All,

I've searched, and I can't turn up anything.

Several months ago, according to my father-in-law, his Sony 36XBR250 began showing all channels in the 16x9 squeeze mode. Initially, he could cycle power to the cable box, and it would go back to 4x3 until you changed channels again, but now that won't work either. For the previous 5+ years with the same box, there were no issues.

I removed the coax from the back of the cable box, and plugged it directly into the TV, and the correct 4x3 picture came up. DVD (fed via component from a Sony S-360 player) works fine- 4x3 and letterboxed DVDs display correctly, and 16x9 DVDs cause the auto-shrink.

So, the TV appears to be working correctly.

I've swapped three cable boxes now- changed the old SciAtl Explorer 2100 for a new one, and then swapped that today for an Explorer 2200. No difference. I've considered getting him a HiDef box, even though the TV isn't HiDef, but they want $7/mo more, $12/mo if you want the HD DVR option. He's not particularly enthused about paying Comcast money to fix a problem they caused.

Any thoughts? This TV was originally mine years ago (he got it as a hand-me-down in 2000, when I moved to a Pioneer Elite RPTV), but my service manual and notes are 1000 miles away.:mad:

Can I disable the auto-squeeze? I couldn't find an obvious code to do so. I don't want to run the VSIZ, etc up to make the picture 4x3, because then DVD will be goofy.

Thanks,

Todd

Adding to my own thread-;)

Now that I've spent more time with the TV, I've noted this only happens on Channels 1-99 (the analog channels). On >100, it flips back to a normal 4x3 screen.

Is the squeeze trigger just a DC signal that's put onto the video signal? In other words, could I go over to Radio Shack and pick up a DC block to put on the composite video going to the TV?