want to view this programming full screen, you'll have to use the zoom function on your TV. Just remember to unzoom when watching 4:3 programming.

Jay G.

I'm guessing you have a Motorola Dual-Tuner DVR High-Definition Set-Top DCT6412?
http://broadband.motorola.com/dvr/dct6412.asp

If so, I don't know what remote they gave you, because the one shown in the user guide doesn't show a "settings" button, but it does show a "menu" and "guide" button.

Wolf359

Thanks very much Jay G.

My box is actually a DCH3416 and the "menu" button brings up just standard stuff like the guide. There is a "Settings" button that doesn't seem to do anything.

And yes, that picture is exactly what some channels are giving me. A 4:3 picture with pillar bars, but also letterboxed.

Jay G.

According to the manual for that box, found here:
http://www.motorola.com/business/v/i...RD&localeId=33

To get to the service menu, you have to turn the box of, then turn in back on and immediately press the "menu" button. Section 5 of the manual, "OPTIMIZING YOUR DCH RECEIVER FOR HIGH-DEFINITION TV," details the options.

Again, this is normal. The channels are 4:3, which is all your cablebox and TV know. When these channels show letterboxed material, neither the TV nor cablebox have any way of automatically detecting it. So you'll have to manually zoom in your TV when watching letterboxed programming.

I've had digital cable with an HDTV for a few years now, and I'm almost constantly switching between zooming in on a letterboxed image to fill the screen and zooming out to watch 4:3 material pillarboxed. It's something you'll just have to get used to, at least until you get more of these channels in HD.

Xbox69

I have a friend who has an HD set-up and subscribes to the programming thru Comcast. They have specific HD channels even for the local affiliates.

For example, our ABC affiliate is channel 13. The HD equivalent of that is on 313 and in order to view the HD quality picture (if available) one would need to tune to that HD channel and have all the appropriate settings. Zoom on the HD box should be set to "Normal", in other words --no zoom--. TV is set to 16 x 9. I've seen this on local news broadcasts that are in HD. The entire screen is filled, no ZOOM. Network shows that are letterboxed are usually broadcast in HD although they only appear letterboxed when viewing thru their standard output channel. When you tune to the HD channel it should appear in 16 x 9 at no ZOOM mode.

This has been my limited experience with HD since I myself still have an SD set-up.

EDIT: Another thing my friend had were the component cables coming from the cable box although he failed to change the source of the TV. All his HD programming was appearing fuzzy and even letterboxed when viewed thru their HD output channels. TV was also set to "stetch" mode.

Wolf359

Thanks again, Jay G. . I haven't had cable television in years, not since buying my 16x9 set. I had no idea that picture was normal and I've always thought that using the zoom or stretch feature was something to be avoided.