[kram]

Last night I was watching a show in HD on the NBC affiliate here in Denver (KUSA, Channel 9). I heard a small pop and, suddenly, the picture changed (from 1080i) to pillar-box format. Mind you, this is the same channel that continually has problems with their HD broadcasts and does not broadcast their programs in DD 5.1 (reported in other posts). I am assuming that this is an issue with the local affiliate and not with my HR20. Is this a safe assumption? Has anyone else experienced something similar to this? What about those of you in the Denver metro area?

 

[runopenloop]

Yeah, this has happened to me with KUSA, watching Heroes for example. My assumption has been this is a problem with the broadcast somewhere from KUSA to Directv. I don't have another HD receiver so I can't verify that to be the case. I've never had it happen on HDNet, DiscoveryHD, or ESPN (but of course those are not MPEG4).

 

[kram]

Yeah, this has happened to me with KUSA, watching Heroes for example. My assumption has been this is a problem with the broadcast somewhere from KUSA to Directv. I don't have another HD receiver so I can't verify that to be the case. I've never had it happen on HDNet, DiscoveryHD, or ESPN (but of course those are not MPEG4).

Seems to happen on locals only. Although I was scanning through the non-MPEG4 channels just a little bit ago and noticed that a movie on Showtime HD was being broadcast in pillar-box format and had no "HD" symbol in the guide. So even the channels that supposedly are HD-only are broadcasting in non-HD format. What's up with that?????

 

[PoitNarf]

I have seen several times on the locals here where they'll switch over to a 4:3 image and then back to the normal image a few minutes later. Seems most likely to be a temporary problem with their HD equipment, so they patch in the SD feed while they fix the problem.

 

[jheda]

I have seen several times on the locals here where they'll switch over to a 4:3 image and then back to the normal image a few minutes later. Seems most likely to be a temporary problem with their HD equipment, so they patch in the SD feed while they fix the problem.

so im watching on espn the side curtains are there but it looks like HD, can it be? the hr20 720i light is on...

or if there are curtains its not HD?

 

[Twosted]

so im watching on espn the side curtains are there but it looks like HD, can it be? the hr20 720i light is on...

or if there are curtains its not HD?

What you are seeing is a 480i picture that is upconverted to 720p. Instead of puting the black bars on the side ESPN adds the curtains ro fill the rest of the screen.

 

[jheda]

What you are seeing is a 480i picture that is upconverted to 720p. Instead of puting the black bars on the side ESPN adds the curtains ro fill the rest of the screen.

thanks!!!!

 

[wakajawaka]

I would almost bet it's a broadcast issue. It happens all the time with my OTA feeds on my HD Tivo.