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Auto Wide and Just Scan

  • 28-08-2009 11:59am
    #1
    MHP
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 491 ✭✭


    With the old UPC DVR I could set my TV's picture size to "Auto Wide" which worked quite well, switching automatically between 16:9 and 4:3. With the new HD DVR and the HDMI connection, "Auto Wide" is not available as a selection in the TV's menu. Instead I've got "Just Scan", but this is permanently 16:9. Is there anything I can do to get the picture to switch automatically to the correct ratio?

    MHP


Comments

  • #2
    Ranicand
    Closed Accounts Posts: 1,960 ✭✭✭Ranicand


    MHP wrote: »
    With the old UPC DVR I could set my TV's picture size to "Auto Wide" which worked quite well, switching automatically between 16:9 and 4:3. With the new HD DVR and the HDMI connection, "Auto Wide" is not available as a selection in the TV's menu. Instead I've got "Just Scan", but this is permanently 16:9. Is there anything I can do to get the picture to switch automatically to the correct ratio?

    MHP

    No there is not HDMI can not display 4.3 that way everything is 16.9.

    Widescreen channels will display in the correct way 4.3 channels will be stretched.

    This is becoming less of an issue as all the main channels are wide these days.

    Sorry the answer is not what you wanted but it's the correct answer HDMI does not switch aspect ratio.


  • #3
    Alun
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 21,499 ✭✭✭✭Alun


    Don't know. I don't have the UPC HD box, but with my WD HD TV box on an HDMI connection and my Philips TV, I can choose between Auto and Widescreen. All the other options 4:3, 16:9, 16:9 Movie and 14:9 that are present on ananlogue are all greyed out though. Selecting Auto on 4:3 or other non 16:9 material works just as it does on analogue, stretching and cropping the picture to fit the screen.

    Maybe the UPC box is pillarboxing the 4:3 material itself internally, and that during the HDMI protocol handshake the box is informing the TV that it can only do 16:9 widescreen, and the TV is adjusting it's menu accordingly.


  • #4
    Ranicand
    Closed Accounts Posts: 1,960 ✭✭✭Ranicand


    Alun wrote: »

    Maybe the UPC box is pillarboxing the 4:3 material itself internally, and that during the HDMI protocol handshake the box is informing the TV that it can only do 16:9 widescreen, and the TV is adjusting it's menu accordingly.

    Well on my tv I can not adjust aspect ratio when I am using HDMI and the UPC box is set to Widescreen and all 4.3 channels display as stretched.

    I use to hate stuff being stretched but as the majority of stuff is now wide anyway I can put up with it.


  • #5
    Alun
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 21,499 ✭✭✭✭Alun


    Ranicand wrote: »
    No there is not HDMI can not display 4.3 that way everything is 16.9.
    That's not what he was asking though. On my TV I can still select 'Auto' on HDMI inputs and it will stretch and crop pillarboxed 4:3 material based on black levels just as it does on analogue. It does get fooled by things like closing credits on a black background and goes into a zooming frenzy, and can go a bit loopy sometimes with very dark scenes but on the whole it works fine.


  • #6
    Ranicand
    Closed Accounts Posts: 1,960 ✭✭✭Ranicand


    Alun wrote: »
    That's not what he was asking though. On my TV I can still select 'Auto' on HDMI inputs and it will stretch and crop pillarboxed 4:3 material based on black levels just as it does on analogue. It does get fooled by things like closing credits on a black background and goes into a zooming frenzy, and can go a bit loopy sometimes with very dark scenes but on the whole it works fine.

    On my tv you can't and the UPC box does not pillarbox 4.3 stuff trust me.


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  • #7
    MHP
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 491 ✭✭MHP


    Ranicand wrote: »
    Well on my tv I can not adjust aspect ratio when I am using HDMI and the UPC box is set to Widescreen and all 4.3 channels display as stretched.

    I use to hate stuff being stretched but as the majority of stuff is now wide anyway I can put up with it.

    Yes, same here. But I just don't like stretched pictures.


  • #8
    Alun
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 21,499 ✭✭✭✭Alun


    Ranicand wrote: »
    On my tv you can't and the UPC box does not pillarbox 4.3 stuff trust me.
    I posted my reply, while you were posting yours, so they overlapped. I wasn't actually replying to your last post where you mentioned the capabilities of your TV :)

    Anyway, assuming your TV is permanently set to widescreen when on HDMI, then it has to be the UPC box that's doing the stretching. Is there no way to turn that off in the menus?

    Also there are some channels that I watch that sometimes broadcast weird combinations ... what looks like originally 14:9 material letterboxed into a 4:3 picture for example. My TV, which does it's stretching "semi-intelligently" based on black levels, rather than blindly based on the assumption that it's being fed normal 4:3 stuff, handles this quite well. I wonder what the UPC box makes of this kind of material?


  • #9
    quiche
    Closed Accounts Posts: 59 ✭✭quiche


    Hi - i'm a bit confused by this too.

    Basically I just got a digital+ box - in it's TV settings menu i've got: widescreen/letterbox/full-screen.

    TV is a toshiba 32av635 - which is set as far as I know to auto-switch aspect ratio.

    However as far as I can tell there's no switching going on - so looking at Father Ted right now and Dougal is quite wide. I've been manually changing the aspect ratio but it is a bit of a pain.

    Know this thread was about HDMI and the HD box - but does this also apply to the standard digital+ box? Connection is via SCART (composite also is available but not seeing point of using).

    Also the signal is ok, but picture is a bit blocky, which i'm assuming is compression artifacts for certain channels and not much can be done about.

    Apologies if covered elsewhere, been a while since on boards, thanks for any info.


  • #10
    highdef
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 6,379 ✭✭✭highdef


    Quiche, what aspect ratio do you have your TV set to? Also, what aspect ratio is your STB set to? If both are set to widescreen, then it would have been correct that Dougal looked a little bit fat as Father Ted is not broadcast in widescreen.


  • #11
    quiche
    Closed Accounts Posts: 59 ✭✭quiche


    Hi Highdef - thanks for reply

    Both STB and TV are set to widescreen - what I was confused about was that I thought the SCART cable would carry the aspect ratio info, so that if the broadcast was originally 4:3 the TV would auto-switch to this correct ratio, rather than me having to do it manually.

    The TV has this setting on (auto switch) - so not sure, is it that the NTL digital box forces everything to widescreen and the original aspect ratio data is lost? Or is there something i'm messing up?

    Anyways cheers for response :)


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  • #12
    highdef
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 6,379 ✭✭✭highdef


    Hmmmm, well I suppose it may also depend on the make and model of your TV. With some TVs, if you want the TV to automatically switch aspect ratio depending on the content, you pick an option which can have various names such as Just, Auto Wide, Smart, etc. If you have this kind of set-up, setting the aspect ratio to widescreen will mean the TV will stay in that aspect ratio even if the aspect ratio of the source video changes.

    Other TVs (I know Samsungs do this) have an option for auto wide in the menu but then in another menu you can also set it to whatever aspect ratio you want, eg: 4:3/14:9 etc. Then when a 16:9 video plays, it will switch to 16:9 and then back to 4:3/14:9 etc when the source changes back from 16:9.

    Confused??? I bet you are!


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