When the guy at Circut City , sold me my XBR 34 , he said that when the tv gets a HD feed it will fill the 16.9 screen--
When i watch some HD over air shows it shows that it is 720p but i get the black bars on the sides --
Why would a show be in 720p, and not full screen -- i also get some shows that are on the HD channel 2.2 that are shown in 480i
Why would a 480i show be on the HD channels of the OTA--
Thanks
Joined: Mar 09, 2004
Posts: 1093
From: Schaumburg, IL
Posted: 2005-04-17 09:09
Only TRUE HD will be widescreen. Alot of what is shown on HD off-the-air channels is upconverted 480i. It will typically be pillar-boxed to 4:3, as HD is inherently 16:9. Try and use the Wide Mode key. It should NOT work and will always display 'Full'. If it does work, you are actually getting a 480i or 480p signal.
For off-the-air, usually only the '.1' channels are HD. Any extra channels (.2, .3, etc..) are SD channels added on for multi-casting. Digital does NOT mean HD. Worse, many of the secondary channels are sub-VHS quality. Here in Chicago, the main broadcasters use it for weather or news repeats. One channel doesn't do HD at all, but has 6 SD channels with different feeds. In some areas, they can carry encrypted cable channels used by a special set-top box and a paid service.
----------------- Sony KDL-46EX700, Onkyo TX-NR609, Sony BDP-S370, WDTV Live Streaming, Motorola DCT-6412, RCA RCRP05B.
It looks like there are still lots of shows (especially non-prime-time) shows that are not shot in 16X9 HD. Plus, almost no commercials are shot in 16X9 HD, so even if you are watching say CSI, which is in HD, on CBS, you will notice it puts black bars on the sides when it switches to commercials. Also, when the news comes on, it is not in HD so the black bars will be there. As time passes and more shows are shot in HD this should change. But for now, if you are watching a rerun of Sinfield, it was not shot in 16X9 so it will never appear that way.
The good news is the upconverting equipment the stations use are very good and you usually get a nicer picture watching SD stuff on the HD channel than you do over the old analog channel.
One other thing I noticed in the Dallas area, none of the stations have the ability to overlay stuff on the HD network feed. Was watching an HD show on ABC the other night and one of those weather warnings came on. The screen switched to 4X3 until the warning quit scrolling on the bottom of the screen then switched back to 16X9 HD. That is really a joke. HD has a ways to go, but the picture quality makes you never want to watch SD again.
Joined: Mar 09, 2004
Posts: 1093
From: Schaumburg, IL
Posted: 2005-04-18 17:20
Here's a question: Here in Chicago, the ABC-owned station (WLS-TV, analog 7) STRETCHES SD material. The only time you see pillarboxing is on NETWORK-fed commercials on HD shows. Local commercials are always stretched. SD network shows are also shown stretched. It's very annoying seeing everybody look like Kirstie Alley. Luckily, I can at least watch the news in 4:3 on 7.2 (they just repeat it all day, or live for new broadcasts.) Being Disney-owned, I'm not surprised, as this is the company that calls full-screen material 'family friendly.'
Any other stations out there with hideous stretching of SD material?
----------------- Sony KDL-46EX700, Onkyo TX-NR609, Sony BDP-S370, WDTV Live Streaming, Motorola DCT-6412, RCA RCRP05B.
I was just going to ask if they could upconvert all the old shows and reformat it to 16.9 -- but i guess that streched look could get bad on some stuf -- i find the zoom gives me the best picture over the wide zoom on SD stuff - though it does crop some -- also when i switch my Direct Tv - i can't read the show name -- when i'm in zoom - so i set the default to wide zoom - and switch --
A few times in HD i have seen shows that have black bars on the sides -and top / bottom what's up with that .
Thanks Rocky
Thanks Andy
Do you know why this won't just fill the screen ?
Advance
Features
All logos and information in this site are property of their respective owner. The
comments are property of their posters.
This website www.agoraquest.com, Claudio Meira and Agoraquest, LLC is not tided in any form to the Sony Corporation
(www.sony.com). This unoffical website is just place where Sony products are reviewed among the general public. Sony is a registered
of Sony, Inc. "PlayStation", "PlayStation2", the PlayStation "PS" logo, and all associated logos/graphics.
"Agoraquest, LLC" and "agoraquest.com" are associated exclusively with agoraquest.com, and are NOT associated in ANY way with Sony
Electronics, Inc. To view the privacy policy, please click here and to view the terms of use,
please click here. If you have any further questions, please contact using our online form.
Posted: 2005-04-16 19:10
