Is this display situation normal?

[heaphus]

First, a little backround. I have a CRT RPTV that is connected to the HR10 via component cables. This TV natively displays SD 4x3 material with grey sidebars, unless using one of the stretch modes. It also locks into full when receiving HD, and displays at 1080i, although it can also accept, and scale, 720p input. So, since I have never liked the stretch modes, and I don't like the grey sidebars, I set the HR10 to output 1080i and I use the panel option in the aspect correction menu, and black in the letterbox color menu. This works fine for me. However, yesterday I unintentionally switched the output to 480p with the up arrow, and I get my TVs grey bars with about three inches of the HR10s black bars inside of that, and the picture looks squeezed. Is this normal? I would have thought that the HR10s letterboxing would be bypassed when choosing 480i/p. So, in order to use one of the TVs stretch modes, I also have to go into the video menu and set aspect correction to full?

[Fish Man]

That is exactly what I would expect to happen.

Your TV is set to display 1080i full screen. You then set up your HR10-250 to always output 1080i and to upconvert 480i and display it with black panels. In this mode you are essential using the HR10 to do the upconverting, not your TV.

Then, when you switched the HR10 to 480P, your TV automatically set it's aspect ratio to 4:3. However, your HR10 still assumed that the TV it was connected to was 16:9, but your TV was displaying 4:3. So, the HR10 inserted its black bars and the TV squeezed the whole thing between its grey bars.

You could see a "normal" image (albeit at 480p resolution) by setting your TV to stretch mode.

Of course, the best solution and best picture is almost surely obtained by doing what you usually do, namely: setting the HR10 to output 1080i all the time, let the TV interpret the 1080i as 16:9, and let the HR10 handle the conversions and pillarboxing.

[heaphus]

OK, thanks.

[telephonejones]

I am having a similar issue with my HR10-250 displaying 720 and 1080i in a full screen on my 4:3 HDTV. With HD broadcasts in these modes the screen is distorted and stretched with no letterboxing so the people are super skinny. For some reason the RATIO button is useless with 720 and 1080. Tested on 2 different sets with same problem. Everything works fine with the 480 settings. My samsung HD receiver does not have this problem when displaying 720/1080 on these sets. It shows the HD broadcasts in letterbox format like they should be. thoughts?