How does the VIP 622 handle switching between HD and SD?

When you set the format button, it keeps what you set for HD and SD seperate. So if you go from HD to SD, the SD channels are what they were the previous time you viewed them.

Without going deep into the menus the 622 output remains the same ... E* is planning "native pass through" which may provide a the feature the way you expect it archer, but for now there is no easy way of changing the receiver output.

The workaround that garys mentions works nicely. The 622 will upconvert 480 to 1080 and add the black bars (if you wish) or do a variety of stretching if you prefer a filled screen.

The downside is there is no "native pass through" for resolution output. If set to 1080i and you switch to an SD channel the 622 is upconverting this to 1080i and not leaving it at 480i.

But yes, as mentioned above it will remember the display format (wide, zoom ,etc).

Well if it remembers what format each channel is supposed to be in i'd consider that to be much better then me having to manually switch on Direct TV.

It remembers based on type of channel. All SDs are displayed in the last stretch mode you used for a SD channel. All HDs are displayed in the last stretch mode you used for a HD channel. The format button is on the remote (* key) so it is an easy switch if you run into a channel you want to change.

Personally I like watching letterboxed SD movies and TV and stretching them to full screen picture - but then my TV is a tube set so it is more forgiving on PQ. When I want to go back to "normal" SD viewing a couple of taps on the * gets me there.