Zoom on movie

Did Grit go HD? Only non HD shows can use zoom, panel or full.

 

Yes. If your channel is 1080i/720p but you are watching an old 3x4 program, the Zoom ability is ignored. If you are watching a 480i channel that is already showing barn doors, Zoom will work. Most televisions will always Zoom, etc. and don't care about the source.

 

If you have a show with panels on both sides, Zoom should work. But some stations include the "wide screen" bit on everything, messing up the TiVo. My TV ignores the bit and allows Zoom, S&P and Full for all content. Also, some televisions don't check the aspect ratio when it's from an HDMI input.

 

It is not strictly if it is SD or HD. It is if the wide screen bit is set. SD can be broadcast in 16x9 and if it is, zoom will not work.

I have seen two of the same sub channel station in my two markets act differently because one was 16x9 and the other was 4x3. Both 480i.

 

Yes, the station broadcaster has full control of allowing you to change the aspect ratio or not. While it GENERALLY follows the HD/SD format on what your zoom button will do, it does not have to.

When our local PBS station first picked up the FNX network, they broadcast it on an SD channel, but they fixed the format to 16:9 widescreen. The problem was, they were getting a mixed feed from FNX, with some programs in 4:3 and some in letterboxed 16:9, so this unchangeable zoom totally destroyed may programs (especially those with subtitles). I "fought" with their engineer and station manager for many months, giving them technical information and evidence of how they were screwing things up before they finally changed it so we could zoom or un-zoom as we wished. It seemed that they were assuming that every single TV in use on the local Indian reservations must be an old SD 4:3 set, so they thought they were doing everyone a favor by never letting them see the black letterbox bars!

There is software available to the station to dynamically set the widescreen bit correctly based on actual program content (it even changes with commercials), but most of the low-budget places refuse to use it.

There are also a couple of common "oldies" stations that set their aspect ratio for old 4:3 TV programs to a half-zoom and lock it there (that makes the pillar-box bars smaller, but still cuts off an inch or two of the top and bottom). That really pisses me off, so even though I like a lot of their programming, I refuse to ever watch them at all.

 

I wonder what the dynamic change to the widescreen bit does to a TiVo? Does it detect it on the fly or does it only determine it when it tunes the station?

 

I've watched Comet and seen its normal 4x3 change to 16x9 (poor quality) for commercials. But it probably depends on the network, station and program. My TV is set to not change aspect ratio automatically.