[cmoses]

I have a 50" Toshiba RPTV and have always watched my D* picture through the Theater Wide 1 setting. This is a smart stretch mode and does a very good job. Almost everyone that saw it thought it was normal and not distorted at all. Anyway I see that I can set the pillar box bars to be either gray, dark gray or black. Is there a best option of those 3 for a RPTV? When I am watching HD channels and they show commercials that are none HD I get them. Just wanted to know eveyones thoughts.

Clayton

 

[litzdog911]

It's really just a matter of personal preference. If your TV's video settings are set properly, you really shouldn't have to worry about screen burn-in. But if you are concerned about burn-in, the gray options are best.

 

[bonscott87]

You can't control the pillerbox color of an SD ad placed during and HD show anyway because the station is still sending out a 16x9 signal, they piller box the program at the station using whatever color they want. You'll see this most clearly during non-primetime like the local news. Most stations will piller box themselves, others will actually stretch it themselves.

For a regular SD station, if you output in 480i then you can still use your TV's stretch mode, it's what I do because I much prefer my TV's stretch mode and upscaling vs. the HR20.

 

[mpiscitello]

For a regular SD station, if you output in 480i then you can still use your TV's stretch mode, it's what I do because I much prefer my TV's stretch mode and upscaling vs. the HR20.

How do you do this? My Pioneer 1140 has better stretch modes as well but even thought the HR20 is outputting 480i it forces you to select a "format" because you setup a 16:9 TV in the options. It never sends an unaltered 480i SD signal to the TV! If you cycle throught the 3 formats (I have native=on), pillar box actually adds piller boxes to the SD and formats it for 16:9 so when the TV trys to stretch it, the HR20 pillar boxes are considered part of the frame.

Sorry if that doesn't make much sense, but I just got my new TV hooked up this weekend and have been frustrated by the lack to pass a completely unaltered signal to the TV. Maybe I am missing something...

 

[BuckeyeNut]

I have a 50" Toshiba RPTV and have always watched my D* picture through the Theater Wide 1 setting. This is a smart stretch mode and does a very good job. Almost everyone that saw it thought it was normal and not distorted at all. Anyway I see that I can set the pillar box bars to be either gray, dark gray or black. Is there a best option of those 3 for a RPTV? When I am watching HD channels and they show commercials that are none HD I get them. Just wanted to know eveyones thoughts.

Clayton

Yea, but your banner is stretched also, making the info 20% unreadable.
Does yours not?

 

[bonscott87]

How do you do this? My Pioneer 1140 has better stretch modes as well but even thought the HR20 is outputting 480i it forces you to select a "format" because you setup a 16:9 TV in the options. It never sends an unaltered 480i SD signal to the TV! If you cycle throught the 3 formats (I have native=on), pillar box actually adds piller boxes to the SD and formats it for 16:9 so when the TV trys to stretch it, the HR20 pillar boxes are considered part of the frame.

Sorry if that doesn't make much sense, but I just got my new TV hooked up this weekend and have been frustrated by the lack to pass a completely unaltered signal to the TV. Maybe I am missing something...

I don't really know, here is how I setup my HR20.

Native: OFF (you have yours on, perhaps that is the diff)
Formats selected: 480i and 1080i (I have a 1080i TV)

That's it pretty much. So I leave the HR20 in 1080i most of the time (watch HD mostly). When watching an SD program, say off Sci Fi or something, I'll hit the format button until I get to 480i stretch. At this point my TV auto switches to 480i upconvert mode and auto selects my favorite stretch mode.
When I tune back in to an HD program I push the format button until I get back to 1080i stretch and then my TV auto switches to 1080i mode.
Works very well other then the manual switching of modes which isn't very WAF but she'd rather deal with that then the delay and uneeded cycling with Native set to on.

Perhaps your TV can't auto detect 480i from 1080i and switch itself. My TV is over 4 years old so I would hope newer ones can do it but perhaps it's just a feature of my old Hitachi.

 

[john18]

I am running Native on, and 480i, 480p, 720p and 1080i enabled. I let the TV do the work.

 

[aramus8]

Are you running the box through the HDMI input on your TV? My 2006 Hitachi plasma won't allow a 4:3 stretch using HDMI with the HR20. It only works on the component input. I wish D* would leave borders on the guide so you could see the whole thing using your TV's stretch mode. Most TV's stretch modes are so much better than the HR20's.

 

[Mixer]

When I am watching (surfing past) an HD local that is broadcasting SD content I have noticed that I am unable to stretch the content to fill the screen. I think as Bonscott mentioned it is not posible to alter this.

 

[NCLou]

How do you do this? My Pioneer 1140 has better stretch modes as well but even thought the HR20 is outputting 480i it forces you to select a "format" because you setup a 16:9 TV in the options. It never sends an unaltered 480i SD signal to the TV! If you cycle throught the 3 formats (I have native=on), pillar box actually adds piller boxes to the SD and formats it for 16:9 so when the TV trys to stretch it, the HR20 pillar boxes are considered part of the frame.

