HDTV. looks great but SDTV has vertical black bars unless I hit format button. This changes setting from normal(black bars) to stretch, partial zoom, full zoom, or gray bars, all of which distorts the picture. If I connect from component OUT on VIP622 receiver to Component IN on my HDTV and switch inputs when I watch SDTV will I lose the black bars?
There should be black bars to the left and right of the picture, termed pillar boxing. This is because the SD picture has a 4:3 aspect ratio and not the 16:9 widescreen ratio of HD. Zooming will fill more of your screen but you will actually end up with a less sharp picture.
Prior to getting Dish HD, I had the standard Dish DVR and there were no bars and the picture seemed clearer. Am I missing something here?
Isn't the picture clear for SD in Normal screen with the pillar boxing? Stretch takes the 4:3 SD picture abd stretches it horizontally to fill your widescreen. Partial Zoom and Full Zoom expand the picture both horizontally and vertically by percentages to fill more of the screen. You will lose some of the vertical picture on the top and bottom with the zooming. Furthermore picture info previously represented by a single picture is now represented by more than one pixel with the zoom, resulting in a less sharp picture. The best picture should be the one in Normal. If you're noy getting a good picture in the Normal screen size, something else must be wrong. Did you have the same widescreen TV when you had the previous Dish receiver? If you have a widescreen 16:9 TV, you will not get a normal fullscreen picture with SD. With the previous Dish nonHD receiver, wasn't your picture also pillarboxed with bars to the left and right? Edit: text added below How is the 622 connected to your HDTV? by HDMI port? Using the component output for TV1 should result in the same picture as the HDMI port? That will not be the case for the TV2 output which is always just SD and never HD.
I have an 52" RCA widescreen with built-in HDTV tuner. When I had the standard Dish DVR receiver there were no black bars and the picture filled the screen. The picture looks good in normal mode, I just do not like the bars. The other modes cut too much out. After the installer finished I noticed he had connected the HD receiver to my tv with both the HDMI and S-video cables but I disconnected the S-video after talking to Dish tech on website.
The picture must have been zoomed with the previous Dish receiver in order to fill the screen. My Dish receiver has never filled my widescreen for a SD picture. Why there would be such a difference between receivers, I'm not sure.
Im not sure if its the same for you, but I had DVR installed last night. He explained to me that when a program is truly recorded and broadcast in HD it will fill the 16x9 screen. If the program is filmed in the old style it will always be in the 4:3 format. The remote even has an "HD ZOOM" feature that allows you to "fill the screen" when watching the 4:3 (non-HD) shows. Im not sure if this is new info to you or not, nor am I sure that its the same with your provider, but I thought I would throw it out there.
Thanks. That is the same information I get from everywhere I have asked. Although the advanced tech at Dish said they would need to send a technician to my home for a $49 fee and correct the problem. I have switched to gray bars which are not quite as distracting.
