DirecTV H23 Annoying HD popup reminder

[mtyme]

DirecTV just replaced all my SD STB's with HD versions. Now periodically a little DirecTV message pops up when I tune to a channel that says something about getting the most out of my HD TV by hitting the RES button on the remote to try different resolutions.

It's random but it seems to happen when the channel changes. So the first 5 minutes of some of my shows have this stupid popup message taking up about 25% of my screen. And there's nothing I can do but wait it out. I've tried turning off all messages, went into all the settings menu, and it just will NOT go away.

How do you all deal with this?

[HelenWeathers]

What resolutions does our TV support? (480i/p, 720p, 1080i/p)
How are you feeding the TV signal to the PC? (composite, s-video, component, hdmi)
Are you watching/recording HD only or SD as well?

[mtyme]

My TV actually supports all resolutions but I have my STBs going through Sage using analog capture cards for now. In the settings menu for the STBs I even selected 480i as the only resolution to use, yet it still pops up to remind me to switch

All content I record from DirecTV is in SD right now. I get my HD from OTA. The reason they upgraded all my boxes to the HD boxes is they told me they were phasing out the sats my old boxes were using. I may get a HD-PVR sooner or later but that's a headache I just don't want to deal with right now.

Anyway, all that doesn't even matter because even if I was capturing through an HD-PVR I would still get that popup. Are you not getting it?

[HelenWeathers]

The s-video always outputs 480, so I would set my box to output 720p and lock it there for now. Then you'll have to experiment with setting up how you want your SD channels recorded; stretched, pillar boxed etc. If I lock my STB to 720p, I don't get the message.

It's been a while since I watched or recorded SD so you'll have to play with the settings.

Have you tried native (480 signal=480output, 720=720 etc)? That should also work.

[mtyme]

I guess I could try that. I just figured it might come out goofy looking at 480i.

[HelenWeathers]

The issue you are going to have is the AR (aspect ratio) when viewing as opposed to watching directly from the STB to the TV (I'm assuming you use it to watch as well as record).

If you set it for one the other is affected. I never had that problem because I used a box for recording and another box for viewing.

[mtyme]

No I use them strictly for recording. The only thing hooked to my TV is an HD extender and a PS3.

[HelenWeathers]

Ok (hopefully you have a 16x9 TV or the instructions will be different). In your STB settings set up for a 4x3 tv with 480i only (remove the other options and I believe the message will go away). In settings you also need to have HD programming shrunk to fit a 4x3 screen, not cropped. All of your recordings will be recorded in 4x3 and when watching HD channels recorded through sage you'll need to hit the options button on the remote and have Sage stretch the picture. The SD recordings will play fine without the stretch.

Just a friendly prod. You know what equipment you have, we don't. Especially with these types of questions we need to know. Put your equipment in your signature line or in your first post of the thread and it'll be easier for us to help you.

[mtyme]

That's the way I have it set up now. 480i as the only option and 4:3 tv. I don't mind stretching or whatever with different AR in sage as I've already got them setup. I might try the 720 to see if it makes it go away, problem is it's random so it may be a while before I notice if it did anything or not LOL.

And yeah, I've been meaning to update the sig, just lazy I guess.

[Skirge01]

There's a pretty long thread over on dbstalk that might help.