HD channels don't fill screen

[snoopy7548]

I have a problem in SageTV where whenever I switch to a HD channel, it doesn't fill up the entire screen area. I could understand having black bars on the bottom but there is an even black space around the entire picture. I have found that this only happens for certain things; things like the Superbowl and American Gladiators do not have this problem, but other shows on the same channels have this issue. Here is a picture of what I am talking about:



I have tried everything; setting the aspect ratio (when I set it to 'Fill', it just stretches the image upwards and there are still black bars on the sides) , setting the display aspect ratio. Nothing works. If the HD channels are displayed in 4:3, which is what it looks like, why would SageTV not fill in the big black area? Regular T.V. channels come in just fine.

[carlgar]

I see this whenever a station is showing a rerun of a HD program. During the first run it is shown in true HD but the future airing are shown letterboxed like you see. You don't state how you are trying to view the show but assuming that you are using the server or the client, you need to pick which of the ratio modes you want to use. Then go in and adjust the Ratio Settings for that mode. I think 133% Horiz Stretch and 120% Vert. Stretch is close to what you want.

[ke6guj]

I see stuff like that when I record 4:3 programming off a digital (don't think HD, its not an HD channel, its a digital channel that can broadcast in HD or SD) channel. It all depends on how they are formatting the picture with letterbox or pillarbox bars.

Stuff like the superbowl is broadcast in 16:9 so it fits your screen.

I usethe 4:3 aspect ratio and have it set to zoom in 133% horizontal and vertical to zoom in and remove the postage stamp bars without distortion.

I use nielm's auto-aspect ratio switcher to automatically switch my aspect ratio to match the show I'm watching.

YOu do have your display's aspect ratio set correctly? ie: You'll told Sage that your display is 16:9 and made the circle in the box round?

[snoopy7548]

Sorry, I am using SageTV Media Center. Yeah I set my aspect ratio to 16:10 (1920x1200 res.), I was just going to ask if there was a way to automatically set the stretch so I don't have to do it every time but then I just read your post. Thanks.

[plympton]

Originally Posted by snoopy7548

Sorry, I am using SageTV Media Center. Yeah I set my aspect ratio to 16:10 (1920x1200 res.), I was just going to ask if there was a way to automatically set the stretch so I don't have to do it every time but then I just read your post. Thanks.

What if you have an old crappy 4:3 TV that you're running SageTV on? I'm checking out SageTV as a replacement for MCE 2005 (it's bugging me, but overall is excellent). MCE has a macro - CTRL-SHIFT-Z which cycles through the different ratios for your display. Is there anything similar that I can do with SageTV? I'd hate to zoom in on this program, only to have to zoom out (settings -> zoom -> etc -> etc) for every time a program is messed up on a channel.

Or am I missing something? Looks like there was a plug-in that did something like this, but is incompatible with the SageMC skin.

-Dan

[carlgar]

If all of your TVs are SD then you should only record digital channels that broadcast in the 4:3 format. The Hd extender does allow you to cycle through the 4 predefined and any custom aspect ratios you have.
If you are useing the server or client to view a show then there is a plug-in that automatically set the aspect ratio for the show once you have set it up.
If you are using the MVP, there does not appear to be any way to correct this.

[davi323]

When the HD versions of stations don't actually have HD programming, they play a digital version of the programming on the analog station...in the case of your pic, Family Guy is a standard definition program, that just happens to be broadcast on an HD channel...its still SD though. As such, it is going to be presented in a 4:3 ratio. Programs like the Super Bowl or American Gladiators are actual HD programs...since you said those shows appear fine, it makes me think that you are just viewing standard definition programming on those channels...generally, HD programming doesn't begin until about 8pm EST, most programs before then will be in SD, even if they are on your network's HD channel.

[jprine01]

For me I get this on my 4:3 TV when I watch HD channels without widescreen programing. Its my local stations fault, not the TV or sage.

When my local channel, like fox plays a non widescreen show say The Simpsons.. They will use black bars, or sometimes colored bars with a fox logo on both ends of the picture to make a 4:3 show 16:9. So for my 4:3 TV, it zoomes out so I can see the full widescreen image, which is actually just a image in the middle with bars on the ends. So now I have bars on top and bottom my TV/Sage put in to watch widescreen, and I also have bars on the sides left/right that the TV station put in.

Its not really sage's fault that it cannot detect they are broadcasting black bars in the image, and it should cut those off instead of zooming out.

I use ZoomB on the HD Extender for this, it works fine but you have to switch it allot.

[jprine01]

Oh yeah I was going to ad, I have a 16:10 1920x1200 pannel, and with sage client set on 16:10 I dont get this problem with 4:3 content on HD channels.

The only time I see Bars on all 4 sides is when I watch a SD Cable channel with widescreen content..