Adjusting to Widescreen TV

[mbowling]

I just replaced my old 27 inch tube TV with an LCD TV. I'm now struggling with understanding when I can watch a show in 16:9 aspect ratio. I have the TV output set to 4:3 because I have standard digital cable, no HD. I think this means that most of the shows I record will be in 4:3 format. The recorded shows have the black bars on the sides but otherwise look fine this way.

Last night I watching Dirty Jobs on the Discovery channel and noticed that there were black bars on the sides and the top and bottom. My first thought is that this means the show is in 16:9 format and I can simply change my TV to 16:9 and watch it in full screen mode with no black bars. When I changed the TV to 16:9 format the show looked stretched.

Was this show in 16:9 format because it has black bars on the sides and top and bottom? If so, how can I view it in full screen 16:9 format without stretching the picture?

[aaronb]

You need to zoom. Widescreen content broadcast in 4:3 will have bars on top and bottom, but you are only sending a 4:3 signal to the TV so you already have bars on the side. Your TV should have a zoom function that will fill the screen when that type of content is on. If you change the TV to 16:9 it just stretches the image Sage is sending it horizontally, it does not get rid of the bars on top, because as far as the TV knows those bars are a part of the image.

[kbyrd]

Originally Posted by mbowling

Last night I watching Dirty Jobs on the Discovery channel and noticed that there were black bars on the sides and the top and bottom. My first thought is that this means the show is in 16:9 format and I can simply change my TV to 16:9 and watch it in full screen mode with no black bars. When I changed the TV to 16:9 format the show looked stretched.

You want to zoom.

It's still a 4:3 signal that you are being sent. The problem is that top and bottom bars are part of the signal being sent to you. Your TV has no way of knowing that those black bars aren't just content that you want to watch. 16:9 TV's often have a zoom option to handle this. To get real 16:9 content you need a DTV signal. That's either an HD package from your cable provider, clear QAM channels available already without a cable box, HD package from a satellite provider, or over-the-air DTV signals from an antenna.

[TomXP411]

Here's something odd... my TV doesn't have a Zoom option when I'm using the VGA input. Doesn't Sage have a way to zoom letterboxed video to fill the screen?

[ke6guj]

Originally Posted by TomXP411

Doesn't Sage have a way to zoom letterboxed video to fill the screen?

Yes, use a different aspect ratio other than Source. I have 16:9 set to 133% for both Horizontal and Vertical. That will zoom in any postage stamped content I have and properly display it on my 16:9 set.

I use the Auto Aspect Ratio Switcher plugin to automatically switch between Source and 16:9 depending on the show.

[stanger89]

Originally Posted by mbowling

I just replaced my old 27 inch tube TV with an LCD TV. I'm now struggling with understanding when I can watch a show in 16:9 aspect ratio. I have the TV output set to 4:3 because I have standard digital cable, no HD. I think this means that most of the shows I record will be in 4:3 format. The recorded shows have the black bars on the sides but otherwise look fine this way.

You mean you have Display Aspect Ratio set to 4:3? That's not right, you've got a 16:9 display so DAR should be set as such. This will allow Sage to properly pad recordings so they are displayed with the correct AR.

4:3 shows should have black bars on the sides.

Last night I watching Dirty Jobs on the Discovery channel and noticed that there were black bars on the sides and the top and bottom. My first thought is that this means the show is in 16:9 format and I can simply change my TV to 16:9 and watch it in full screen mode with no black bars. When I changed the TV to 16:9 format the show looked stretched.

Was this show in 16:9 format because it has black bars on the sides and top and bottom?

That show is shot in 16:9/HD, but then it's letterboxed into 4:3 SD. This means you have to zoom (as others mentioned). On my projector the mode is called "Letterbox".