Ok, here is my situation.

Just bought a 42 inch LCD HD monitor
Westinghouse W4207 (cant put a link to it for some reason :confused: )

I also just got Comcast digital cable with the Scientific Atlanta 8300HD DVR box.

I hooked it up with a HDMI cable.

On to my problem...

The HD channels look AMAZING!
The normal non-HD channels look like utter crap.
My DVD's look great, a lot better than the normal non-HD chanells.

Im pretty sure the box is set to 1080i.

What I have to resort to is with the non-HD channels, I have to press the "hd-zoom" button on my remote and set it to I think "Stretch 2" so there arent any black bars on the side of the screen. This isnt good at all. Its stretched out so much that you cant see the tv channel logo on the bottom right of the screen, and everything is so stretched out it looks like crap. I was told to do this by the Comcast guy because he said the black bars on the side, and the squigly almost static lines on the top of the screen could burn into my LCD permenantly.


Does anyone have a solution to this? Anyone with a similar problem, and had it fixed?


Thanks,

(p.s I did search this forum and found similar questions as the ones I asked, but I couldnt fix my problem)

The HD channels look AMAZING!
The normal non-HD channels look like utter crap.
My DVD's look great, a lot better than the normal non-HD chanells.Welcome to the forum. The following posts may be of help.With cable STBs/DVRs, picture quality has a lot to do with the setting on the box. You need to make sure you are outputting SD as 480i.

For Scientific Atlanta STBs/DVRs like the SA8300HD, the instructions differ depending on whether your box uses SARA, Passport, or TWC Navigator software. With SARA, turn the unit off, then press and hold down the info and guide buttons until the setup screen appears; choose Advanced Setup and enable 4:3 480i, 720p, and 1080i; save that change, turn the box back on, and choose Passthrough/AutoDVI/AutoHDMI in Settings -> Settings menu. Pass through, AutoDVI, and AutoHDMI all refer to the same setting, they are just named differently depending on whether you are using component, HDMI, or DVI cables.

With Passport, enter the Settings -> Settings menu and find the output settings; enable native mode with 480i, 720p, and 1080i checked.

For Motorola STBs/DVRs like the DCT641x and DCT341x, turn the box off, press menu, and then enable 4:3 override set to 480i. The output setting should be 720p or 1080. The best setting is one that outputs 720p channels as 720p and 1080i channels as 1080i, but unfortunately, Motorola STBs/DVRs do not offer that option. You've got to convert 720p channels to 1080i or 1080i channels to 720p, neither of which the Motorola STB does well, although you may not see a difference at smaller sizes. The Motorola's 720p output setting is optimal for ABC, FOX, ESPN, ESPN2, A&E, and NGCHD. The 1080i setting is optimal for most other HD channels.On your old 27" CRT TV, SD (480i) content was displayed as 480i on the screen. Modern HDTVs have fixed panel resolution of 1280x720 or 1920x1080. Because of that, the 528x480 (480x480 in the case of DirecTV/Dish) image must be "zoomed" or "scaled" to to fit the higher resolution. Perhaps at some point you've taken a photo or graphic and resized it to 8-10x its normal size? Your display has to do the same thing.

The video processor in the TV performs this function and not all do it equally well. Some video processors, like those found in the newest Pioneer and NEC plasmas, do this reasonably well. Other video processors, like those found in cheaper LCDs, do a horrific job.

NTSC SD was never meant for viewing at larger sizes, so the larger you go, the worse SD will look. In contrast, high-definition was designed for larger screens; as you go larger, the high-definition picture looks better and better. Local channels like ABC, CBS, FOX, and NBC, as well as cable channels like Comcast Sportsnet and Fox Sportsnet, ESPN, ESPN2, TNT, FOOD, MTV, Discovery, Wealth, NGC, HBO, Cinemax, Starz, Showtime, and TMC are already offered in HDTV, with others like CNN, History, SciFi, and the Weather Channel expected to follow later this year.

High-definition channel lineups for different providers can be found here (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=4022698&&#post4022698).

cool thanks for the info, Ill try that thing in the first quote you posted now!