Page 1 of Sky HD help please

Couple of things here.
New box delivered and installed this morning, all up n running ok.
Now, on my old SD Sky+ if I was watching, say, The Simpsons it would stretch to fill the screen.
It also never really looked "wrong".

With this new box I set it to record some stuff for testing today with the HD side of things, Simpsons and Quantum Leap being two of them, both were originally 4:3 and no matter what I seemed to do in the settings I couldn`t get the picture to stretch.
Is this  a limitation of the HD boxes?

Also, I know there`s a thread about adding ITV somewhere but not looked it out yet, are there any other tweaks or channels I need or recommended to add?

Jimbo : oÞ

"There`s that word again... is there a problem with the Earth`s gravitational pull in the future?"

You want us, to help you watch a 4:3 tv series in the wrong aspect ratio? Shame on you.

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Aspect switching seems a bane of contention in a lot of households. I can`t bear to see anything stretched incorrectly, but my husband hates to see black bars anywhere on a screen...

Your TV probably allows a 4:3 picture to be stretched out of proportion in its menus somewhere, if you look.

Isn`t Homer fat enough?

Ste

Quote:
smurfette says...
Your TV probably allows a 4:3 picture to be stretched out of proportion in its menus somewhere, if you lookNope :( It seemed to do it fine with my old box but the new one isn`t playing ball whatsoever, same problem as my PS3/DVD player upscaling (and the only reason I kept the DVD player in the loop!)

Mr S, this is the odd thing, my TV doesn`t seem to show it too bad, dunno if that`s the Sky box or the telly but it really doesn`t look stretched, however this could also just be something I`ve "gotten used to" because...
Quote:
sj says...
Isn`t Homer fat enough?Not anymore! He looks rather tall and only slightly overweight....

:D

And what about channels etc to add....?

Jimbo : oÞ

"There`s that word again... is there a problem with the Earth`s gravitational pull in the future?"

Quote:
Jimbo :oÞ says...
And what about channels etc to add....?i initially added ITV HD, but that`s available from the off now anyway... do you get ITV
in that foreign "scotlander" country? ;)

actually... this might be a good time for people to let us know what HD channels we
can add so that they`re all in the same place. :)

oh, some of our simpsons HD is also 4:3, but i`m sure that some newer ones are 16:9?
don`t pay much attention to them these days though!

Ste

This item was edited on Thursday, 6th January 2011, 12:05

Quote:
Jimbo :oÞ says...
Quote:
smurfette says...
Your TV probably allows a 4:3 picture to be stretched out of proportion in its menus somewhere, if you look

Nope Sad It seemed to do it fine with my old box but the new one isn`t playing ball whatsoever, same problem as my PS3/DVD player upscaling (and the only reason I kept the DVD player in the loop!)
Hm, must be the TV then. I have an LG LCD set, and I can still manually alter the aspect ratio of both my HDMI inputs (PS3 and DVD Recorder), and all other sources,  by pressing the aspect button on the TV remote and going through the many alternatives. Seems odd you can`t on your TV.

This item was edited on Thursday, 6th January 2011, 12:29

It`s not your TV or the box - it`s how High Definition pictures are broadcast.

All HD pictures are broadcast in, and can only be received in 16:9 format.

Therefore when broadcasting 4:3 or 14:9 images in HD, to prevent the picture from being distorted broadcasters "pillarbox" the image by inserting black bars either side of the image to make up the whole 16:9 image being transmitted. In SD such an image could be "zoomed" to fill the screen (and crop the top and bottom of the image too) - but it is not possible to zoom or further "stretch" HD pictures - they are already in 16:9.

If you want to distort a 4:3 picture to artificially fill the screen then you would have to view it in SD and use the TV aspect ratio functions to do it.

This item was edited on Thursday, 6th January 2011, 17:49