[pham]

Sorry for another LT150 post. I've been playing around with my DTC100 HDTV tuner and the LT150. On 4:3 material, I am unable to fill the entire screen no matter what my settings are on the DTC100 (raster settings, screen format) or the LT150 (resolution, position/clock). It seems that the LT150 locks into a certain format when fed a 540p signal. The 1080i widescreen material seems to be correctly letterboxed. Has anyone else had similar results?

 

[kelliot]

Most prior NEC projectors would permit aspect ratio control with component input. If you see grayed out options, you might want to try a VHDC300.


------------------

Ken Elliott

 

[pham]

This would be a shame if I had to convert the VGA to component to use the DTC-100, when the LT150 already accepts VGA. Is anybody that is using a different HDTV tuner having the same problem, or does using component in fact completely solve it?

 

[lmo]

It's been confirmed that you can't do aspect ratio control at the projector if you're using VGA input. The cure, unfortunately, is feeding it a component signal if you want projector aspect ratio control. I assume this is true for the RCA DTC-100 as well as all other sources (I have an LT-150 but not a dtc-100). Are you saying that you're unable to maintain proper aspect ratio control at the STB for HDTV because of this, or does it only affect SDTV which isn't upconverted? I'm curious, because I'm thinking about running a DTC-100 through a Crystal Image pass through for HDTV, and using the s-video to upconvert the SDTV (using the scaler of AR control).

 

[pham]

The LT-150 seems to either be doing an anamorphic squeeze, or can only use its native resolution when displaying 540p/1080i. On the widescreen HDTV material, this works out perfectly. For 4:3 material, you get a small box within the screen. The aspect ratio is correct, but it just doesn't use the entire panel/resolution. The strange thing is that even if I use the magnify button, it will cut off anything beyond a certain area. If it is an anamorphic squeeze, then I suppose getting a transcoder would be a solution but I would like some verification.

 

[lmo]

That's strange, it sounds like it's not scaling the 4:3 material, and is simply putting it out in "Native" mode. Have you tried feeding it non-upconverted SDTV from the RCA (can you even do this?) I vaguely recall a discussion a while back of AR problems with standard def. from the RCA 100 in either this forum or the HDTV Hardware forum, and I remember the ultimate solution being that you had to use S-video for the standard def. (I don't think this discussion involved the LT-150, but you might want to do a search). Have you tried running SDTV through the s-video input in the LT-150?

 

[arrow]

It sounds like you have a 4:3 screen you're looking to fill. I don't have specific experience with the DTC100, but instead the Dish 6000.


It's displaying the material as native 640x480 which is why it appears in a small box in the middle of the 4:3 screen. It does the exact same thing on my LP350 and I also have no aspect ratio control through RGB.


I have a sneaking suspicion that the receiver is upconverting 480i to the projector which automatically performs an anamorphic squeeze on 1080i placing the image smack in the middle. If this is the case, I would doubt that a break cable using component outs would help.


If someone doesn't know outright, maybe I'll give it a try from my 6000 this week.


--Les

 

[pham]

Thanks for all the comments. Yes, I have a 4:3 screen. I suppose if someone was using a 16:9 screen the results would be just what they wanted. I have not tried s-video because I don't have a long enough cable, but composite works fine in terms of using the entire panel and controlling aspect ratio. I would assume that the DTC-100, which scales SDTV to 540p, would do a better job of deinterlacing than the LT150 but I haven't done any actual comparisons.

 

[Jeff Evans]

Hi,


I am not familiar with the DTC100 or the LT150 (should get mine this week). Doesn't the LT150 have options for displaying either 16:9 or 4:3 material?


Also, does the DTC100 take into account the display type that you are using? Maybe you have to set it to 4:3 if you currently have it set to 16:9?


Best Regards,

Jeff

 

[lmo]

Jeff - you lose AR control at the projector when feeding it a regular VGA signal (unless you use a component break out cable.)


Pham - I think s-video may be your only solution if you want to fill the entire panel, that's what I think was concluded in the other thread. The projector's scaling probably won't be as good, but it may be the only way to utilize the full panel. Of course, another solution might be to sell your RTC-100 (I'm be interested, by the way) and spend a few hundred dollars extra to get one of the new STB's with component outputs (These have next generation scalers, which is an added bonus). The RTC-100 sounds like it will be fine for my application, because I'll be feeding HDTV through the VGA pass through on my Crystal Image scaler and standard def. via s-video to the CI...