LOST on ABC not in widescreen and with video dropouts

[flapadlr]

I am a 100% n00b here, so I'll keep it short.

I have had DISH for years. We have a PVR 522, I think. We started watching LOST at the end of season 1, so that was May 2005. It does not display in widescreen. Everything is too close up and the names on screen at the beginning of the show are truncated left and right. (My TV is 4:3 so I expect black bars top and bottom, just like on every other widescreen TV show.)

I have addressed this with the local ABC affiiliate who passed the buck onto DISH. I have not heard back from them yet, but I have little faith in anything but more buck passing.

I also get video dropouts on that show and none other, one or two an episode. We have Top120 package.

Is this a common problem? Is it the feed out of NYC? Or is it my local affiliate?

Thanks very much for being gentle on the N00b. I have searched the archives.

Big I in Jacksonville, FL

[Ron Barry]

:welcome_s flapadlr

do you mean a 622? The 522 is an SD DVR and I dont' think would show LOST in 16x9 format. I will assume you mean the 622 for this discussion.

If so, What channel are you talking about. Are you talking OTA or Dish HD locals.

I have Dish HD locals for LA and I have OTA locals and both show LOST in 16x9 format.

Are you sure you are watching the HD feed and not the SD feed for LOST?

I guess my points is.. We need more details and if you are getting 16x9 on this channel with other ABC programs then I would guess the problems lies with the feed and I believe Dish just passes the feed on and does no 16x9 to 4x3 conversion on their HD channels so I would suspect it is the feed coming into Dish that is the issue.

Then again.. Maybe I am missing something here.

[flapadlr]

Thanks for the welcome mat!

OK, I made a few mistakes in my original post.

1. I have a 512, a SD single tuner DVR. I cannot verify this at the moment, however, since I am currently recording something and don't want to move the box to check the back.

2. I am used to watching some shows from the major networks in...letterbox? Is that a more accurate term? I am pretty sure Medium comes that way, for example.

And a clarification...

In Jacksonville, the ABC affiliate is on channel 25, so that is the DISH channel I watch it on.

The way I understand that DISH gets locals is through this hierarchy:
Local affiliate gets feed from network. Local affiliate feed is integrated into their programming and uploaded to DISH and is sent through spotbeam (i'm reaching) to the local area. The end result is that I get all of the programming from the local affiliate.

So who is screwing up my LOST? :) The local affiliate claims that they are just passing on the network feed, I spoke to the program manager.

By your previous definition, 16x9 OTA means you have an antenna picking up local HD OTA, right? Just clarifying for myself.

Thanks again. I hope this is more clear.

[Ron Barry]

Been a long time since I have done SD channels for programming. So maybe I am just adding to the confusion. I am surprised that 16x9 format is being sent on the SD feeds first of all and to me I would expect 4x3 content on the SD since most people would be watching it in 4x3 and would be annoyed by seeing the show in letterbox.

Yes 16x9 OTA means 16x9 HD over the air. Dish HD local means HD over Dish and in the case of LOST both of these show up at 16x9 for me.

Hmmm. Since my SD viewing of local content is non-existent for a long time.. Hopefully someone else can pipe in that is currently watching LOST using the Dish SD locals.

[INHUMANITY]

NBC started airing a lot of their programming in 16x9 for SD feeds. I remember when Steve Carrel hosted the first hi-def (or maybe 16x9 SD, can't remember) SNL last year and he made a big deal about it. Pretty cool.

Conan, SNL, The Office, etc.

I think it's to help people convert overtime and possibly persuade them to go HD and loose the "black bars." Just a thought though. :)

I didn't mind the 16x9 programs even when I had my CRT back in December. It was nice seeing the whole image.

[nova828]

On the SD feed of ABC Lost is carried only as a 4x3 picture, zoomed in the the middle of the 16x9 that Lost is shot in, so yes you do lose the edges of the picture. But if it makes you feel any better, so does 95 percent of the audience since not that many people have HDTVs. The only way to get Lost in 16x9 is to receive the digital HDTV signal from your local ABC over the air or via satellite if you subscribe to the HDTV package from Dish. (Or wait for the DVD) It's the same on CBS and FOX shows that are produced in 16x9 format. NBC and CW often show letterboxed 16x9 material on their SD feeds, as well as many cable channels such as SCI-FI and FX.