Top and bottom of telly picture missing - unh?

[swee'pea99]

Been googling but without success, so I wondered if anyone hereabouts might be able to help.

Got my sis a freeview hard drive doobry for Christmas, and finally got round to talking her thru' the installation. Astonishingly it all worked, and she's very pleased, except...apparently there's about a 1" strip missing from the picture, top & bottom.

When first installed, it was letterbox stylie, so I talked her thru' changing it from 9:6 to 4:3 - which is right for her telly (at least I think it is - never seen it myself, but she describes it as 'like, an ordinary telly', so I'm guessing that's what it is (CRT, in passing)) and that did dramatically improve matters. But still there's this strip missing, top & bottom. (Didn't happen with her old freeview box, so I'm guessing it's not any of the settings on the tellybox.) Anyone have any ideas?

 

[alecstilleyedye]

does the tv have a "zoom" setting? i think only widescreen tvs usually do, but you never know, it might be set to that.

 

[Eat MY Dust]

I would say it would be better keeping it letterboxed. Sounds like it taking the 16:9 picture and just chopping it up to fit the 4:3 TV. Does anybody know if Digital TV even broadcast a 4:3 picture along beside the 16:9FHA?

 

[alecstilleyedye]

it might be worth checking that the digi box output settings aren't combining with the tv settings. if i set my tv to 4:3 and the box to 16:9 (or vice versa) the picture isn't right.

 

[swee'pea99]

Thanks guys - I'll get her to check there's no squabbling going on between the tv and digibox format settings. I very much doubt there's a zoom setting...and if there was one, it would presumably have caused the same issue with her old digi-box? Ummmm.

 

[Fnaar]

In the good old days, you gave the telly a slap, and if that didn't work you called out the chap in the brown "lab" coat.

 

[swee'pea99]

Hold that thought! She's only gone and fixed it (and not told me).

"One of the grey buttons at the bottom, marked wide. one hit on that and an instant cure!"

Thanks anyway.

 

[alecstilleyedye]

In the good old days, you gave the telly a slap, and if that didn't work you called out the chap in the brown "lab" coat.

that reminds me of when, as a student, our house rented a tv (which turned out to be one that looked like it had shown morecombe and wise in their heyday) the chap was about to leave and we asked him to take away the large plastic bag the set had arrived in. he said "use it for the rubbish" and left.

a tad cheeky but, looking back on it, fair comment

 

[Over The Hill]

Just pass the remote to a five year old kid- they seem to know how to sort this sort of thing out.

It is funny that they call it wide screen but all it tends to do is make it narrow.

 

[arallsopp]

Top and bottom missing is 14:9 mode. Historically TV was either 4:3 (old school) or 16:9 widescreen. There's a good mix of both sets out there, so the broadcasters face a bit of a problem. If they push out 16:9 framing, those on a 4:3 set will see a tiny pic with big black bars at the top and bottom. If they push push out a 4:3 signal, those on the 16:9 sets will either see fatty vision, or get big black bars at the sides of the screen.

Compromise was 14:9 which either gives smaller bars for both tv types, or (if there's a stretch / zoom mode fills the screen with the bulk of the picture and crops off the rest.

Your set was in 14:9 mode, but you were watching a 4:3 signal would be my guess.

 

[marinyork]

Some channels broadcast deep letterbox, but that doesn't affect freeview very often. Sometimes a fat letterbox appears where broadcasters fool around and crop the picture to make it more acceptable to widescreen viewers.