Anybody using a HDTV with a FTA box?

[Mr Tony]

Now this may sound stupid but hear me out.

I am thinking of getting a HDTV soon and I would be hooking both the Coolsat 8000 & 5000 to it. Now here is where I get confused

I know if you are on a HD channel and the show is in SD you have those bars on the side. I have a Voom box for OTA hooked to my 27" TV in the bedroom so I know this to be true. SD channels are fine and fills out the whole TV

How does that work on a HDTV? I know if I am watching a HDTV channel on say the 8000 and something is in SD (commercial) the bars would show up. But what if I am watching a regular channel....will it fill out the whole screen?

Like I say I'm sorry if this sounds stupid but I've never really thought of getting a HDTV until recently.

 

[SatinKzo]

I don't have an HD FTA box, but My Trio (and all other boxes I have had) on my HDTV filled the screen.

 

[BKP]

I have an Emerson 32" LCD HDTV Widescreen and can't pick up any OTA HDTV, I'm in the sticks, so all SD programming has black bars on the left and right sides.. Basically, I'm watching a 29" square picture with SD, I haven't measured it..

Hope this helps..

Later, Brent

 

[digiblur]

It all depends on the channel. Some will stretch the 4:3 to fill the screen. Some will put black pillar bars. ESPN puts their logo bars. If you are watching SD on your TV you can watch with pillar bars or hit the aspect button and stretch the picture.

 

[dfergie]

It all depends on the channel. Some will stretch the 4:3 to fill the screen. Some will put black pillar bars. ESPN puts their logo bars. If you are watching SD on your TV you can watch with pillar bars or hit the aspect button and stretch the picture.

Thats what I do sometimes is use stretch with my 5000...

 

[Anole]

It depends on the TV, and its settings.

I have a Syntax 542i, 42" LCD.
It has its own ATSC (terrestrial) tuner, so if I'm receiving SD digital or analog, the picture normally has black bars to each side.
If I'm receiving HD, then the picture fills out the screen, all the way to both sides.

The set also has two Composite (standard RCA video), two Svideo, two Component video, two VGA/DVI, and an HDMI input, in addition to the tuner.
On this set, you can choose for each input, how the video is handled.
Unfortunately, I don't think you can set it to intelligently handle varying inputs on one source connector.

On this particular TV, the video display choices include:
a). for 4:3 source, fill top to bottom, black bars left & right
b). for 4:3 source, fill top to bottom, stretch video to left & right edge of display
c). for 4:3 source, fit to screen left & right, with top & bottom clipped off display

I have a subscribed standard def PVR plugged into one Svideo connector, set to mode (a)
I had the same PVR hooked via RCA into one of the composite inputs, and set to mode (c)
When watching some Formula One racing, I thought it was a waste of the screen to have the black bars on each side.
So, I would switch the TV set to the input using display mode (c)
That zoomed-in picture was fine for a while.
Eventually, I decided to switch to using the mode (b), as the distortion of the picture didn't matter when watching car racing.

Yes, you can go into the menu and change the display mode for any input, but that takes time.
That is why I used the above shortcut.

 

[BKP]

If you are watching SD on your TV you can watch with pillar bars or hit the aspect button and stretch the picture.

Yeah, but, who wants to watch freakie looking little people.. Hahaha

The only time I change the screen mode is when I'm watching a widescreen DVD than I set the screen mode to FULL and that fills the entire screen..

Iceberg check out this HD forum, lots of great info.. High Def Forum - Your High Definition Community & High Definition Resource

 

[voomvoom]

Tony, it also depends on the "Output" from the CS8000, the CS5000 should be the same you can already get. But, if you have the CS8000 output set for 1080i or 720p, then it will depend on the HDTV. Some HDTV will allow you to change the screen size, and some won't allow for you to change the screen size? There are a lot of things to consider (just trying to make sure your plate is full), such as how many inputs to get with your HDTV. Get an HDTV with at least one Component input and one HDMI input, but the more HD capable inputs, the better. And, since you already have several DVB receivers, make sure it has lots of A/V jacks for them. Good Luck on your choice of HDTV!

Al

 

[ghia]

My Hitachi HDTV has a partial zoom setting that I use with a CS5K. It allows the screen to be filled completely but does not distort the image as bad as the regular stretch mode. It does cut off part of the top and the bottom of the picture to achieve this. This is the biggest issue most people deal with when moving to a widescreen set. It really depends on the stretch / zoom modes of the tv and what you can live with. The real issue is not if it is hd or sd, but is the source 4:3 16:9 etc. Also keep in mind that some widescreen material will have black bars on the top and bottom even though you have a widescreen tv. These movies usually have a ratio of 2.35:1

 

[VinceT3]

my coolsat is connected to my 32" 720p lcd tv.. shows up fine.. I switch between stretched view or normal (with bars on the sides which I prefer)

you run into the same issues with everything that doesn't support hd like dvds, game consoles, vcrs (if anyone has them still), tivo, etc..

