Missing part of video

[JeffS]

I just got home from traveling and started to watch Saturday Night Live, when I noticed I'm missing have my picture.

It's mainly noticeable when credits are being shown, because I can see letters and parts of words getting cut off the sides. It looks like I'm watching a widescreen shot that was cropped to 4:3 and not a 4:3 formatted video. Does this make sense or am I rambling?

I know I've see this on other shows, but tonight when I couldn't read some of the props on the set, it was really disturbing. Is something configured wrong in my TiVo? I've got a widescreen TV, and tried putting the image in 4:3 mode, and the aspect looked fine, but just badly cut off.

Is DirecTV sending me a wrong signal?

Help, I'm getting really ticked at this the more I see it. I don't want to cancel and go to cable, I already had a bad enough experience with them as it is. I also don't want to give up my TiVo lifetime sub. Especially when 2009 is supposedly when the magic DTiVoHD is coming.

Thanks for any ideas or advice.

-Jeff

[JimSpence]

This most likely is an overscan problem. You need to use a calibration DVD and see how much overscan the TV has.

[JeffS]

I've done a calibration before, and nothing has changed since. if it's an overscan problem, it's over scanning by about 1/4 of the picture.

It's not that things are unwatchable, but if there is something on the screen that has writing on it, I won't be able to read part of it, because it's off screen. It's like pan & scan, without the panning to see the important parts.

I know things weren't like this before, and it's not on all channels or shows. It seems like major networks like NBC are having the problem. I'm going to start a list of places I see it so I can make sure I'm not completely crazy.

could directv be cropping a widescreen signal and sending it down the SD pipe?


-Jeff

[JimSpence]

Okay, back to basics.
What model DVR do you have?
How is it connected to the TV?
Have you tried different inputs on the TV?
What about any display settings the TV may have?
Have you tried a DVD player on the same input as where the DVR is connected.

I have a Mits 48" widescreen RPTV and both the HR10-250 and HR20-100 DVRs and have never seen what you describe.

Please provide the channels you're seeing this on.

[JeffS]

The TiVo is a DSR6000 and is connected via S-Video
The TV is a Vizio 50" plasma (I forget the exact model number)

I technically have the TiVo going into a video processor via S-Video and then out to the TV over HDMI. The processor handles 2 TiVos and the DVD player.

The other TiVo is an R10, and it DOES exhibit the same problem.
The DVD player has no issues at all.

Let me point out another piece of information
The composite out from the TiVo units is actually fed into a programmable modulator and sent over in house RG-6 to the rest of the house. So when I'm upstairs in the bedroom, I'm watching the same TiVo, but from the composite out vs. the S-Video out. Same Thing Happens!

The fact that there haven't been any changes to the setup, has me believing that it's not equipment related. Unless it's because I'm using older hardware that only supports SD.

-Jeff

[JimSpence]

I'll have to give this to members that still have SD TiVos working, but my HR10 doesn't show anything as you describe when watching SD channels, but it is connected to an AV receiver feeding the TV over component.. And no one else is reporting this, I can't believe it's from DirecTV. The common piece of equipment is the video processor. Have you tried connecting the units directly to the TV using component?

[SpacemanSpiff]

I noticed this issue on the last few episodes on ER. I blame it on my local affiliate pan and scanning the wide screen feed out over the SD network.

[JeffS]

I'll have to give this to members that still have SD TiVos working, but my HR10 doesn't show anything as you describe when watching SD channels, but it is connected to an AV receiver feeding the TV over component.. And no one else is reporting this, I can't believe it's from DirecTV. The common piece of equipment is the video processor. Have you tried connecting the units directly to the TV using component?

Yes, that's why I mentioned the composite out going to the rest of the TVs in the house. Those go out SD to TVs that are 4:3. And last night was another example on ER.

Not the end of the world by any means, but it is annoying.

-Jeff

[JimSpence]

Well, I'm stumped. :(