Sky digital transmitting 16:9 signal for 4:3 programme query

nlgbbbblth

Watching Legal TV channel 885 earlier.

Three hours of Crown Court. Dates from 1972 and naturally made in 4:3.

Sitting room
Have Sky digibox connected to widescreen (CRT) television. 4:3 signal transmitted and looks fine.

Other room
Have separate Sky minibox connected to widescreen (Plasma) television. This also hooked up to DVD recorder. The signal transmitted is coming in 16:9 and the picture looks stretched. No amount of selecting the different options - 14:9 / 14:9 zoom / 16:9 / fullscreen / super wide / widescreen / 4:3 - will sort the problem.

As I want to archive Crown Court to the HDD and then DVD-R I am anxious that it looks ok.
Is there anyway to make sure that the 4:3 signal is picked up?
Is it a setting on my television or Sky box that I need to change?

Seeing as it's coming out fine on one television / digibox [but not the one where the DVD recorder is connected to] I am at a loss to resolve it.

watty

If Sky box is set to 16:9 (both local and remote) then the Digibox does NOTHING to the signal. It is safe to record and decide afterward what you tell the TV.
I used to regularly record animorphic and 4:3 on VHS from Sky box set to 16:9. Then on playback decide which setting the TV should be

nlgbbbblth

That's what you would think.
But I've tried all the various settings on playing back the recording on the HDD. Nothing works. 4:3 looks stretched.

Might try changing picture format on the digibox's Services button.

watty

The Sky box must be set to 16:9 (this does nothing ever, not to 16:9 OR 4:3 content). ON BOTH LINES. Change it to 4:3 save and change it back in case the Sky box confused.

What the other settings do:
4:3 does nothing in 4:3 mode, chops sides off and resamples to fill frame in animorphic 16:9 transmission.

4:3L resamples 16:9 animorphic to reduce height and fills empty lines with black. It does nothing to 4:3

Dr. Nick

Sky News ireland is not switching. Again.