Can't do letterbox with 480P into a 4:3 monitor

[Chad N.]

I am running the Voom box to my LCD monitor via a component to VGA transcoder.

The LCD is a 15" with a native resolution of 1024x768 that does not support 16:9 resolutions (it stretches 16:9 to 4:3), nor does it support 480i, 720P, or 1080i at all.

No matter what I do, I cannot get the Voom box to display letterbox in 480P. I have tried every possible combination in the "picture format" menu, and whatever I do has no effect. The 16:9 image remains stretched to 4:3 with no black bars at the top and bottom. And yes, I hit the "save settings" button.

I have tried several soft reboots, unplugging the unit, and even a CRT monitor and a SD TV. The Voom box acts as if the "picture format" settings are disabled and it is stuck in stretch mode.

I have v16 firmware and v02.4C software. Am I stuck with the stretched image?

 

[lilyarbie]

picture format menu

From my experience, I have never been able to do anything other than stretch through component cables. The picture modes do work on S-video, but only when the resolution mode is set to anything other than 480 interlaced. It may do the same on the composite and RF connections, but I don't use anything of less quality than component input or S-video input. I have a 35" Sanyo analog television that I use my receiver on. Even though I cannot take advantage of the letterbox mode, my television has the capability of 16:9 screen compression which allows all of the scan lines to be painted over enough of the middle of the tube to create a 16:9 ratio within the 4:3 ratio of the tube. This in turn is much better resolution since all of the scan lines on my television are dedicated to the picture and not like the option that the set-top box would do which would have my television paint all the scan lines over the entire tube, especially in on black bars resulting in less than 480 interlaced lines of picture quality.

 

[Shawn95GT]

I'd use the S-video connection and set the resolution to 1080i.

In the settings there is a Wide to narrow setting which you can set to letterbox.

Yeah, it won't be 480p, but it looks pretty good for 480i! One of my TVs was a 27" SD TV when I had Voom. The installer looked at me like I was nuts but it worked VERY nice and had the nicest picture I've even seen on that TV.