SA 8000HD side bar colors

[hammondc]

I have the 8000HD connected to 50" Sony KDF-WE655. The side bars on non-widescreen shows are light gray. Is there a way to make them black like my Dish channels were? The light gray is very distracting. My cabke company did not supply me with a manual. THanks!!

 

[Hall]

If your cable company uses Pioneer Passport Echo for the software on that box, you cannot change the sidebar colors. Reboot the box to find out what it uses. If it uses SARA, I can't help you change it as I don't have that, but it is possible.

 

[hammondc]

I definitely have Passport software. I just got the 8300HD and it is the same way. These grey bars really suck.

 

[rkrenicki]

The reason for grey is to minimize burnin on RPCRT displays. White will burn in dark sections, and black will burn in lines at the edge of the video, so they settled on 50% grey.

This is done to preserve your tv..

Your other option is to have the video stretched to fit, depending on your television, this can be mildly distracting to god-aweful annoying.. my Panasonic set isnt bad when it comes to this, where the Samsung set at work is horrible.

 

[Hall]

As already noted, gray is a "safe" color to avoid burn-in. Not everyone has LCDs or plasma or whatever type it is that don't burn-in.