SD locals not in proper aspect ratio?

[ehren]

My local ABC in madison is being stretched on the SD channel, it's not available in HD and I can tell Dish is downconverting the DT channel but it's not in proper 4:3.

Are other local cities having the same issues? My local cable company is doing the same thing with Rockford Illinois locals, it looks like a square box in the middle of the tv. Seems nobody can get this digital transition right.

 

[Jim5506]

Try pressing the format button (lower left on remote).

It cycles through picture aspect ratios: grey bar, normal, partial zoom, and zoom.

 

[KKlare]

Our PBS (KNME 5/35.1 also 9.1..., power limited) was messing with the aspect and have had HD only intermittently for the last month. They were the most on the ball (except for too many subchannels) until then. The recent SD picture through Dish has been a postage stamp--both H and V bars. Last night or so the may have gotten that straightened out, I hope it sticks.

They even messed up PBS national series, probably because the record and replay from HD is not working. They used to have a shifted schedule for HD to use the direct feed--it worked. But I guess this made someone unhappy. It gets bad when you have to use zoom on the HD channel to get a normal but fuzzier picture and the former SD subchannel is now V-me (5.2 was 9.x) with no sound. BTW, even postage stamp takes a lot of storage >5000MB/hr--the same as full screen. Really could use a Dish HD MPEG-4 version at <3000MB/hr. But no PBS HD on Dish, boohoo.
-Ken