I have a standard definition 420p 4:3 Sony Trinitron television in the living room and a Sony TV-970 black and white TV in my bedroom. When my wife and I moved in here we got Verizon Fios and the problem that we have had is that they broadcast everything in an HDTV 16:9 widescreen aspect ratio, which means that the images are letterboxed on our TV and 1/3 of the screen is taken up by black bars. we don’t want to pay for a service that we don’t want (HDTV) and we especially do not want to pay for to watch 66% of the television with big black bars on it. Dish Network and DirecTV are both popular in our area and I wanted to see if either of them offer cable service that meets our needs. We like our TVs and aren’t getting new ones.
Does Dish offer 4:3 aspect ratio standard definition service?
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The last I looked all the composite and channel 3 outputs of video display in letterbox regardless of the aspect ratio. Except the menus and guide which display full screen.
Same here, but we are probably both using HDTV's on HD receivers. Does Dish have any SD receivers left? If so, I think a couple of those would make Marc happy.
Marc, I have a friend who thinks like you do. It's not money that keeps him from upgrading to a gorgeous new flat panel HDTV; it's the existence of his Sony TVs and disinterest in video of any kind.
We're on eastern arc and haven't seen a 311 or any other SD receiver in years and years. I don't know if they're still in use or allowed on the western arc but that's pretty smart thinking of that.
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I know with the ViP211 series, you can change the format of the standard-def outputs to fill a 4:3 screen. Of course, then it crops off the left and right sides of the picture. By the way, the TV that the OP uses in the living room is probably the exact same model of TV that I am still using in my bedroom.
It's not FIOS or DISH, everything everywhere is broadcast in HD widescreen. I switched to HDTV 14 years ago and all the local networks were already broadcasting HD. There might be a couple channels in 4:3, maybe those that show old TV shows, but most are widescreen and the SD channels are letterboxed. Maybe your TV has a zoom feature or maybe there is a receiver that will zoom in.
Well if you have a package that includes high definition television that would be part of your bill, the problem is that FiOS doesn’t have a package that doesn’t include HDTV, which means that I am paying presumably extra for something that I don’t use. To use an analogy, imagine if the only cars for sale are big pickups, but you only need a little coupe to commute, your car payment wouldn’t say “Extra Space: $XX” but included in the bill for the truck is the cost of the extra size that you don’t need. You got me?
Yes I love my TV, it was actually my parents’ old TV but they gave it to me when I went off to college in 2010, I had a flatscreen for a minute but to me plasma and LCD can’t compare to good ol’ cathode ray tubes, we watch a lot of movies but most of them are older flicks shot in 4:3 or academy ratio, a few newer widescreen films that I like, like Predator we have on Betamax which is panned and scanned to 4:3.
Hey I have a Sony Wega 32 inch 4x3 flat screen tube Tv from 2001.
I absolutely loved this Tv and it was actually an HDTV.
It had component video inputs and would display HD on video 5 and 6.
It had a cool feature called 16x9 enhanced which on video 5 and 6 would letterbox the picture so all 1080 lines would display in the letterbox.
I thought this Tv was awesome, but always had issues with the letter box and up until 2012 when I switched to Directv I would use the Tv for standard definition.
The issue with the Dish boxes was the HD Channels forced a 16x9 display where as the SD channels has a black box around the picture unless I changed inputs to an SD input.
Needless to say, I just kept it on SD all the time, even though I had an HD box.
When I got Directv, I found connecting the Tv to component video and enabling native resolution solved the issue.
The Hd programming would be letterboxed and the SD would fill the entire 4x3 screen.
I absolutely loved this Tv and it was actually an HDTV.
It had component video inputs and would display HD on video 5 and 6.
It had a cool feature called 16x9 enhanced which on video 5 and 6 would letterbox the picture so all 1080 lines would display in the letterbox.
I thought this Tv was awesome, but always had issues with the letter box and up until 2012 when I switched to Directv I would use the Tv for standard definition.
The issue with the Dish boxes was the HD Channels forced a 16x9 display where as the SD channels has a black box around the picture unless I changed inputs to an SD input.
Needless to say, I just kept it on SD all the time, even though I had an HD box.
When I got Directv, I found connecting the Tv to component video and enabling native resolution solved the issue.
The Hd programming would be letterboxed and the SD would fill the entire 4x3 screen.
Sorry, but your analogy is lame. Most auto makers don't offer a vehicle without power steering or air conditioning. Why should they retool and alter their production methods just to accommodate that rare customer who just likes to ride around with the windows down in the heat of the summer?
The truth is that 99.9999999% of customers want HD service, there's no reason for DISH to change their marketing approach and create a package of SD only just for you.
Well said. Usually what we get is the opposite complaint: people who have HD service complaining that they are still paying for SD versions of the same channels, even though they never use them.
Just know that in order to present you with a 4:3 signal that fills the screen, you will lose information that's part of the picture. Because 16:9 has become the defacto standard, many program producers are no longer protecting the 4:3 image. This means important content might be included in the 16:9 signal that doesn't appear in a 4:3 (think graphics), unless you "squish" the picture. That's why IMO, letterbox is the best solution.
I have two CRT TVs: A 27” Trinitron and a 36” JVC.
For about 5 more minutes, when I expect folks to show up to help me cart them to the dump.
Shame- gorgeous SD pictures on both.
Sent from my iPhone using the SatelliteGuys app!
For about 5 more minutes, when I expect folks to show up to help me cart them to the dump.
Shame- gorgeous SD pictures on both.
Sent from my iPhone using the SatelliteGuys app!
1. There is no cost to have HD from DISH
2. It's the source that DISH, Verizon etc gets that determines the format. Most /channels no longer broadcast a 4X3 signal they take their HD 16X9 signal and that is sent as SD but with the 16X9 format so you get the bars.
With DISH, at least with their VIP receivers (I don't know about the Hoppers don't have them) there is a way around it.
1. Connect the VIP receiver via component, not HDMI.
2. Set the Format of the DISH VIP receiver to 4X3 #1 (not #2)
3. You can pick any resolution should not matter for the format.
Your TV should then be displaying a square picture perhaps somewhat smaller than your screen. If so if your TV has some zoom functions you can zoom out a little to make the square a little bigger with not much loss of picture quality unless you have to make alot bigger. Even if not filling the screen many prefer this to the two black bars.
Dish just charges "extra" for a HD receiver..they just do it a different way instead of fee
Sent from my SM-G950U using the SatelliteGuys app!
That's news to me. As far as I know additional non DVR receivers are $7 a month.
I used to have a 24" Trinitron. I would have kept it, but it developed a problem that made the picture flicker on and off when I would first turn it on. When it was left turned on long enough, the black screens would become less frequent, and then eventually the picture would stay on all of the time. That meant that I had to leave the TV turned on all of the time, or it would do the same thing the next time I turned it on. Of course, the smaller 20" Trinitron keeps on working perfectly.
Maybe he meant that anybody still using a standard-def DVR got grandfathered at the old DVR fee, which is cheaper than the newer ones. (Yes, I know many people with HD DVRs also got grandfathered at the same rate.)
