On these new recorders...a lot of probs with HD and the aspect ration and such.

Is this because people are using the tunner to receive the signal and convert it, without going thru the cable/satellite box?

Are these problems there for anyone, if anyone does it, that records from the cable/satellite box without using the tuner? I am curious to know because that is how I will use mine, for the signal to go into the cable/satellite box and then hook the recorder to the outputs of that box....I am really curious if all the posted problems occur when hooked up in this manner.

I am assuming that the problems arise bcause the recorder tuner is being used to recieve and try and convert the signal instead of going thru the cable box first...is that right?

I have always recorded from the cable box....the satellite cable goe into the satellite box and then i hook reocrder to it's output and record and it records whatever the cable box outputs, does not try to squish the 4:3 nor the widescreen or anything..just records what it outputs...so am asking will have any of the problems being posted as far as HD and the aspect ration being changed or recorded a certain way if I go thru the cable box first and then to the recorder...?...thanks..t

I don't have cable or dish so I can't help with your questions. About 5 months ago I finally got my new HDTV in operation. It had been setting here since May 2006 but my old 32" Sony (dead) TV was too heavy for me to make the switch. Finally in Feb 2007 my neighbors husky kids took pity on me and made the switch for me.

I have been trying to figure out these aspect ratios ever since. My Viewsonic LCD 32" HDTV seems to be incapable of displaying the digital sub-channels in the proper aspect ratio on 4:3 programs. They always fill the whole 6:9 screen and all of my choices for aspect ratio are wrong. I have no setting, squeezing these 4:3 programs back to their proper size. But when I switch channels back to the analog channel for the same program, the aspect ratio is proper. I don't know what I will do when these analog channels go off the air. I guess I will have to get used to seeing fat people and oval circles. I would hope that any future HDTV would have an option to view 4:3 digital channels in the 4:3 aspect ratio.

I have noticed that 6:9 PBS programs have black bars on all 4 sides when recorded on my Panasonic E100 and E95 DVD recorders. Seems like such a waste to have a 32" LCD TV and only use the center half of the screen. I can expand or ZOOM the picture but none of those presets give me the correct aspect ratio. They are either too big, too small or stretched real goofy. I don't know why they couldn't have given me an option that looks normal? It shouldn't be rocket science to display either 6:9 or 4:3 correctly on a HDTV. I hope this is a Viewsonic problem and not an industry wide problem.

Dave

Some companies do get it right, but not all of them, unfortunately.

When my Panasonic 32" LCD HDTV receives a SD (480i) signal, I can get the image in correct 4:3 proportion with bars on the sides by using NORMAL mode; or I can stretch the image horizontally to fill the screen by using FULL or JUST mode; or I can fill the screen horizontally and chop off the top and bottom to keep objects in their proper shape by using ZOOM mode (which also takes care of letterboxed widescreen SD, by chopping off the top and bottom bars).

Similarly, when I record HD material from my Sony HD DVR to a SD DVD recorder, I set the Sony for 480i output, and then I choose one of the following "screen modes" on the Sony:

LETTERBOX - adds bars to the top and bottom of the widescreen image so when you play back on a 4:3 TV you see the entire widescreen image with properly-shaped objects.

SIDE CROP - chops off the sides of the image so it fills the screen vertically while keeping objects in their proper shape on a 4:3 TV. This is nice for recording a HD channel that's showing upconverted SD material with bars on the sides... it chops off the bars.

SQUEEZE - compresses the widescreen image horizontally so it all fits into a 4:3 frame. This doesn't look good on a 4:3 TV of course, but when I play it back on my Panasonic HDTV described above, I can use FULL or JUST mode to stretch the image back out to fill the screen, with objects in their proper shape.