I am trying to talk to my father over the phone to help him figure it all out.

He has a 4:3 Sony TV with component inputs. He also had a surround sound reciever.

He got the HD receiver because it came free with the package that he got. The reason behind it is mostly because the component looks better and it has Dolby Digital so it will be worth watching movies.

However a few local channels he gets now have huge white bars on the right and left side. He can select normal or HD for a few channels. Sci-fi for example if he selects normal it came out in Widescreen format but that might just be because a movie is playing. However if he selects the HD one then it gives him the white bars on the side. It seems like the picture is shrunk in the middle.


I am not at his place so can not entirely solve this. Basically he wants to get rid of the white bars for fullscreen images. Also if it is not needed to be in Widescreen I am sure he would prefer fullscreen (I am sure he will get a widescreen TV some day but he really does not car, it is like a 36 inch so widescreen movies still look nice).

The receiver is set on 4:3 ratio TV. Right now he is using the S-video out (the guy installing only had one component cable and he needs two, one from DVD and one from satellite into the surround sound receiver, than one back to the TV, because the TV only has one input). Here is the thing, he can select different resolutions even though the S-video is only 480i. I imagine maybe the receiver does not know what is being sent out. It has options for crop, stretch, and letterbox for 4:3 TV's.

Are most things just broadcast in widescreen now or something? I do not own a TV or desire to ever have cable/satellite so I do not keep up on this, I just know everything has to switch over eventually.

The different aspect ratios are explained in the manual for that receiver, you can get a copy at directv.com under Customer Service, System Manuals, Directv Models. Your father probably has an H21 if he just got it installed but the aspect ratio/resolution works the same with both the H20 and H21 models so either manual will work.

All HD programming is 16:9 by default, what normally happens when passing it to a 4:3 set is letterbars are placed on the top and bottom. Now if the HD channel is passing SD programming they normally letterbar the sides to keep the 4:3 aspect ratio. If you are watching SD programming being carried on an HD channel on a 4:3 set, you'll get a boxed effect with bars on all 4 sides. When the channel in question is carrying SD programming, you'd be better off watching the SD version.

Page 80 and 81 in the H21 manual explains the differences with the stretch and crop modes on a 4:3 set.

It is possible in the set up of the receiver to select what modes your TV supports, in this case just choose the 3 480i options. Once that is set up, the format button on the remote will only cycle between those 3.

Are all of the channels in HD programming with this receiver or something? I thought since only a few channels have HD, only a few channels would incur this, and the majority would show up 4:3 usual, like any other setup.

If you had the regular one would this be happening?