Sorry if that doesn't make much sense, but I just got my new TV hooked up this weekend and have been frustrated by the lack to pass a completely unaltered signal to the TV. Maybe I am missing something...

I was wondering the same thing. I may have the same Toshiba as the OP, and I can't get it to do Theater Wide which is a great stretch mode. I've just been watching in pillar box, which looks pretty great, but would rather stretch it with my Toshiba.

 

[bonscott87]

Are you running the box through the HDMI input on your TV? My 2006 Hitachi plasma won't allow a 4:3 stretch using HDMI with the HR20. It only works on the component input. I wish D* would leave borders on the guide so you could see the whole thing using your TV's stretch mode. Most TV's stretch modes are so much better than the HR20's.

Very good point, HDMI on various TV's may not allow for the switch and locks it at 1080i. I know many TV's HDMI input doesn't allows 480i at all.

Thus another reason why I love component and glad my TV doesn't even have an HDMI input.

 

[mpiscitello]

Appreciate all of the responses - my TV accepts pretty much any format thrown at it (480i,480p,720p & 1080i) through HDMI. The problem I am having seems to be with D*'s "format" modes. Once you setup the HR20 to tell it you have a 16:9 display it seems to add pillar boxes to the frame of any 4:3 SD material to make it fit a 16:9 frame - unless you select 480i stretch (or crop, etc.) in the HR20. and with Native=on you must pick one of the three format modes - for HD signals it really doean't matter, the issue is with SD signals on SD channels. I can't get a "pure" 4:3 SD signal to my TV to make use of it's better stretch modes (I even tested this by setting the HR20 to 4:3 display - this then works but the menus get weird).

I just wish it would allow you to pass the entire signal through unaltered and let the TV do all the scaling/stretch work based on your preference.

Am I missing something?

 

[mpiscitello]

I am running Native on, and 480i, 480p, 720p and 1080i enabled. I let the TV do the work.

That is how I am setup - which "format" mode do you use on the HR20?

 

[mpiscitello]

When watching an SD program, say off Sci Fi or something, I'll hit the format button until I get to 480i stretch. At this point my TV auto switches to 480i upconvert mode and auto selects my favorite stretch mode.

Not to question your statement - but are you sure you are using your TV's stretch mode at that point? The reason I ask is once you select 480i stretch in the HR20 (at least for me) it stretches the signal to 16:9 before it even gets to your tv??

 

[bonscott87]

Not to question your statement - but are you sure you are using your TV's stretch mode at that point? The reason I ask is once you select 480i stretch in the HR20 (at least for me) it stretches the signal to 16:9 before it even gets to your tv??

No it does not. It sends a pure 480i signal to my TV. At that point you can see my TV resync itself to 480i mode (it displayes the text of 480i or 1080i for what type of signal it gets) and my default mode for 480i on that component input is called "Expanded 1" which is my preffered stretch method. I could use my TV's mode button to change to one of the 5 480i stretch/zoom modes including "normal" which puts piller boxes on the side (since it's a 4x3 program) but it's my TV actually putting in the piller boxes, not the HR20.

I think the HR20 modes are poorly labled because you'll notice that the first 1080i mode is called "1080i Stretch" and it's obvioulsy not stretching the 1080i signal but sending it pure. I'd call it more 1080i normal.

 

[bonscott87]

Once you setup the HR20 to tell it you have a 16:9 display it seems to add pillar boxes to the frame of any 4:3 SD material to make it fit a 16:9 frame - unless you select 480i stretch (or crop, etc.) in the HR20.

This is exactly what is happening and it's supposed to happen that way. At anything other then 480i the HR20 will add in the piller boxes itself to fill the entire 16x9 frame. But in 480i modes on the HR20 it does not add piller boxes itself, it sends the signal in 4x3 mode to your TV. What your TV does with it at that point all depends on your TV's features. You probably have in the TV's setup menu what to do when it receives a 480i signal or it may default to certain settings you last used on 480i (that's what mine does).

Try turning Native mode to Off on the HR20 and then you can manually use the format button combined with your TV's settings to see what is really going on.

 

[Dusty]

I was wondering the same thing. I may have the same Toshiba as the OP, and I can't get it to do Theater Wide which is a great stretch mode. I've just been watching in pillar box, which looks pretty great, but would rather stretch it with my Toshiba.

I think this is a personal thing. I have a Toshiba CRT rear projection myself. I used to use the stretch mode before I got the HR10. Since I had HR10, and now HR20, our viewing behavior has changed to heavily favoring HD contents. I never bothered with the stretch mode any more.

 

[john18]

That is how I am setup - which "format" mode do you use on the HR20?

Pillar Box

 

[Jeremy W]

I think the HR20 modes are poorly labled because you'll notice that the first 1080i mode is called "1080i Stretch" and it's obvioulsy not stretching the 1080i signal but sending it pure. I'd call it more 1080i normal.

It's called 1080i Stretch because it stretches all content out to 16:9. If it's already 16:9, then it doesn't have to stretch. But if it's 4:3, it gets stretched out. That's why it's called Stretch and not Normal.