Widescreen UI?

[120inna55]

Is there a way to make the UI on the 811s 16x9? (short of having the set stretch) If not, why not?

I assume that the majority of 811 owners have an HDTV, so why wouldn't it stand to reason that the UI (guide, menu's, etc.) would be in widescreen. I don't want to have the TV stretch the image, because I still want the 4x3 content to be pillar-boxed. As far as I can tell, "pg up/pg dn" does nothing to the UI.

So, am I missing something? Is there a way to do this?

 

[mike_johnson]

Currently, no. I have seen this as a Feature Request for the 811 over at DBSTalk.

My opinion is that this isn't likely to happen because they use the same on-screen overlay for both the 16x9 HD and 4x3 SD outputs since both are active at all times. Any 16x9 menu data would have the sides cut off on the 4x3.

 

[noremac]

Exactly. Many of us use the 811 to also drive SD sets. The 811 is one of the few STBs out there that correctly and conveniently handles simultaneous HD and SD outputs with undistorted screen formats on both outputs. (The D* equipment is garbage in this regard.) I suppose the 811 could support two simultaneous and different guide formats, but that would double the required video processing, memory, etc. I believe what we have now is a reasonable tradeoff until HD widescreen becomes universal for all sets (2???)