Picture format

T

trev1978

Member
My Satellite Setup
1.25m motorised dish, 1.85m prime focus fixed, spiderbox 7000, technomate 5400USB super
My Location
Ballymena, Northern Ireland
Hi all!

On Sky there are a number of channels that still broadcast in 4:3 picture format. How does everyone deal with this using the hdmi cable as i don't think there is an option for 4:3 in my hdmi input.

As i said i hooked up my previous HD box with scart only. Using the scart i set the tv format on this input to 4:3. When i was tuned into a 16:9 channels the picture automatically upgraded to 16:9 and then returned to 4:3 when on a 4:3 channel. Does this work with hdmi?

Thanks,

Trev
 
In my case - it depends!

My Humax HDR simply shows the pictures stretched to fit the screen and my Philips HDT8520 shows the correct aspect with black bars at the side. Both devices are connected by HDMI cable.
 
The whole problem is caused by there was no aspect switching signal in the HDMI spec - HD was assumed to be 16:9 only and this is generally the case with broadcasters adding "pillarbox" black bars at the side of pictures. The major problem is watching SD 4:3 channels through an HDMI connection. The only ways using a Sky HD box for most TVs are to watch SD channels via a SCART connection allowing the TV to upscale the picture and apply the correct aspect ratio from the signalling flags present in the broadcast OR use the TV remote and switch the AR manually.
 
In my opinion, this is a massive omission in the Sky HD box. There seems to be an option of watching 16:9 content in letterbox format on 4:3 TVs but not the other way around.
 
Captain Jack said:
In my opinion, this is a massive omission in the Sky HD box. There seems to be an option of watching 16:9 content in letterbox format on 4:3 TVs but not the other way around.
Click to expand...

That only applies to scart connections anyway and has no effect on TVs connected by HDMI. SCART and RF connection also gives the correct 4:3 AR on 16:9 TVs providing the broadcaster has not set the widescreen flag incorrectly and the TV has the capability of reacting to the flags.
 
I think you misunderstood me. My VU+ Uno has an option to display 4:3 content in pillarbox format on a 16:9 display - via HDMI.
 
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