Aspect ratio and the Tivo menu screen questions

[marspinball]

Hi

I just set up a new HD tivo (no cable card yet). And have some questions.

It appears everything I get is in 480i, could this be because I have no digital signal yet since I have no cable cards? Is Tivo just picking up analog?

I set both Tivo and my Sony TV to 16:9 and Tivo Menus are always 4:3. I have seen screen shots in the manual and they appear 16:9. Can I get the Tivo menu to fill the screen??

The Aspect button on the remote has no effect on the picture even though it will say panel/wide etc. Again is this because it's analog.

I have both HD Tivo and a COX DVR connected to my TV. The cable company box picture for SD channels is much better. Will this improve once cable cards are installed.

[RonDawg]

If you are hooked up to cable without CableCards, then yes you are only getting analog signals and thus 480i.

If you are using OTA, you will pick up OTA HD signals without use of a CableCard.

Yes once CableCards are (properly) installed you will be able to get a better picture, but only on the digital channels. Analog channels will appear exactly the same.

[dianebrat]

Yes once CableCards are (properly) installed you will be able to get a better picture, but only on the digital channels. Analog channels will appear exactly the same.

If your provider offers digital simulcasts of some of your currently analog stations, you'll get those instead of the analog when you install CCs, that alone is a nice bonus.

[RonDawg]

If your provider offers digital simulcasts of some of your currently analog stations, you'll get those instead of the analog when you install CCs, that alone is a nice bonus.

In this thread (http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?t=376586) the OP appears to be getting both the analog and digital versions of the same channels after his CableCard install.