 

[Mr Tony]

OK so even if I use the red/yellow/white plugs on the CS5000 it still will be boxed...unless I can stretch it

The 8000 I would have to do the same??

Weird...I figured if it was SD channel it would automatically fill the picture...guess not

 

[osu1991]

Most hd receivers , whether FTA, OTA, Cable or Subscription Sat have a setting in the menus where you can tell it how to send a 480I signal and an hd 720p or 1080i signal. My 1st HDTV a JVC I have a Sony OTA hd dvr hooked up. The JVC input is set to Full which is widescreen and in the Sony menus I have it set for wide zoom on 480i content and Full for hd content. That same tv also has a dish 522 hooked up, for it I have the video input on the tv set to wide zoom. Since everything the 522 sends out is 480i so the tv does all the work on that input and the Sony dvr does all the work for HD. The wide zoom does cut off part of the top and bottom but it's not much about a quarter of the sports ticker on ESPN News is chopped. You just have to fool around with the settings until you get it the way you like it. The 622 on my Sony HDTV works the same, but I am at the lake right now and can't look at thee menus to see how I have them set. I'm wanting an FTA receiver to go with the big dish I just brought home and am leaning toward the CS8000 so I'll have to add it to the mix somewhere.

 

[wildboys]

OK so even if I use the red/yellow/white plugs on the CS5000 it still will be boxed...unless I can stretch it

The 8000 I would have to do the same??

Weird...I figured if it was SD channel it would automatically fill the picture...guess not

I have a coolsat 5000 connected to a 57
inch HDTV and the sd 4x3 picture fills the screen.

 

[VinceT3]

OK so even if I use the red/yellow/white plugs on the CS5000 it still will be boxed...unless I can stretch it

The 8000 I would have to do the same??

Weird...I figured if it was SD channel it would automatically fill the picture...guess not

the tv will give you options like stretch (fat looking faces) crop (takes some off the top and bottom so it looks normal) some do some interesting stretch where it stretches the ends out but not the middle so it looks like 16x9 without being 100% weird looking..

the 8000 will display what it can in HD, but everything else will be stretch-o-vision or side bars..

 

[Tron]

If you are a purist and don't want any of the 4:3 picture to be cropped, you will have a pillarboxed image (bars on the left and right side). Stretching is out of the question for me, I'd prefer the bars.

Of course, all HD content is 16:9, so that isn't a problem. But my HDTV is a 4:3 CRT model, so it displays SD 4:3 normally but letterboxes HD... Any way you approach it, there's going to be a compromise when you are viewing mixed SD and HD programming.

 

[Mr Tony]

Thanks guys for the info. The 8000 I figured would do the bars on the side if the channel wasn't HD. I know right now on my SDTV the SD programming fills the box and HD the sides are missing (very noticeable watching hockey games or the race)

I have a coolsat 5000 connected to a 57
inch HDTV and the sd 4x3 picture fills the screen.

Did you have to do anything different to the TV or does it just automatically fill the screen?

 

[BKP]

Stretching is out of the question for me, I'd prefer the bars.

I agree...

Anyway, what size are you thinking about Iceberg.. An LCD, Plasma, Projector or another CRT.. There are so many options now, it's unreal.. I would do plenty of research and buy local..

 

[duchen]

Coolsat 8000 in HD

Ice: I recommend the HDTV. The HD picture through the 8000 is amazing (particularly with my 10 foot dish). In one of my other postings the other day, I listed my perception of the quality in order of preference. Best guess, even with your 6 foot dishes, you will still get a great picture.

There are not a huge number of HD channels yet, but there are also the backhauls to be found.

The 8000 does not put up the columns unless you set it up in the menu. So, for example, on the SD stations, they generally fill the screen. You can change the setting on the unit to view in 4:3 mode; then you get the bars.

I have my Coolsat video connected to a 50" 1080 Samsung DLP with red, green and blue and the picture is amazing. (I also have it connected by HDMI, but like the component cables better, for whatever reason). (DLP is cheaper than plasma or LCD and makes more sense if the TV is not being hung on the wall).

BTW: The picture on SD is really good, too. The 5000 also has component connections.

(Use an outdoor antenna for locals).

A agree with VOOM VOOM on multiple HD compatible inputs with your set up; the more the better.

 

[duchen]

PS; Contrast Ratio

BTW; the contrast ration on the HDTV is important; the higher the better (particularly for larger sets).

There are a ton of labor day sales in the paper here.