[Dilerium]

On my HR20, Austin's KEYE, channel 42 comes in fine. The HD picture fills the screen as expected and it looks fine.

The problem is channel 42 on my standard def receivers. The picture has a narrow white line near the top. There are black bars across the top and bottom of the picture and on both sides. Is anyone else experiencing this? None of the other channels have this problem.

 

[texasbrit]

On my HR20, Austin's KEYE, channel 42 comes in fine. The HD picture fills the screen as expected and it looks fine.

The problem is channel 42 on my standard def receivers. The picture has a narrow white line near the top. There are black bars across the top and bottom of the picture and on both sides. Is anyone else experiencing this? None of the other channels have this problem.

The black bars are there because the picture is 16:9 widescreen and is in a 3:4 frame. The white line might be the closed caption data in the interscan, in which case the overscan on the TV is not set correctly. Is the line a mixture of black and white pulses or is it a solid white line?

 

[Dilerium]

The black bars are there because the picture is 16:9 widescreen and is in a 3:4 frame. The white line might be the closed caption data in the interscan, in which case the overscan on the TV is not set correctly. Is the line a mixture of black and white pulses or is it a solid white line?

Thank you for the reply. I'm afraid my OP might not have been adequate.

I have four receivers -- an HR20, HR10-250, R10, and R15. The HR20 gets the KEYE-DT signal that DirecTV sends. Of course, this is an MPEG4 channel. The picture is 16:9 and fills the screen. None HD programs are pillar-boxed, just as expected.

The other three receivers cannot receive the MPEG4 HD version of KEYE. They are getting SD programming and sending it to a 4:3 screen. Since the programing is 4:3 and the screen is 4:3, there should not be any adjustment of the picture. For some reason the picture is shrunk on the SD receivers. It is both letter-boxed and pillar-boxed. The narrow white line is at the top of the picture, but not at the top of the screen. It is steady and doesn't pulse at all.

This cannot be an issue with receiver or TV settings. The same issue is visible on three TVs with three different receivers.

May not be related, but KEYE 42 is also the station we've noticed with the most BBBRRRRPPPP audio interruptions on the HR20.

 

[BattleZone]

What is happening is that the SD version of the channel is now being derived from the HD version instead of being a separate native-SD feed, and it isn't configured correctly at the studio.

These kinds of issues are fairly common as stations are transitioning to digital and to HD. When you are originating the picture, there is a lot more equipment involved and there are sometimes bugs and/or hardware incompatibility issues that have to be worked out. Sometimes it's just that the engineers didn't set something correctly. Many who "grew up" in the SD/analog world are struggling with the extra complexities of mixing SD with HD and analog with digital, and are themselves in a learning curve.

It helps to remember that this is the biggest change to TV broadcasting in 60+ years, and a whole new hardware/software infrastructure is required. As with any transition, there are bumps in the road. They'll soon get worked out and all will be fine, but for now, the best thing to do is to politely call the station and let them know they have an issue that is affecting their viewers.

 

[Dilerium]

What is happening is that the SD version of the channel is now being derived from the HD version instead of being a separate native-SD feed, and it isn't configured correctly at the studio.

These kinds of issues are fairly common as stations are transitioning to digital and to HD. When you are originating the picture, there is a lot more equipment involved and there are sometimes bugs and/or hardware incompatibility issues that have to be worked out. Sometimes it's just that the engineers didn't set something correctly. Many who "grew up" in the SD/analog world are struggling with the extra complexities of mixing SD with HD and analog with digital, and are themselves in a learning curve.

It helps to remember that this is the biggest change to TV broadcasting in 60+ years, and a whole new hardware/software infrastructure is required. As with any transition, there are bumps in the road. They'll soon get worked out and all will be fine, but for now, the best thing to do is to politely call the station and let them know they have an issue that is affecting their viewers.

That makes perfect sense. Thank you for the thoughtful reply.