Please Help!! Comcast HDMI cable problems

[Mike_F]

Hey guys, I am brand new to this forum and I hope that I am creating this help thread in the right spot.

Here is the deal. I currently have a Comcast DVR digital cable box that is a Motorola DCT3416 which is attached to my Samsung LN-S3241D 32" LCD TV.

I have had the comcast digital HDTV cable and been very happy with it for the last few months until recently. At the advice of others, I decided to connect the comcast cable box to my TV with an HDMI cable rather then the component cables. So I went out and bought 2 Belkin HDMI cables, one for my DVD player and the other for the cable box. After connecting the HDMI cables, the HD channels fill up the TV screen and look good. However whenever I change the channel to an SD channel, it seems that the TV or cable box is not changing the resolution to adjust. In other words, on the SD channels, the picture does not fill up the entire screen (black bars on the sides) and the picture quality looks TERRIBLE.

My first move was to disconnect the HDMI cable and go back to the component video the way it was before I touched it. However switching back did not change the problem at all. Iv spent hours digging through picture settings on my TV (couldnt find any picture adjustment settings for the Comcast box). I called both Samsung AND Comcast and they are both telling me the other one is the cause of the problem. If anyone has any info i would REALLY appreciate it.

Also video from the DVD player looks great. Whenever Im on an HD channel, things look just fine. Another observation I made is when I display info for my TV it USED to show the resolution as 1080i or 720p when I switched to an HD channel, however now it shows 1280x720 no matter what channel I am on. Thanks in advance for any help guys

[WRolls]

Your problem is likely due to your cable box configuration. See this site to get a full explaination.

The upconverting routine on this cable box sucks so I pass my SD signal as 480i and let my TV upconvert.

http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Categor...a_Motorola_DVR

[walford]

I believe that you are able to select one setting for output of all 16:9 aspect ratio programs to eiter 720p or 1080i and all 4:3 aspect ratio programs to either 480i or 480p for your widescreen HDTV.
When a network is transmitting a program "filmed" with an SD (480i) camera over their "HD" digital channel they add blacekgrey side bars to the actual SD video and then upscale the output to 720p or 1080i.
It your HDTV is a 1080p model I suggest that you use 1080i and 480i as the output formats

[Mike_F]

Thanks alot for your help guys. I probably would have been able to figure it out on my own, but I had NO clue about the power off menu which gives video options. After reading your replies, I browsed the site a little bit and discovered the menu. Thanks for your help
-Mike