New HDTV setup - aspect help

Archived from groups: alt.tv.tech.hdtv (More info?)

I'm helping set up a new HDTV monitor with digital cable (TWC). The TV is a
Hitachi 57S500, the cable box is a Pace.

When tuning from a regular channel to an HDTV cable channel (ie. Discovery HD
or HBO HD), the TV defaults to a double - matted picture (that is, the picture
has grey bars both on top and the sides). The picture within this box is
great, and in proper aspect. Trying to get the HDTV picture to fill the screen
is another matter -- the TV "aspect" control cycles through different options,
none of which seem right -- the closest one seems to be "4:3 zoom" which
doesn't make logical sense and seems to add artifacts. Even worse is TNT HD,
which at the time of the setup was showing a Law & Order episode with a
"squashed" picture (originally 4:3 stretched out to 16:9?) which no setting
would correct.

I suspect I need to change a setting in the cable box and/or the TV, but can't
find it. Also, the cable company connected the box to the TV with a component
video wire set, but both the box and the TV seem to support a digital
connection -- would replacing / supplementing the component cables with a DVI
cable help the situation? Does DVI include a way to automatically put the TV
into the right aspect? I notice channel surfing or swapping between HD and SD
channels is painful with this setup.

Thanks for any help.

JGM

Archived from groups: alt.tv.tech.hdtv (More info?)

John Coleman wrote:

>I have a Pace cable box too. I learned that if you press the # button on the
>remote you toggle between different inputs (1080i, etc.) That should help
>you fill the HD screen appropriately. Also, if you press the # button and
>hold it for a couple seconds you get a menu of the different inputs you can
>choose from, and you can switch that way too. I did that a few times and my
>TV suddenly kicked in and started making the appropriate changes
>automatically when I changed channels. I didn't entirely understand what was
>going on with that but it worked.

I will experiment with the # button. I just downloaded the user manual for
the box (I don't think the cable guy left one) and it also gives that
information though it looks like there is no substitute for experimentation.
Also, given that the TV has integrated virtual HD and line-doubling functions
I'm not sure what the best mix of processing between the box and TV is (still
looking for help here).

As to the TV "kicking in": was this with a DVI connection or analog? I think
the only way the TV can "learn" things is if there is a DVI connection. The
cable box might be able to learn preferred settings by channel, I guess.

This is a setup for my parents so complex=bad and simple=good. I'd really
like a way to have the proper aspect and resolution come up for each channel
without them having to worry about it.

JGM

Archived from groups: alt.tv.tech.hdtv (More info?)

jgmclean0@aol.com (JGM) wrote in message news:<20040706104721.10744.00000719@mb-m25.aol.com>...
> I'm helping set up a new HDTV monitor with digital cable (TWC). The TV is a
> Hitachi 57S500, the cable box is a Pace.
>
> When tuning from a regular channel to an HDTV cable channel (ie. Discovery HD
> or HBO HD), the TV defaults to a double - matted picture (that is, the picture
> has grey bars both on top and the sides). The picture within this box is
> great, and in proper aspect. Trying to get the HDTV picture to fill the screen
> is another matter -- the TV "aspect" control cycles through different options,
> none of which seem right -- the closest one seems to be "4:3 zoom" which
> doesn't make logical sense and seems to add artifacts. Even worse is TNT HD,
> which at the time of the setup was showing a Law & Order episode with a
> "squashed" picture (originally 4:3 stretched out to 16:9?) which no setting
> would correct.
>
> I suspect I need to change a setting in the cable box and/or the TV, but can't
> find it. Also, the cable company connected the box to the TV with a component
> video wire set, but both the box and the TV seem to support a digital
> connection -- would replacing / supplementing the component cables with a DVI
> cable help the situation? Does DVI include a way to automatically put the TV
> into the right aspect? I notice channel surfing or swapping between HD and SD
> channels is painful with this setup.
>
> Thanks for any help.
>
> JGM

This may help or not. I have the same TV hooked up to a dish network
receiver to receive SD and HD TV. For HD, I use video 1 in 16:9
standard aspect mode using component cables. I had to go to the menu
of the DISH receiver to tell it that I had a 16:9 TV. I did not have
to do anything to TV except put it on video 1. For SD, I use video 3
hooked up using an S-video cable in 4:3 expanded mode. In order to
toggle between SD and HD, I just switch to the appropriate output and
the aspect ratio is already set. Both SD and HD result in a picture
that fills the entire screen.

Archived from groups: alt.tv.tech.hdtv (More info?)

jgmclean0@aol.com (JGM) wrote (in part):

> - changing the cable box output to 1080i / 16:9 (was at 480p / 4:3) did
>indeed solve the aspect ratio problem -- with the TV set to "16:9 standard"
>everything out of the cable box now seems to be displayed properly;
>
> BUT
>
>- Standard-def stations now look worse than they did before. I suspect this is
>because with the cable box outputting 1080i the TV is not activating its
>internal line doubling circuit. I may have to take another poster's suggestion
>and run a seperate 480i S-video out from the cable box to the TV on another
>input. This of course makes the setup *more* complex, which isn't what I
>wanted. Any way to get the best of both worlds here?

Possibly. Does your cable box have a "Native" output setting (might
be called something else) that would output the same resolution it's
receiving: 1080i, 720p, 480i? If so that might give you the best
picture in all formats. Depends on which does the better job of
scaling, the cable box or the display.

Even in Native mode your box may convert 480i to 480p. My OTA
receiver does. Not a problem except on one 480i channel, where it
causes a jerkiness to the picture that I can correct only by forcing
480i or NTSC. But it's a UPN station, and they don't run much worth
watching at any resolution.

E. Ogden <eoyymm@nycap.rr.com>
where yymm is the current year and month

Archived from groups: alt.tv.tech.hdtv (More info?)

On Tue, 06 Jul 2004 18:13:03 GMT, "John Coleman" <peterpelican@yahoo.com> wrote:

>I have a Pace cable box too. I learned that if you press the # button on the
>remote you toggle between different inputs (1080i, etc.) That should help
>you fill the HD screen appropriately. Also, if you press the # button and
>hold it for a couple seconds you get a menu of the different inputs you can
>choose from, and you can switch that way too. I did that a few times and my
>TV suddenly kicked in and started making the appropriate changes
>automatically when I changed channels. I didn't entirely understand what was
>going on with that but it worked.

Little tidbit to add here...

I also recently switched to a Pace box on my TW cable. The # button thing did
not work and I had no clue why. Turns out that the remote they give me with it
is not setup as the right one so the box did nothing when # was pressed. I had
to manually set the remote to the proper Pace box then all was well.