622 question: Able to quickly toggle resolutions?

[DannyR]

Just got my new 622 setup. One thing I'd hoped they would have fixed by now is the ability to quickly switch resolutions between HD and SD.

Perhaps I'm just overlooking this, but thus far I don't see such an option.

I have an older Sony 4:3 TV, that does a vertical squeeze when it sees a 1080i signal. Looks great, so I want my HD channels to stay at 1080i. Problem is, when I switch to a non HD channel, I'd like the resolution to jump down to 480p, so it will bump back to 4:3 mode.

Anyway to do this quickly short of always going to the HD setup menu and changing the resolution?

FYI, I know hitting the * button changes zoom modes... this isn't what I'm talking about.

 

[Hall]

No

 

[BigFella]

Have you tried the "Format" button (bottom left on the Dish remote)? You may be able to stretch the picture to fill your 4:3 screen.

*Nevermind - I guess this button only works for HD, not SD programming.

 

[kstuart]

Sounds like an area that the Engineering Department needs to focus on.

We are going into a period of a mixture of HD and SD programming for most people.

The receiver should deal with those issues, not the user.

 

[DannyR]

I mentioned it in another thread, but I'll mention it again here (maybe someone at Dish will actually read this suggestion).

The best way in my mind of dealing with this is to replace the current HDTV control with a more robust one allowing just a few more options.

Currently the receiver gets various resolutions, looks to see what resolution you set, and then outputs that.

Just change that procedure call to allow more options, so that rather than alwasy converting to a set resolution and having to manually change it for each input, your reciever is able to determine your output based on the input.

So rather than set the receiver to always output 1080i for instance, you could tell it something for each of the major resolutions:

For instance I'd set something like this for my TV:

IN -> OUT
1080i -> 1080i
720p -> 1080i
480p -> 480p
480i -> 480p

Just allowing four setting versus the current one would solve a LOT of problems here. The internal code would probably ony differ by a line or two for the actual checks... I see programming the interface as the hard part. Seriously DISH, if you need some help here, let me know. Its an easy fix!

 

[kstile]

I have the same kind of TV - what you're looking for is what is called Native Passthrough - the 622 should pass the signal in the resolution of the programming. We were promised this as a software upgrade many months ago, so maybe, someday, it will come.

In the meantime, what I do is use the S-Video output in addition to the HDMI (to DVI on my Sony). When I'm on an HD channel, I have the TV set to Video 7 (my DVI) but when I am tuned to an SD channel, I switch the TV's video input to Video 3 (I think - wherever the S-video plugs into the TV).

It's not an ideal solution since it requires switching the TV's input. I also have a Harmony remote (720) and have "Watch SD" and "Watch HD" activities that do the switching for me.

Keep an eye out for Native Passthrough and, hopefully, this will fix the problem for those of us with 4:3 HDTVs.

 

[DannyR]

But again, native passthrough won't work for everyone because not every TV accepts every resolution. Mine won't accept 720p at all... you HAVE to have a resolution by resolution system asking what prefered output you want.

 

[Hall]

No one is suggesting that Dish eliminate the other "forced" output options, simply *add* another one for "Pass-through".

 

[StevenZ]

A Technical Support nightmare?

I know that my TV takes a couple of seconds to lock on to any new resolution I select on my 622. So if the 622 offered native passthrough, every time I changed to a channel with a different resolution, my TV would make it appear to take 'forever' to get to the new channel. I wonder if Dish decided to stall on the release of native passthrough because they didn't want to deal with customer complaints.

In other words, do you think they figured there are fewer of us complaining about the lack of native passtrhough than the number who would complain that turning it on makes the 622 look broken?

After all, this thread is about the ability to quickly toggle resolutions, and native passthrough highlights that (at least some) TVs take a while to handle new ones.

 

[Hall]

Yes, that is a downside with many TVs (mine included) if you select multiple output resolutions or "native". My Time Warner HD set-top had this option and on top of the slight delay you get when changing digital channels, you then get an added delay while the TV flickers, snaps, and pops to adjust resolution.

 

[Miner]

I'm ressurecting this thread while searching for info about resolutions and screen size and ratio. My brother has a 7 year old Sony 36" wega recently upgraded to an HR20. From the sounds of DannyR, when in 1080 mode, the TV will only display 16:9 with letterbox regardless of the settings in HR20. Other than selecting native mode, is there any way to display 4:3 programming in the full screen?

I'm used to Dish equip and have used them with (other than Sony) 4:3 displays. Finding the right setup 4:3 #1 or 4:3 #2 makes it easy with the Dish equip to "zoom" to full screen when watching 4:3 material. I set the HR20 to 4:3 display but don't get the results as with my Dish stuff.

Is it me? Is it DirecTV? Or is it Sony?

Miner

 

[osu1991]

You probably need to ask someone in the Directv forum that uses their equipment.