SD Channel Improvement?

[Scott Greczkowski]

The Hopper Plus has come a long way. I find it's now an amazing way to watch tv. Especially now that it also has Multiview.

 

[charlesrshell]

The Hopper Plus has come a long way. I find it's now an amazing way to watch tv. Especially now that it also has Multiview.

I hope Charlie keeps it going after the birds run out of gas!!

 

[MikeD-C05]

It was the Hopper Plus I was talking about. I have a Hopper 3 with 2 Joey 3 clients and I also have a Wally. On all of them, I have programed the lower left hand button on the remote (with the single diamond) to adjust aspect ratio.

I thought I once read the Hopper Plus add-on unit, because it was Android, lacked the feature to change the aspect, but Dish was working on it to add the feature and maybe now have they have it.

When you go to settings from the HOME screen it asks you if you want DISH settings and from there you can see the hopper menus and with it options. It is pretty neat. I wish I had one when I was with DISH. The picture is also upconverted to 4k standards.

 

[Mister B]

Grit 217 and ION 250 are now 16:9 with no letterbox! I hope they keep it up.

 

[winter60]

81 ICTV
226 HSN2
257 SBN
258 TBNI
261 EWTN
264 Impact
266 TCT
823 Baby 1

are all now in 16:9 with no letterbox (Aspect can now be set to "Normal")

 

[zippyfrog]

Grit 217 and ION 250 are now 16:9 with no letterbox! I hope they keep it up.

That is a change from yesterday - was not like that yesterday!

 

[winter60]

168 Disney JR
169 Nick Jr
173 Disney West
243 FM
262 CTN
329 TMC-W
330 TMCXW
359 Bounce
399 FanDuel Racing

are also now in 16:9 with no letterbox (Aspect can now be set to "Normal")

 

[winter60]

...two more I missed

269 Free Speech
274 NRB TV

I am sure there are more, just have not checked.

 

[dishrich]

All 5 supers are now 16:9!

 

[tornado]

All 5 supers are now 16:9!

There is a car chase on now. Not quite as good as streaming but better.

 

[Mister B]

I am disappointed that DISH seems to have quit converting more SD channels to the 16:9 aspect ratio. My personal priority would be "Great" (373). I would like to record some of those shows but the picture is just awful when using zoom to fill the screen and tiny if I leave the picture letterboxed.

 

[cpdretired]

I am disappointed that DISH seems to have quit converting more SD channels to the 16:9 aspect ratio. My personal priority would be "Great" (373). I would like to record some of those shows but the picture is just awful when using zoom to fill the screen and tiny if I leave the picture letterboxed.

It's the same OTA.

 

[dishrich]

Just curious if anyone has tried watching GREAT via DA & what the picture looks like there???
I get GREAT via Comcast, which has it in IP-HD & the picture, just like their feed of FeTV, is GREAT's actual HD feed & is properly formatted between actual 4:3 & 16:9 programming/commercials.

The problem w/GREAT, is most likely how E* is ingesting their (SD) satellite feed, which was discussed here:

D

Post in thread 'SD Channel Improvement?'

Aug 9, 2026

This is the same issue with FeTV (82), and TVLand (106) but most FeTV programs are native 4:3 so leaving the aspect set to "Normal" works except for the commercials.

Another issue that can cause these aspect issues, is where DISH is ingesting these feeds from. In the case of FeTV, DISH is most likely using their (SD) network satellite feed, which is causing the issues (with letterboxed commercials) you describe.
OTOH, Comcast recently added an HD IP-based feed of FeTV on a large number of their systems; when viewing it, all of the programming is properly formatted as it was...

• dishrich

• 

 

[scoob83]

Well interestingly, as one of the last subs w/the supers, a couple days ago when I turned on KTLA (ch 598) I thought that it looked better than usual...since I tend to keep it on during the weekdays when I puttering around the house, it was noticeable. Honestly I thought it was my imagination, but...

Jealous you still have them. Sure miss that option, those were the days…