HD source showing up picture framed

[jckatz]

I am not sure if this is a TIVO® problem, a local cable problem, a TV problem, or a local station problem.

This has happen a lot and since I only have a 19 inch HD TV loosing 25% of my image is a BIG DEAL.

As I am watching a TV program that is in HD (the entire screen used up, no letter boxing) sometimes in the middle of the program the SIDE BARS show up causing the bottom "letter box" bars to show up. This makes the image look like it is in a picture frame with black bars on the top bottom left and right, and not very much picture left on my small 19 inch Samsung.

My TV is a Samsun my TIVO is the HD model and my connection is composit video cables.

Is there anything I can do to fix this problem (post recording) or in the case of watching live fix it while its happening.

Thank you in advance.

[ilh]

This happens when 16:9 source is formatted to 4:3 by letter boxing and then back to 16:9 by pillar boxing. Ugly. This is changing in the middle of a recorded program? Yuck.

I think your only hope is to play with your TV's zoom function, if it has one. The TiVo's Aspect button might help, but if the TiVo is receiving 16:9 and outputting 16:9, I don't think it will do anything. If I recall, it only does things when displaying 4:3 on 16:9 or vice-a-versa.

[msdonnelly]

I seem to run into this problem when the commercial I fast forward through is a local commercial in SD or the local station has run a weather warning across the screen. The local stations in SA don't seem to have any high def cameras/transmitters of their own and it seems some engineer must throw a swith to put the feed back into 16:9 aspect. It's very annoying until said engineer notices the error.

[Dancar]

Are you using the composite (red, white & yellow jacks) or component (red, blue and green) connection?

If your TV is an HD model then it must have component and possibly HDMI inputs. Make sure you're using one of those.

Also, make sure your TiVo video setting is set to 16:9, not "Smart Screen."

[aaronwt]

I am not sure if this is a TIVO® problem, a local cable problem, a TV problem, or a local station problem.

This has happen a lot and since I only have a 19 inch HD TV loosing 25% of my image is a BIG DEAL.

As I am watching a TV program that is in HD (the entire screen used up, no letter boxing) sometimes in the middle of the program the SIDE BARS show up causing the bottom "letter box" bars to show up. This makes the image look like it is in a picture frame with black bars on the top bottom left and right, and not very much picture left on my small 19 inch Samsung.

My TV is a Samsun my TIVO is the HD model and my connection is composit video cables.

Is there anything I can do to fix this problem (post recording) or in the case of watching live fix it while its happening.

Thank you in advance.


This has been happening since I started watching HD in 2001. It doesn't happen as often anymore in my area but it still does occasionally.

[Stephen Tu]

It's a programming problem, the show in question is a non-HD program, letterboxed 4:3, being upconverted to 16:9 HD. If your TV can't zoom HD content, which is common, then try setting the Tivo to 480p output, then your TV should be able to zoom & crop off the bars.