How do I maintain movies in letterbox format using Tivo Desktop Plus?

[prepster]

I am using a Series 2 Tivo with a 4:3 television and Desktop Plus.

I downloaded a movie that when played using VLC player, I had to manually adjust the aspect ratio to 16:9 and it played nicely. However, when I transferred the movie to Tivo using Desktop Plus, the film was "squeezed" to fill the whole 4:3 frame. (I was hoping to see it letterboxed)

So I tried to convert the movie to letterbox using the software, "Any Video Converter". When I opened the film it looked perfect in 16:9 format, when first opening with VLC player. However, when I transferred it to Tivo, the film was once again squeezed to fill the frame.

How can I maintain the letterbox aspect ratio when transferring to my 4:3 television?

[Dan203]

Somewhere in the TiVo Messages and Settings menu there is an option to set what kind of TV you have. (i.e. 4:3 or 16:9) Setting that to 4:3 should make it so 16:9 videos you transfer from your PC are displayed in letterbox.

However there might be a catch. If I remember correctly this feature does not work correctly on the 540 series S2 units. These are the silver ones with the little glowing TiVo logo on the front. Although it's been a really long time since I had one of those, so it's possible they fixed that in one of the more recent software versions. So even if you do have one of those units you should still look for the setting and make sure it's set correctly. If it's set right but it's still not working then this could explain it.

Dan