811 zoom function on 4:3 TV

[kb7oeb]

I was thinking about purchasing an 811 reciever and I had a question about the zoom feature. I have a 4:3 tv set. I want to be able to crop the 16:9 content to 4:3 so it looks normal on my tv. I have done this using my computer and it works fine since most tv shows are cropped anyway for the SD broadcasts. Does the zoom feature on the 811 do this? The manual online is not clear.

Thanks

 

[rhasselbaum]

I'm not sure about the behavior on 4:3 TVs, but I can say that the online manual is out of date with respect to picture modes. There are more than it indicates.

 

[Barry Erick]

I still have a 4:3 hd tv (5 years old.... 99% of content was 4:3 so I opeted for less burns...stetch and price of 16:9 stunk then).
The zoom modes can do what you ask for. You can run HD in SD mode of Normal (letterbox) or zoom (full screen) or HD mode (with zoom, normal, graybar)

 

[chevyN8]

In the 811 setup, you 'tell' it you have a 4:3 TV...it's an option.

 

[kb7oeb]

In the 811 setup, you 'tell' it you have a 4:3 TV...it's an option.

Usually that will cause the 16:9 signal to be letterboxed, I want to crop it so that it fills the whole 4:3 screen

 

[ajohnson]

Usually that will cause the 16:9 signal to be letterboxed, I want to crop it so that it fills the whole 4:3 screen

You are correct, in "normal" mode that will happen. "Zoom" should do what you want.

 

[Cholly]

I was thinking about purchasing an 811 reciever and I had a question about the zoom feature. I have a 4:3 tv set. I want to be able to crop the 16:9 content to 4:3 so it looks normal on my tv. I have done this using my computer and it works fine since most tv shows are cropped anyway for the SD broadcasts. Does the zoom feature on the 811 do this? The manual online is not clear.

Thanks

I have a Sony 4:3 HD set and an 811. I'm using the DVI output of the 811 to feed the TV. When viewing an HD channel, the 16:9 output of the 811 is letterboxed, regardless of the zoom setting on the 811. I haven't tried this with the component video output, so am not certain as to how it would behave. The HD zoom settings of the 811 have no effect on the S-Video output. However, when viewing a 16:9 picture via the S-video output, the SD zoom settings DO give you the desired effect. Full zoom gives you a full 4:3 picture, cutting off content on the left and right.
You should realize that you ARE losing picture content. This is not the same as say, watching a full frame dvd versus a widescreen dvd. When creating a full frame dvd, the producers use a "pan and scan" technique, selecting the area of each scene that has the most content of interest (from left, right or center of the widescreen image) at any given time.

 

[BFG]

Like others have said, The zoom modes for croping everything but the middle 4:3 of the picture on HD and digital signals, but it only works on the SD outputs. So if your TV is a 4:3 HDTV it's not going to work.

 

[dcarpa]

the 4X3 option#2 will do this

It all depends on what the TV can do. Some 4X3 TV's will automatically put any hidef image into a letterbox so the zoom thing on the 811 isnt going to fix it, but some 4X3 TVs dont do this and thats what the 4X3 option #2 in the HD settings menu does - in this case the 811 will send out a letterbox pic if the signal is Hidef, or if its not you can either have the image zoom to full screen or be the 4X3 small picture with letterboxing all around.

The box can do this if the TV doesnt automatically trigger the HiDef pic into the 16X9 window - the number of TVs like this are somewhat rare, but enough that Dish added the option