Black bars on sides

Oh boy, where to start.

First off, are you watching HD? From an HD cable box? Connected with an HD connection?

Second, are you watching an SD channel or an HD channel when this happens?

Third, If you are watching SD, that's how it's supposed to look. SD has an aspect ration of 4x3, so you will see black bars on the sides. If you want to (EEK!) scale the picture to fill the screen, your cable box should have an option to send 4x3 content as 16x9, which will stretch the content. Do not set the TV to stretch it, as it will stretch everything, including HD.

No, you bought a 16x9 65" set that is designed for 16x9 HD content.

cnet's quick guide to aspect ratio
http://www.cnet.com/1991-7874_1-5140690-4.html


why am i seeing black bars when i watch movies?
http://www.bigscreen.com/about/help.php?id=46

I am having the same problem on my LG 47LS4500. I have tried everything. Bottom line is if there is no "Full screen" or "Fit to Screen" option on your TV, you will not be able to get rid of the side bars in any sensible fashion for SD channels. You can try the zoom function but that makes the cable menu almost unusable. I spoke to an LG agent and they confirmed it is not the cable box. The TV is limited in it's functionality. I'm bringing my TV back as a result of this as the only HD sources we have are the PS3, Xbox and a few test HD channels.

I agree with what the OP said. If it's designed for 16x9 HD content, it should still have the option to view anything SD in full screen, even if it is distorted.

What resolution does the TV say it is receiving from the cable box when you push the Info button on the TV remote?
Older 4:3 aspect ratio TV programs often have black side bars added to the video image so the that they can be broadcast on a 16:9 HD channel. If your TV has a Zoom button you may be able to reduce the size of the side bars at the expense of losing some of the top and bottom of the image.

Is the news channel broadcasting in HD or SD? It sounds like it may be HD which would explain the full screen. If it is indeed SD then I am stumped. I have found a temp work around for my TV to make the screen fit SD signals but it is a pain in the butt. I had to force the TV to accept a SD signal by going through AV cables. Hopefully your TV has a manual setting that can change from 1080p/720p back to SD. The distortion is minimal and the picture quality is horrible but it works. I also had to unplug the HDMI cable from the cable box as the TV didn't like having 2 inputs from the same source and automatically switched to HDMI. I hope this helps if you cannot find any other work around.

If you use the "stretch" mode or whatever your TV calls it to fill out the screen, then you aren't watching in HD. Then, when an HD 16x9 picture/program does come on, you won't be seeing it like you're supposed to unless you switch it back. To each his own, I guess...

That is absolutely not the correct way to do that.

I've never seen a TV with that feature.

That's because you should be using HDMI with an HD cable box, not analog SD cables.

sitlet:

Thanks for telling me what I'm doing is incorrect without offering help. I am fully aware this is not how you should be hooking up the TV. However, I have been told by LG there is no way to get a full screen image for SD channels without using zoom. Zoom is no good as it also makes the cable menu zoom and unusable. I have tried all combinations of output from the cable box with all of the TV aspect ratios and nothing gives full screen with HDMI. If you can offer another solution, I would gladly use that but at the moment AV is the only way to sensibly get rid of the sidebars. Not only are side bars annoying but they also cause image burn according to CNET. As I have no HD signals, that means ALL of my channels have sidebars. As for switching from SD to HD, my last Viewsonic was able to do this with one click of the remote.

Guys what gives with all pointless posts on this forum? If a person posts that they want to do something with their TV, that is their preference. They are looking for help, not comments on how incorrect or silly what they are doing is. If you do not have a suggestion as to how to help fix the issue, then don't post at all.
Edited by Keanman - 1/4/13 at 8:15am

I explained in my first post. Your cable box, if connected via HDMI and outputting HD, should have a menu option somewhere to output 480i content as stretched 16x9. You may have to turn the cable box off to get to that menu.

Image burn-in hasn't really been a problem for at least 5 years now.

So you have an SD cable box? I haven't seen an SD cable box with an hdmi output. Or do you have an HD cable box, but only pay for SD?

If you read my first post to the OP, I helped all that I could with the information I was given, and I asked for more information to be able to help.

PLEASE tell me this is a joke...

All 13 x 9 TVs work that way. Without zoom you cut off the R & L sides when you have a 4 x 3 source material. When you ZOOM you fill out the left and right side of the screen, but cut off the top and bottom of the 4 x 3 source material. ZOOM is supposed to be used to show a SD widescreen movie on a 13 x 9 display.

I have a Wide Zoom mode, but all that does is fill out the screen. Wide Zoom makes all people look short and fat with 4 x 3 source material, so if you are short and fat then everything will look normal to you if you use wide zoom.

Note that you can never get hi definition pictures if you do not use the HDMI connection. You can not upscale a DVD (4 x 3 or widecreen material) to 1080P if you do not use the HDMI connection either.

Yes, watching 4 x 3 content on a 16 x 9 TV is kind of a pain. People even complain that a wide screen Cinemascope movie has black bars on the top and bottom of the screen when used with a 13 x 9 screen. That's just the way it is with every TV!

Since you note that you only have a SD cable box, you do not get HiDef signals anyway. You can connect the cable box any way that you want to.