does D* do a good job at 4:3 to 16:9 conversion

[meldar_b]

just wondering if D* receivers do a good job of displaying a sd 4:3 on a 16:9 tv or will it have the horrible black bars on each side of the screen or that crazy stretch thing going on

I have a LG 42LBX and of course everything in HD looks great, but I hate seeing those black bars on the side on sd so I have to do either stretch or zoom2 will D* come close in fixing that ratio problem for me.

And I was also wondering if I could do my own signal processing like TBS on its HD channel zoom or stretch to fill in the voids but that channel looks pretty good for the older shows.

Thanks

 

[DodgerKing]

just wondering if D* receivers do a good job of displaying a sd 4:3 on a 16:9 tv or will it have the horrible black bars on each side of the screen or that crazy stretch thing going on

Direct receivers allow you to stretch, zoom, or pillar box any SD station.

Your criticism doesn't make sense, since the only thing one can do with a 4:3 image on a 16:9 TV is to stretch it, zoom it, or pillar box it. You hate pillar boxes and stretching, what other option is there?

 

[Lkr]

No, the shows are in a different aspect ratio, nothing D* can do about that. You can stretch if you want your shows to look like crap however

 

[meldar_b]

No, the shows are in a different aspect ratio, nothing D* can do about that. You can stretch if you want your shows to look like crap however

that's what I was afraid of

 

[meldar_b]

Direct receivers allow you to stretch, zoom, or pillar box any SD station.

Your criticism doesn't make sense, since the only thing one can do with a 4:3 image on a 16:9 TV is to stretch it, zoom it, or pillar box it. You hate pillar boxes and stretching, what other option is there?

sorry its not criticism

I'm just wondering if I can do anything else to fill in the screen

 

[DodgerKing]

that's what I was afraid of

What are you afraid of? I don't think his point addressed your question. He was talking about something else.

A Direct receiver is able to crop, zoom, stretch, or pillar box any program on any SD station. All you need to do is hit the format button on your receiver.

What he was saying is that the signal that is sent to Direct on a HD channel is set as is. It is the network that does it. There is nothing you can do about it since it is already formatted by the network to be 16:9 (even if it is a 4:3 show).

 

[DodgerKing]

sorry its not criticism

I'm just wondering if I can do anything else to fill in the screen

Yes, you can hit the format button on your remote and the receiver can switch to stretch to fill the screen, hit it again and your receiver can switch to zoom or crop to fill the screen without stretching (although you will lose part of the top and bottom of the image), and hit is again to go back to pillar box (leaving the picture in its proper 4:3 format).

 

[Pepper]

If you have a 4x3 image and a 16x9 monitor, there are exactly three choices.

1. watch a sharp unaltered picture with those "horrible" bars on the sides
2. stretch it to fill the screen (puke!) a.k.a. Stretch-O-Vision (tm)
3. zoom it to fill the screen, thereby cropping off the top and bottom.

It's your tv, do what you want, but my opinion is, "1" preferred, "3" if absolutely necessary because someone in the room is fanatical and believes having no unused pixels on the screen is more important than image quality or seeing the whole picture, "2" absolutely never if I have any say on it.

 

[DodgerKing]

Isn't your TV able to do these things anyway? Even if a receiver is not able to stretch, zoom, or pillar box, usually the TV can.

 

[DodgerKing]

Melder,

I hope you simply did not read one person's response and interpret it incorrectly. I do not want you to make a decision due to the fact that you think Direct's receivers are not able to format the image, when in fact they can.

 

[meldar_b]

Thanks for the replies

Yes my TV does have all those options stretch, Zoom, Zoom 2 (which does a good job just cuts out a little portion of the top and bottom and the main image is not that distorted.

What I was hoping for some way that I could up convert the signal not necessary making it HD just enough fill in the screen without distorting the image.

I thought about getting one of those up converting dvd recorders that does up conversions to their recordings to see if they will up convert the feed coming from my D* or cable settop receiver before the signal goes to my tv. I guess something like that has not been invented


I guess that I just gave someone an idea to make millions $ on.... a near HD up converter 4:3 to 16:9

Thanks:up

 

[scoop8]

If you have a 4x3 image and a 16x9 monitor, there are exactly three choices.

1. watch a sharp unaltered picture with those "horrible" bars on the sides
2. stretch it to fill the screen (puke!) a.k.a. Stretch-O-Vision (tm)
3. zoom it to fill the screen, thereby cropping off the top and bottom.

It's your tv, do what you want, but my opinion is, "1" preferred, "3" if absolutely necessary because someone in the room is fanatical and believes having no unused pixels on the screen is more important than image quality or seeing the whole picture, "2" absolutely never if I have any say on it.

The exact same preferences for me. I rarely if ever alter a 4:3 source. Since I watch a lot of the older TV/DVD shows, I'm used to the "pillar box" bars. I just made sure, when I bought my 1st HD WS TV last August, that I got a screen size that at least equaled the picture height of my older 36" Sony Wega TV. That way, I'm still enjoying a bigger picture in 4:3 vs my previous CRT Sony set.

 

[shibby191]

Thanks for the replies

Yes my TV does have all those options stretch, Zoom, Zoom 2 (which does a good job just cuts out a little portion of the top and bottom and the main image is not that distorted.

What I was hoping for some way that I could up convert the signal not necessary making it HD just enough fill in the screen without distorting the image.

I thought about getting one of those up converting dvd recorders that does up conversions to their recordings to see if they will up convert the feed coming from my D* or cable settop receiver before the signal goes to my tv. I guess something like that has not been invented


I guess that I just gave someone an idea to make millions $ on.... a near HD up converter 4:3 to 16:9

Thanks:up

It sounds like you are pretty confused.

Resolution, as in SD or HD has *nothing* to do with it's aspect ratio (4:3 or 16:9). Now in general HD is 16:9 and SD is 4:3 but they are totally different things. You can upconvert SD to HD all day long but it will never change it's aspect ratio, it's still 4:3.

Your TV has various ways to change the aspect ratio as noted above along with DirecTV (or Dish or cable) receiver as well. But this just manipulates the aspect ratio, it's not "making it HD".

Your real only solution is to watch the HD channels. There are 100+ of them afterall. BUT even the HD stations will show SD upconverted material from time to time and they will either piller box it (like SciFi) or stretch it (like TNT) at the station. So again you have to use your TV's or receivers various modes to stretch/zoom/whatever to how you would like it.

Personally I watch with the piller bars since that's the original aspect. If for some reason I don't I put the DirecTV receiver in "original format" and my TV in "Wide fit" and that does a pretty good job of a combo zoom/stretch so that's it's not annoying. But it still cuts off the top and bottom.

 

[DodgerKing]

Thanks for the replies

Yes my TV does have all those options stretch, Zoom, Zoom 2 (which does a good job just cuts out a little portion of the top and bottom and the main image is not that distorted.

What I was hoping for some way that I could up convert the signal not necessary making it HD just enough fill in the screen without distorting the image.

I thought about getting one of those up converting dvd recorders that does up conversions to their recordings to see if they will up convert the feed coming from my D* or cable settop receiver before the signal goes to my tv. I guess something like that has not been invented


I guess that I just gave someone an idea to make millions $ on.... a near HD up converter 4:3 to 16:9

Thanks:up

Again, the Direct receivers CAN stretch or zoom a 4:3 SD image into a 16:9 SD image.