HR20 Tips -- Setup 1 HR20 to display in multiple rooms

[fancydancy]

I noticed the suggestion in T&T about connecting an additional TV to an HR20 using one of the additional video outputs.

Here is my question: if my primary TV with the HR20 is 16:9 connected via HDMI, what will be coming out the regular RCA video output? I want to connect an additional TV in my basement that is a non-HD 4:3. Will the RCA video output be 16:9 or 4:3? If my 4:3 TV does in fact get a 16:9 signal, I'm guessing it will just lop off the sides, does that sound right?

I'm guessing that whatever comes out the RCA video output, it will always have 480 interlaced horizontal lines.

[pilotbob3]

I noticed the suggestion in T&T about connecting an additional TV to an HR20 using one of the additional video outputs.

Here is my question: if my primary TV with the HR20 is 16:9 connected via HDMI, what will be coming out the regular RCA video output? I want to connect an additional TV in my basement that is a non-HD 4:3. Will the RCA video output be 16:9 or 4:3? If my 4:3 TV does in fact get a 16:9 signal, I'm guessing it will just lop off the sides, does that sound right?

I'm guessing that whatever comes out the RCA video output, it will always have 480 interlaced horizontal lines.

I have the exact same setup, the 480i video is in 16x9 format, so displays squished on a 4:3 set.

[fancydancy]

By "squished" do you mean the TV is squeezing the image so everyone is super skinny? That's annoying!

I have the exact same setup, the 480i video is in 16x9 format, so displays squished on a 4:3 set.

[videojanitor]

What comes out the "normal" video output depends on the type of TV display you have selected in the setup menu. If you selected a 16:9 display, then the video output will be "squeezed" when viewed on a 4:3 TV. This can be corrected with the "format" button the remote -- if select "stretch" mode, it will restore the image to the correct aspect ratio. However, this also affects the other (component and HDMI) outputs, so if you have a 16:9 monitor connected to those, you will get a stretched-out picture on that.

Unfortunately, I haven't found any way to get the right image on both a 4:3 and 16:9 screen simultaneously. Oh, and that above "fix" only works for non-HD channels. On HD channels, the "format" button has no apparent effect.

What the HR20 needs are individual settings for the composite/S-Video (ie: 480i) outputs. I'm not aware of any DVR that has such a feature, but maybe it exists ...

[Milominderbinder2]

This is item 39 in the Wishlist Survey:

39 3.080↑ Ability to output 16:9 content as letterboxed on HDMI/Component and 4:3 content as fullscreen on S-Video/composite at the same time

If you have not taken the Wishlist survey in a few days, pelasse take it again. Doug updates it every Friday. The link is below.

- Craig

[videojanitor]

Hey thanks, I remember looking at that once and making my selections. This one was definitely right up there. Actually I solved my particular problem in a unique way -- I have an LCD HD set in my office, but also have a small TV right by my computer so I can have things running in the background while I am working. Kind of annoying watching "squished" images, so I went out looking for a SMALL 16:9 TV. As near as I can tell, such a thing doesn't exist -- but I did find that some of these portable DVD players have a "line input" and picked up a little 8-inch Sony. Works great! Just plug in the composite output from the HR20, set the screen to "wide" and there you go. No more format wars! :D