Windowboxed 'widescreen' Broadcast question/gripe
 

I've noticed this from my NBC affliate here in DC, that once in a while a widescreen show or special: i,e: the King Kong promo (not the initial HiDef trailer) being centered in the middle of the screen with black boxes around the image - I really doubt this is how it's supposed to be seen this way, right? Or is it? Why would this occur?

It's not in HD. Thats' what happens when something is shown in widescreen but not broadcast in HD on an HD channel.

Funniest thing this season was the first airing (that I saw) of the Sony HD commercial during football. Sony sponsored the NFL this year with their new SXRD HDTVs. First commercial? Sent in SD, looked like crap.

i've got an HD ready widescreen tv.

when i turn to the HD channels, the picture seems "squeezed" from the top and the bottom.

:mad:

Can you post a photo (or maybe make a mock-up in Photoshop) describing what you mean? Presumably either your set-top box or your TV is misconfigured.

Do you have an HD tuner or Cable box? To me it sounds like something is set to 4:3 rather than 16:9.

i have a HD box from comcast.

i called them up and the douchebag who answered my call said he knows exactly what i'm talking about and there's nothing i can do about it.

i can switch my tv from "widescreen" to 16:9 mode, but it seems like that's just zooming into the HD feed and I'm missing out on the true HD.

maybe i need glasses or maybe something's not right with the setup, but I'm not awed by the HD. Yeah, it looks a little better, but I was expecting to be born unto new worlds where the HD becomes my key.

Check your cable box, too. There should be a setting for 16:9 TV on there, as well.

It sounds like your cable box is outputting 4:3 material (same as a non-anamorphic DVD) and your TV's Widescreen mode is stretching it horizontally, but not vertically. 16:9 is probably the correct mode in the TV, but check the cable box first because you don't want it stretched at all. It should just be native 16:9.

Also, make sure you are looking at an HD program on an HD channel. For instance, my dad's local channels come through Comcast, but the HD version of channel 11 (local NBC) is really channel 232 or something like that through comcast. If he puts it on 11, he is seeing the SDTV version.

if there's a setting on the cable box for 16:9, they've hidden it VERY well. there's a button on the comcast remote that says "HD zoom" and when I press that button, a display pops up on the screen that toggles among "1080i Normal," "1080i Zoom" and "1080i Stretch," but other than the text of the display, nothing changes.that's exactly what is happening.give me a little credit, will ya? ;) I'm not that dumb.

HD is 16x9, so there's no need for a 16x9 setting.

What type of cables are you using? Is there a way to verify that your set top box is outputting in HD? Can you list the model number of your STB?

It's not a resolution setting, it's a TV setting. All my DVD players and DTivos have the choice, strange if the cable box doesn't. Usually called Aspect Ratio or TV Type, something like that. In my HDTivo sat box, there is one for TV Aspect Ratio and one like your 1080 setting, if I understand it correctly:

The 1080 mode probably refers to how SD will be output, the HD 16:9 stuff should be unaffected. Keep in mind that Comcast or the actual channel may be converting SD to HD before it gets to you, so SD shows on HD channels would not be affected by the setting, either.

Is it a Motorola box? If so, on the front panel hit Power and then Menu to bring up the service menu. This is where you can set your aspect ratio defaults. Sounds like the box may be configured wrong.

How are you connecting from box to set? If you are not using component or HDMI/DVI then you are not getting HD out to the set.

You basically came on asking for help, and then when you are given stuff to check, you get defensive.

the box is a "Scientific American Explorer 3250HD."

the cable comes from my wall to this box, then from the box to my tv via component cables.

I guess I'm confused because when I upgraded from a 4:3 tube to a widescreen LCD, I had to reconfigure my DVD player to let it "know" that the screen was 16:9 instead of 4:3. I don't know if I need to "tell" the box that my TV is not 4:3, and if I do, I can't find any way in the settings menu to make that switch.

http://img224.imageshack.us/img224/3721/hdhelp6yf.jpg

if i set my TV to widescreen and pop in a widescreen DVD, it fills the screen (like the top image)

but if i set my TV to widescreen and tune into on of the HD channels, it doesn't fill the entire screen (like the bottom image).

It looks like your set-top box is downconverting and letterboxing the HD image. You're watching a high-definition channel, but you're not watching it in high-definition.

Read this. It'll explain how to set up the box properly:
http://www.openband.net/pdf_files/SA...etupWizard.pdf

i was about to reach through my computer and hug and kiss you, but playing around with that tutorial, nothing I do seems to make any difference on the screen.

This is extremely frustrating.

But I appreciate anyone who's coming up with ideas to help.

edit: maybe there is something wrong with the box, because the audio on the HD channels seems to have some noise/interference.

I think your problem might be that you are watching the cable feed (meaning the cable coming out of your wall) instead of the component feed from the cable box. Check to see if the guy who set up your box also plugged in the cable to the TV, because your TV might be defaulting to that feed instead of your component feed. If you just watch the cable feed you are going to get a really shitty looking picture. My friend had the same issue, and once we fixed it, he was impressed with the picture; before we did, he was more than a little underwhelmed.

It does sound like it might be a bad cable box. You should see if they'll exchange it.

I think you're onto something.

the cable guy did leave the cable feed plugged into the TV. So I unplugged the cable and just left the component wires in. NO PICUTRE, NO SOUND. So then took the component wirees out and put the regular cable back in, and everything looks exactly like it did with the component wires plugged in, so it seems quite obvious that the component cables aren't doing anything.

In addition to the sound having some static and interference, the volume for the digital channels is a lot lower than the volume for the regular channels.

Last night, I was watching a little Discovery Channel HD, and I did think it was probably the clearest picture I've ever seen on TV, when I was switching back and forth between basketball on TNT and TNT HD, the pictures looked equally clear.

okay, I'm a total retard. I was watching TV on the TV mode and didn't switch the TV to the CV-1 input.

once i did that, things look a lot better.

apologies to Spikey, I guess I am that dumb!

Okay, similar question. I am fairly new to the HDTV family and was wondering why movies shown on channels like Sundance Channel, IFC, or Turner Classic Movies are window-boxed sometimes. I have an "HDTV Capable" cable box from Comcast and a Sony 34" widescreen TV. There are four different modes - Normal, Full, Zoom, and Wide Zoom. I typically seem to leave it on Normal for everything (DVDs too as they seem to automatically adjust accordingly to the AR of the film). What I am interested in knowing is for watching TV. I don't understand what AR would result in films being shown with black bars on all four sides.

I have through this thread but the replies don't seem to apply to my "problem". Is my TV set incorrectly? There is no 16:9 switch or anything like that on my cable box and the box is connected via component cables only. I hope this makes sense. Thank you for any advice....

My comcast cable box remote does not have that "HD Zoom" button. Is yours a Motorola box? I am just wondering if I was given the wrong remote or something....

Your TV should have a 'zoom' mode (my Sony HD-CRT did, at least) to let letterboxed, standard-definition material fill the screen.

Thank you Adam. There is a normal, full, zoom, and wide zoom mode. I just didn't know why something would be broadcast like that anyway as I don't remember any of my DVDs being displayed with window-boxing. For instance, IFC is showing Fargo right now and it is in window-boxed. I just didn't know what that was really. But you have answered it for me - letterboxed, standard def.

Thanks again....