National PBS Shrunk on Screen?

[bill_mcgonigle]

Does anybody else get the national PBS feed in SD? For a few weeks, only this one channel has been coming in shrunk to about 60% of the normal screen size. Perfectly clear, just scaled. This is on a 301.

I'm surprised not to find any talk of it in a search, but it would seem odd to me that I'd have a hardware problem on just one channel.

[ZBoomer]

Yeah, my local PBS station broadcasts a 16x9 HD signal, but never shows HD sources correctly. They are freaking letter-boxed, with a 16x9 image with large black frame on all sides, lame. I'm not sure why they suck like that, but they do. What a waste

[retiredTech]

All my SD locals are now zoomed & cropped.
Since E* is now using HD local feeds and converting them for SD.
This is worse than letter box, because most network content isn't filmed(& edited) to work well for "pan & scan".
Lots of important content is missing because of slicing off the both sides of the picture.
SD viewers(by the way, far out number HD viewers) need seperate SD feeds for network shows.

[julesism]

Yeah, my local PBS station broadcasts a 16x9 HD signal, but never shows HD sources correctly. They are freaking letter-boxed, with a 16x9 image with large black frame on all sides, lame. I'm not sure why they suck like that, but they do. What a waste

hehe yep... dang klru :rolleyes:

[bill_mcgonigle]

So I need to complain to Dish Network, not PBS about their national uplink, right? I wouldn't even complain too loudly if they scaled their crop job to fill the screen. This is actually one of the channels I pay for ala carte, so unless they're going to give me 40% off. :)

Still, there must be a staggering number of people with this problem.

[SaltiDawg]

...
Still, there must be a staggering number of people with this problem.
So how does the image look if you push the "*" button?

[phrelin]

I'm puzzled about the complaints here.

Our local PBS station letterboxes top, bottom and sides and if I use the * button to full zoom on my ViP722 or ViP612, it's all good...well not HD, but fits the 16:9 screen. When I had 508's I could use the TV's zoom controls to do the same thing.

[bill_mcgonigle]

So how does the image look if you push the "*" button?

Ah, I'll give that a try. This is a 301 hooked up to a 27" CRT, JVC c. 1993.

[lacruz]

I too have noticed that the image on the National PBS 249 is shrunk to about 60% - mostly at night. Never called Dish to complain, I just enlarge the image with the Format * button onthe remote.

[TSR]

So how does the image look if you push the "*" button?

The asterisk/* button is also referred to as the "Format" button, it should be labeled on that on the remote.

[SaltiDawg]

The asterisk/* button is also referred to as the "Format" button, it should be labeled on that on the remote.
If the OP is using a Dish OEM Remote - not all of us do.

[ZBoomer]

Yes, you can expand the image to fit the screen using the format button, but when you do that you are definitely NOT getting an HD picture, although it may then be 16x9.

You are taking a low-res image and magnifying it, making it even worse. Certainly nowhere near like having a real HD image, which is what they should transmit.

[phrelin]

Yes, you can expand the image to fit the screen using the format button, but when you do that you are definitely NOT getting an HD picture, although it may then be 16x9.

You are taking a low-res image and magnifying it, making it even worse. Certainly nowhere near like having a real HD image, which is what they should transmit.Not having PBS in HD is a whole other irritation.;)

[lesmoss]

Its more than an irritation. Its why I am still on cable.

[zcasper]

This is becoming more of an issue for me. My PBS station is cutting off the left and right side of the image. I was watching it tonight and I could not read some of the text along the bottom.

How can we get this fixed?

It looks like Dish is taking a 16:9 image and cutting the sides to make a 4:3. Very frustrating!

Zach

[bill_mcgonigle]

OK, I found my Dish Remote (cheers for Duracells not leaking), loaded up some new batteries, and crammed the * button. The picture zoomed to a letterboxed 16x9. The image didn't look stretched in either mode (i.e. like an anamorphic projection) so I'm not sure what's going on really (two video streams?).

So, then I learned that button into my universal remote (I didn't bother with * the first time).

And now, on every subsequent attempt to do it again I get nothing (with either remote). The channel setting doesn't seem to stick on the receiver either. Odd. I've tried tapping the button, pressing it firmly, holding it. I checked the remote with an IR-sensitive camera and it's transmitting just fine and the other buttons work as expected. I haven't tried hard resetting the 301 yet, but I'm not even sure where the failure is yet.

[levibluewa]

The PBS feed on 249 has double pillar bars on left & right plus apx. 2" bars top & bottom. If you had a 25" set would you be viewing a black hole? What gives!

[bill_mcgonigle]

Intermediate followup: I decided to try again, on another day. I hit the *, held the *, tap-tap-tap'ed the * - still nothing happened.

So, I went away, left the kids to watch PBS. I came back after the top of the hour (when the show changed), and the picture was in 16x9!

I turned off the receiver, turned it back on and it was still in 16x9.

An hour later somebody tied a dog to the LNB arm (:mad:) and so I've got to go buy a new mounting bracket before I can see if it sticks for good. But I thought the behavior at the top of the hour show change was worth mentioning in case others are debugging.

I suppose that could either be that some shows are encoded differently and cannot be zoomed, or that the 301 has a bug and won't change formats until the program data changes. Or Dish just fixed their end at the exact same time I was testing. No idea.

[ImBack234]

An hour later somebody tied a dog to the LNB arm (:mad:) and so I've got to go buy a new mounting bracket before I can see if it sticks for good.

Did you shoot the person? You know your allowed to, only when it's for the better of the people.:rolleyes::D:D

[homeskillet]

My local PBS broadcasts programming in HD (16x9) whenever possible, and when they do, the local cable companies, AT&T U-Verse, Dish Ect. only get that 16x9 feed, and they center crop it to 4x3 for those with the Analog/SD only feed. This is when you get text going off the side of the screen.

Basically, PBS needs to learn to think about those watching 4x3 when placing graphics/text on the screen I guess? This isn't just a PBS issue, but for every channel.

[SaltiDawg]

...
It looks like Dish is taking a 16:9 image and cutting the sides to make a 4:3. Very frustrating!
Zach,

Dish has repeatedly said that they only retransmit their offerings in the exact format that they receive them.

[reddice]

My PBS station is center cropped and I can't even get it OTA because it is at low power. Have to watch NJN OTA which I can get.