[scorer1]

I recently changed over to DTV from Dish. I have a 50" plasma tv. All of the HD channels in Dish would stretch to fit the TV. This is not the case in DTV. ESPNHD and ESPN2HD appear on my television with gray bars (with HD written in them sideways) most of the time. When I'm watching a college game in HD (basketball or football), it will fill the screen but otherwise, I have the grey bars. It irritates me to no end!!! I have tried tons of different settings to get it to broadcast those channels stretched but NOTHING works. Please don't suggest that it is the television as it is set up exactly as it was in Dish and I never had that problem with them. Any suggestions?
Jeanne K>

 

[Strejcek]

That is normal with ESPN HD. Unless they are broadcasting in true 16x9 format, they fill the gap with their HD written sideways. Nothing wrong with your TV.

 

[Strejcek]

Oh, forgot to say that you cannot stretch the pic as the HD writing is part of their 16x9 signal. The only way you could correct that would be to watch the SD ESPN channel, or mess with your stretch settings in your TV.

 

[noursegod]

If you are seeing the HD in those grey bars, then it is ESPN putting them there. This is the way ESPN letterboxes their SD content on the HD channel. True HD content will not have those bars. Lots of ESPN's content right now is SD. To be sure that you are watching ESPNHD, does the sportsticker at the bottom of the screen stretch all the way across?

 

[ebaltz]

People who stretch 4x3 content think its HD because they stretched it. 4x3 stretched to 16x9 is a stupid way to watch TV, unless you enjoy distorted pictures with short fat people. I think people just think they can impress their idiot friends that all their channels are HD by stretching them. Just leave channels as they are people.

 

[BJM]

Hey what's wrong with us short, fat people? Finally we're represented on TV - even if it's a "stretch" format :lol:

 

[Spanky_Partain]

People who stretch 4x3 content think its HD because they stretched it. 4x3 stretched to 16x9 is a stupid way to watch TV, unless you enjoy distorted pictures with short fat people. I think people just think they can impress their idiot friends that all their channels are HD by stretching them. Just leave channels as they are people.

I just know this is going to get some interesting comments...:hurah: :lol: :uglyhamme

 

[John W]

That is normal with ESPN HD. Unless they are broadcasting in true 16x9 format, they fill the gap with their HD written sideways. Nothing wrong with your TV.

No, its something wrong with Direct.With Dish receivers you can stretch to fill when you want even on the HD channels.

 

[ouijal]

Hey what's wrong with us short, fat people? Finally we're represented on TV - even if it's a "stretch" format :lol:

:lol:

 

[bonscott87]

No, its something wrong with Direct.With Dish receivers you can stretch to fill when you want even on the HD channels.

Ummmm, no. On the HR20 I could go to the zoom mode which would get rid of the sidebars but also cut off the top and bottom, but why bother. But that would be the only way to "stretch" the HD signal for myself as my TV doesn't allow you to stretch a 16x9 signal.

As said above, this is what ESPN does with non HD content. It ads the sidebars. It's been that way for a couple years now. Nothing new. This is opposed to say TNT-HD which does their horrible stretching of non HD content.

 

[HolmesCo]

No, its something wrong with Direct.With Dish receivers you can stretch to fill when you want even on the HD channels.

Stretch to fill the HD Channels? Non comprhende. They are already 16:9 and fill the screen.

The fact is many "HD" channels are only partially that way. Just watch the Today show for example. Matt and Meredith, anythig in the studio is 16:9, looks very nice, but as soon as they go to the field, somebody 'out there' in Iraq, or Tim Russert in DC, etc etc, it reverts to 4:3 and has the sidebars. I see this on many channels, and espn hd is the same way, only difference is the fill in the sidebars with their logo.

 

[cruise350]

No, its something wrong with Direct.With Dish receivers you can stretch to fill when you want even on the HD channels.

If you were able to stretch the picture than you were not watching ESPN in HD. There is no way that Dish could stretch a 16X9 broadcast sent by ESPN, unless you used the zoom feature which cuts off the top and bottem of the screen and most likely would have chopped off the top of their heads. You were watching in SD and didn't realize it.

 

[John W]

If you were able to stretch the picture than you were not watching ESPN in HD. There is no way that Dish could stretch a 16X9 broadcast sent by ESPN, unless you used the zoom feature which cuts off the top and bottem of the screen and most likely would have chopped off the top of their heads. You were watching in SD and didn't realize it.

Sorry to break all your Direct hearts, but, this is doable with Dish's receivers.There is a setting choice called "stretch" (along with and different from "zoom" settings) and it can be done without cutting much of anything off.That way if ESPN HD is running something not in HD the sidebars can be eliminated for the duration of that show-say, PTI for example.

 

[wheelswagz]

Sorry to break all your Direct hearts, but, this is doable with Dish's receivers.There is a setting choice called "stretch" (along with and different from "zoom" settings) and it can be done without cutting much of anything off.That way if ESPN HD is running something not in HD the sidebars can be eliminated for the duration of that show-say, PTI for example.

does not compute.

 

[Doug Brott]

It appears that the Dish Network Receiver has a scaler that will move the 16:9 image to a 4:3 image and then stretch it to the 16:9 screen size. This is not something that DirecTV has chosen to implement. In other words, it is a feature of the Dish Network Receiver, not a bug in the HR20. This is not something that DirecTV has ever had as far as I can tell, so I wouldn't count on it being available in the future.

If you would like to add this to the Wish List, head on over to the HR20 Wish List Survey discussion thread.

 

[John W]

scorer1-It appears brott has answered your concern from a technical standpoint quite well.

bonscott87, HolmesCo, cruise350 & wheelswag2---Any comment?

Thank you, brott.

 

[Brantel]

Why would you want to stretch the pillarboxed 4:3 to fill a 16:9 screen? This will make everyone short and fat and totally distort the image. That would annoy me way more than seeing the HD bars on the side of the image. Not to mention you will be stretching the horizontal resolution available over more screen which will make it appear more fuzzy.

If ESPN HD is on SD content at the moment, your image should look like the one on the left. If it looks like the one on the right, you are distorting your image. If you could do that with E*, it was a worthless feature to me, your opinion may differ but I do not want my images distorted.

 

[jahgreen]

Why would you want to stretch the pillarboxed 4:3 to fill a 16:9 screen? This will make everyone short and fat and totally distort the image.

But at least the short fat people in the distorted image will be in high definition.

 

[Brantel]

But at least the short fat people in the distorted image will be in high definition.

No they won't as a matter of fact it will be worse than SD because you are stretching the available horizontal resolution across more screen.

Aspect ratio and resolution are two totally different animals.

Just because an image is in a 16:9 aspect ratio does not mean that the resolution is of HD quality.

If what you are saying were true, we don't need HD broadcast, we could just stretch all 4:3 SD programs to 16:9 and walla we have HD. Nothing could be further from correct.

 

[wheelswagz]

But at least the short fat people in the distorted image will be in high definition.

not really. it would be smoke and mirrors so that the stretched, short, fat people may look like they are in HD at first glance, but really are low quality, standard definition and simply stretched.

It's kind of like watching those old silly putty commercials when they transferred comic pic was stretched and rolled under a rolling pin