HDTV Question

[Bigfoot]

I have a Vizio HDTV which I really like. We have Direct TV. Our TV is defaulting to 480. When I switch it to 720 or 1080 the picture becomes so wide to make it not usable. Does this make sense in what I'm explaining? Any ideas how to change to 720 or 1080 without screwing up the picture getting too wide?

[V7Goose]

You do not say on which box you are making any changes, so I can only give you general advice.

 

It is an unfortunate fact that HD and digital TV pictures have dramatically complicated the simple act of trying to watch a program. The first thing you need to do is make sure your satellite box is connected to your TV with a method capable of showing an HD picture - that will require either an HDMI cable or a three-wire video cable plus the normal L/R audio cables.

 

Both the TV and the sat box have settings for the display shape. Some of the names used are like standard, wide, full, zoom, tall, etc. - these are not standard and they do not all operate the same. To make matters worse, many TVs show different video display settings with an HD input signal than they do with a standard input signal. This is why your picture is changing when you select a different resolution.

 

To get things right, you need to use the correct combination of setting on BOTH boxes. On the sat box, I'd look for video settings that use progressive scan and Wide (meaning your TV is a wide-screen TV instead of a standard screen). With the sat box set correctly, then use the TV video settings to select the display that you prefer. The easiest way to do this is to select a channel that you know never transmits an HD or wide screen, such as Turner Classic Movies. ALL pictures shown on TCM are in standard format and will have black bars on both sides of the wide screen TV. Older movies will fill the screen top to bottom within those black bars, but a newer movie that is being shown in "letterbox" will have black bars all the way around (the width of the bars on top and bottom will depend on just how wide the original movie was).

 

Your TV will probably have video settings to allow you to expand the TCM letter-boxed picture to fill the screen, but that setting will not work if they are transmitting a standard picture, since the expanded setting will cut off the top and bottom. For people who just hate seeing those black bars, even if it means watching a distorted picture, most TVs will have some type of a "wide" setting that will stretch the standard picture all the way to the sides. While this gets rid of the black bars, everything is distorted and faces tend to look squat and fat. But each of us gets to watch the picture we think is best. That is why you need to either leave the TV in standard setting all the time, or know how to change the video setting as needed.

 

My personal preference is to use the "standard" or "normal" settings on my HD TVs that always lets an HD picture fill the screen, but also always shows any older 4:3 picture (usually referred to as "std") with the black side bars. That way I know nothing is ever distorted.

Goose

Edited January 3, 2010 by V7Goose

[SevenFour]

Wayne,

 

I agree with Goose, you need to set both the TV and the DirecTV settings. On my wife's kitchen Vizio the setting in under Menu, Setup, then the third item down is called Wide. It offers three choices, Normal, Wide, and Panoramic. I believe you will want Wide selected. If you have the DirecTV HDDVR the setting is Menu, Parental-Fav's&Setup, System Setup, HDTV (select it) then Video (select it). Under Screen Format select "Original Format". Go back to TV Ratio and select Widescreen 16:9. Finally on the Sat box itself there is a button labeled RES. Press it until 1080i is selected. You may not be able to select 1080i unless the box is connected to the TV with an HDMI cable I can't remember for sure.

 

I hope this helps get you going.

Mel

SevenFour

[Bigfoot]

Thanks guys. Goose---my head is hurting after reading your post. J/K. Gives me a start.

 

 

 

10 minutes later. By George I believe I got it. Thanks again.

Edited January 4, 2010 by Bigfoot