My 16:9 TV doesn't have a 'zoom' feature, just a horizontal 'stretch'. So broadcast material that is 4:3 letterbox format (bars top and bottom) doesn't fill the display area. Are there any solutions to this to fill the screen and retain the correct aspect ratio? I'm tired of watching SD material that has black bars top, bottom, left and right!

I'm tired of watching SD material that has black bars top, bottom, left and right!There should not be any bars on the top/bottom on 4:3 material ... only on the sides.

Yes there are - many broadcast shows are now letterboxed SD - have to handle it in the same fashion as a non-anamorphic dvd. Most of the HBO "prestige" shows, like Rome, Entourage, etc are in this format; likewise, all of the Star Trek Enterprise on SF channel, just to name a few.

OP - if your set doesn't have a zoom or letterbox feature, you are pretty much out of luck. You can buy a scaler to do what you want, but even an old, outdated DVDO Iscan HD ;) will still probably run you 5-700 bucks. For that, you can probably update your set.

A Lumagen video processor has good support for letterboxed video. The remote control has buttons for the input aspect ratio. You just have to press the letterbox button to display the image full screen without the black bars.

Best regards,
Randy Freeman

A Lumagen video processor has good support for letterboxed video. The remote control has buttons for the input aspect ratio. You just have to press the letterbox button to display the image full screen without the black bars.Does that work if the source is, say, a letterboxed 2.35:1 image and the display is 16:9 -- i.e., does just pressing the letterbox button on the remote remove the black bars in that case? If so, what does it do to get rid of the upper and lower black bars and map the 2.35: image to the 1.78:1 display?

- Dale Adams

I think Randy meant 16:9 letter-box source will fill the screen when the LBOX button is pressed. A 2.35 letter-box source would still have black at top and bottom on a 16:9 screen -- unless the up-arrow is used to zoom in and then the left and right would be cropped.

A Lumagen video processor has good support for letterboxed video. The remote control has buttons for the input aspect ratio. You just have to press the letterbox button to display the image full screen without the black bars.



as does my VP50 (and as did my VP30) - I just don't know my Lumagen models nearly as well as I do DVDO. But fact remains, if his set doesn't already have the proper zoom, are there any vps out there that would even be cost effective?

So what's the $50 solution? I mean, I'm only talking composite 480i source here (Directv SD). Any DVD recorders out there that can zoom the composite input? How about utilizing a PC with a capture card - surely they must be able to zoom a 480i source on the fly? I'll start looking...

50$ is probably irrelevant for this forum... Try to find a used Vision DVI or maybe a used iScan HD.

A plain (non-DVI/HDP) Lumagen Vision as well as an iScan HD will do the zoom too, but I'm sure you'd have to pay much more than $100. for either. The TV must take at least 480p component video or VGA as the zoomed result from these processors does not come in S-video or composite.

Video hints: http://members.aol.com/ajaynejr/video.htm

I can't seem to find the piece I need (if it exists) to accomplish the following:

I have Dish Network with their HD receiver. I am not willing to spend $400-500 to buy a new HD Tivo, yet primarily DVR everything we watch, so I haven't been subscribing to Dish's HD channels until recently.

It seems that the standard Tivos will record the HD signal from the Dish receiver, however (of course) the ratios are different and so the sides of the recordings are cut off when I play back on the Tivo. I am looking for an *affordable* inline video box (less than $100?) that will squeeze the 16x9 down to 4x3 and put the black lines across the top and bottom so the aspect ratio remains the same. It doesn't have to offer pristine-perfect A/V video (as of course I know some of you guys like around here).

Hope that makes sense, and hoping you guys have some great ideas.

Thanks,

Shawn

I have Dish Network with their HD receiver. I am not willing to spend $400-500 to buy a new HD Tivo, yet primarily DVR everything we watch, so I haven't been subscribing to Dish's HD channels until recently.

It seems that the standard Tivos will record the HD signal from the Dish receiver, however (of course) the ratios are different and so the sides of the recordings are cut off when I play back on the Tivo. I am looking for an *affordable* inline video box (less than $100?) that will squeeze the 16x9 down to 4x3 and put the black lines across the top and bottom so the aspect ratio remains the same. It doesn't have to offer pristine-perfect A/V video (as of course I know some of you guys like around here).


What is the model of your HD receiver? Most STBs will output the HD over component/HDMI, and a letterboxed version of the video over, say, S-video or composite. You might not need a processor at all, just a different connection to your Tivo.

There might also be a setting to change how the aspect is handled on one of your boxes; change from "Pan&Scan" (which sounds like what you're getting) to "Letterboxed".