Aspect Ratio changing by itself

[scott2020]

I was watching Fox, which is in standard def subchannel ATSC where I live. Everything is in 4:3 so I have to use the "fill" aspect ratio on the HD-200. My TV is a Samsung 50" Plasma, so in order to prevent burn of the black bars on the right and left, I zoom into "fill" a lot. I noticed my AR was changing back to "source" quite often, so I was coaching the wife on why to adjust the AR, etc. She swore up and down she was doing it right. So today I was watching football on "fill" and suddenly the screen pixelated, went black, and changed aspect ratios. I didn't lose the channel or anything, just the AR changed by itself. No weird power problems or anything like that. I am running beta firmware 1223. Anyone seen this happen?

Scott

[TwistedMelon]

Did it change back to "source" ?

With the HD200 you set which AR will be your default. That default will be invoked any time you change a channel or any time the stream changes as far as I know. I can't think of a specific reason it would have been kicked in while you were sitting and not doing anything however.

Do you recall what was going on with the channel at the time this happened?

BTW, I'm not sure how you have your TV set up, but if you want to fill the screen without distorting the aspect ratio of the content, but can handle losing some image, you can create a copy of the "Source" AR and change its scale mode from Letterbox to PanScan. That will preserve the pixel aspect ratio and on SD (4:3) content displayed on a 16:9 TV will chop some image off the top and bottom. That image may be just black padded letterbox on some programs (widescreen broadcast letterboxed on SD channel).

[stanger89]

Originally Posted by scott2020

I was watching Fox, which is in standard def subchannel ATSC where I live. Everything is in 4:3 so I have to use the "fill" aspect ratio on the HD-200. My TV is a Samsung 50" Plasma, so in order to prevent burn of the black bars on the right and left, I zoom into "fill" a lot. I noticed my AR was changing back to "source" quite often, so I was coaching the wife on why to adjust the AR, etc. She swore up and down she was doing it right. So today I was watching football on "fill" and suddenly the screen pixelated, went black, and changed aspect ratios. I didn't lose the channel or anything, just the AR changed by itself. No weird power problems or anything like that. I am running beta firmware 1223. Anyone seen this happen?

Scott

If you go into the detailed info for that recording, is it broken into multiple segments (filename-#####-0, 1, 2, etc). Or did the program change (end of the hour/half hour)?

[scott2020]

Thanks for the suggestions. I will do some playing around with the settings. From what I remember, I was watching the Fox halftime show during the Rams game when it happened. It was right in the middle of when Terry Bradshaw was talking about something. I suppose it could have been the top of the hour or something but I don't remember. Even so, I think the game is 3 hours on the guide so it shouldn't have done a program change, but I'm not positive on that one. I will pay closer attention and note what is happening. It almost seems like recorded episodes of Friends it happens, because my wife watches that a lot. Take care.

Oh, and yes it is changing back to Source.

Scott

[wayner]

It is possible that your local channel switched formats - I have seen shows that started as 16x9, switched to 4x3 and then switched back for some reason.

I personally find the best setting is to change the default AR from source to fill. For TV it pretty much always gives me what I want. For movies with a 2.35:1 AR it stretches them vertically so I typically then switch back to source but it is correct a much higher percantage of the time.

[stanger89]

Originally Posted by scott2020

Thanks for the suggestions. I will do some playing around with the settings. From what I remember, I was watching the Fox halftime show during the Rams game when it happened. It was right in the middle of when Terry Bradshaw was talking about something. I suppose it could have been the top of the hour or something but I don't remember. Even so, I think the game is 3 hours on the guide so it shouldn't have done a program change, but I'm not positive on that one. I will pay closer attention and note what is happening. It almost seems like recorded episodes of Friends it happens, because my wife watches that a lot. Take care.

Oh, and yes it is changing back to Source.

Scott

Did you check to see if the recording was broken?

[scott2020]

This particular channel is always broadcasting in 4:3 format SD on a subchannel of the ABC station here. (Doesn't it suck to have FOX as a sub? Good grief. Living in the sticks...) As they are Fox, they do letterbox SD like when watching House. So I always have to put it on FILL to not have black bars on the left and right.

Unfortunately it was live TV so I don't see the recorded files anymore, so I can't tell if they were broken apart or not. I'll keep an eye and see what happens.

I can't find where to set the default AR on the extender. I found it on the client PC but I'm having a brain fart or something looking for it on the extender.

thanks a lot!

[willieb]

Reviving a thread here (although only after a few weeks!). Is there a properties setting for the extenders that will tell then NOT to redo the A/R when a new show starts, etc.? My kids watch a lot of 30 min shows on an SD TV. The shows are broadcast 4:3 but come out of my cable box 16:9 so we get the black box around them. I can set the A/R for Fill so that it takes up the whole screen (which the kids like better), but as soon as the next show comes on, back to black box. Is there a way to tell it to just leave it on the setting I chose?

[stanger89]

You can set the default aspect ratio, in the aspect ratio options.

[wayner]

But if you are using SageMC then you have to switch back to the default UI, change the default AR, power down while still in the default AR, power up and switch back to SageMC.

[willieb]

Thanks for the replies. I understand, and if that is the only way, then I guess that is the only way. In the future, it would be great if it would just keep the AR on the setting I choose. I don't really want it to always stay on a certain default. Just leave it on the setting I choose until I choose a different one. Is there a technological reason that isn't possible?

Believe me, I am not complaining -- I am perfectly happy to live with the status quo. I just wanted to (1) make sure I wasn't missing a setting that would fix this and (2) make a suggestion if anyone is listening.

Thanks.

[Madz]

+1 for willieb's suggestion there - I'd like it to work the same way...nice and simple.