Format

[sparkyrhett]

Receiver H23 600, Direct TV remote: I am having trouble with some of my local channels filling the screen. All of the settings are 1080i stretch and all channels other than my local stations fill the screen. The live part is in "pillar" format, some advertisement are "pillar" some are "stretch". When I go through the format button, the picture does not change with each format. I hope I am explaining this correctly as not to confuse. Any advise will be good

 

[Jimbo]

Receiver H23 600, Direct TV remote: I am having trouble with some of my local channels filling the screen. All of the settings are 1080i stretch and all channels other than my local stations fill the screen. The live part is in "pillar" format, some advertisement are "pillar" some are "stretch". When I go through the format button, the picture does not change with each format. I hope I am explaining this correctly as not to confuse. Any advise will be good

Try changing the format with the TV instead.
Are you trying to fill the screen without the bars ?

Sometimes you cannot make that change as it is sent that way right from the station, depends on what your watching.
Are you getting full screen True HD when a HD show is on ?
This should fill the screen entirely without stretching of any kind.

 

[charper1]

As Jimbo said the aspect ratio will be determined by the program and the programmer in almost all cases and you are like on an "HD channel" that was not showing HD content, yet using the entire 16x 9 "frame" and inserting the own pillar boxing which you can't change. Currently there just is no consistency or standard across the board on this and we have to deal with it. Especially since 99.999% of TV display are 16x9 and the is tons of content NOT in that specific ratio. I for one prefer the OAR to stretching or cropping of any kind.

widescreen.org - The Letterbox and Widescreen Advocacy Page

Aspect ratio (image) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

[sparkyrhett]

my tv is a toshiba 36a41. there are only 3 modes. normal, theater, memory. none changed the picture. My objective is to have a full screen with no bars. i am not sure if it is a 4.3 or 16.9. it was purchased 10/20/01

 

[charper1]

Regardless of 4x3 (which this display is) or 16x9 you can NEVER set the display to always TOTALLY fill the screen because of what I was explaining above about aspect ratios and such. You can come close but in many cases you simply won't be able too adjust it based on the broadcaster and their method employed. Even with my 16x9 FPTV which is setup at 106" right now, there are some things that come 4x3 pillar-boxed such as old reruns on my HD local networks and some that are letter-boxed wide-screen; such as Cinemascope and Panavision films being shown in OAR. All that being said the best bet is to just go with NORMAL or NATURAL or NATIVE or whatever your set says; I know this can be a pain with tiny 4x3 displays, but its just the way it is. (or you could upgrade to a newer and larger 16x9 display where it will be far less noticeable).

 

[JerseyMatt]

When you use the composite (red/white/yellow) or S-video outputs, the format button does nothing. Format button only affects the HD outputs (component or HDMI). Your TV does have a component input, but it is not HD and is capable of 480i only. If you want your screen full as much as possible, you need to go into the receiver menu, under HDTV, make sure the TV ratio is set to 4:3, and under Video set Native to Off, and Screen Format set it to Crop. This will prevent most if not all black bars (pillar and letterbox) from showing up (but at the expense of chopping part of the top and bottom). If you see pillarboxing on a 4:3 screen, the image is actually being squashed by the receiver. This is how I have my SDTV set up and it isn't too bad. The only way to make everything display properly is to upgrade to a 16:9 (widescreen) HDTV.

But remember, as charper said, 'properly' on an HDTV does sometimes mean there will be bars. If the program was not shot in widescreen HD, there will be pillars. If it is a movie playing in its 'original aspect ratio' there will be letterboxing (theater screens are 30% wider than a widescreen TV). Call me a purist, but stretching a pillarbox program into a widescreen is blasphemy. I would rather there be pillars, but I'll deal with cropping before I'd stretch it.

 

[charper1]

"Call me a purist, but stretching a pillarbox program into a widescreen is blasphemy."


UBER-DITTO