# HR21 1080i Pillar Box, Stretch, Crop????



## looter (Oct 1, 2007)

Pressing the Format button on my HR21 when viewing 720p or 1080i content brings up, 720p/1080i Pillar Box, 720p/1080i Stretch and 720p/1080i Crop but it has NO EFFECT on the picture.

Is this an issue with 0x193 or has this always been a problem?

Some programs broadcast in 720p or 1080i are letter-boxed AND pillar-boxed and I want to use the format button to fill the screen.

Is this unique to my HR21, all the HR21s or HR20s and HR21s?

The format button does work as expected when viewing 480i content. WTF?


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## lucky13 (Nov 27, 2006)

looter said:


> Pressing the Format button on my HR21 when viewing 720p or 1080i content brings up, 720p/1080i Pillar Box, 720p/1080i Stretch and 720p/1080i Crop but it has NO EFFECT on the picture.
> 
> Is this an issue with 0x193 or has this always been a problem?
> 
> ...


The Stretch, Pillar, Crop settings are for picking how SD programs will be displayed. It will not change the way an HD channel is displayed, even if that HD channel is showing a pillar-boxed SD program. Your TV may have settings that allow you to fiddle with the display.


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## cygnusloop (Jan 26, 2007)

I hear what you're saying, OP. You are correct that the format controls do nothing when the incoming signal is 720p or 1080i. However, this is only when the TV Ratio is set to 16:9 (under HDTV in the setup menu). When set to 4:3, the format controls are active on the HD resolutions, but not the SD resolutions, however, the format choices are slightly different (stretch, crop, and _letterbox_). It should be possible to "zoom" into widowboxed programming on an HD channel, but how you do it will depend on the formating modes of your HDTV. When set to 4:3 mode, format=stretch, HD programming appears exactly how it otherwise looks when set to 16:9 mode.

This post describes in detail how it can be done with my HDTV.


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## looter (Oct 1, 2007)

lucky13 said:


> The Stretch, Pillar, Crop settings are for picking how SD programs will be displayed. It will not change the way an HD channel is displayed, even if that HD channel is showing a pillar-boxed SD program. Your TV may have settings that allow you to fiddle with the display.


Then why does the HR21 display "720P Pillar Box", "720P Crop" and "720P Stretch" and "1080i Pillar Box", "1080i Crop" and "1080i Stretch"when I press the FORMAT button while viewing 720P and 1080i content? If the box can't do it, it shouldn't display it.

And unfortunately, my new Mitsubishi LT-46244 doesn't have the zoom options my older, smaller, cheaper 37" LG LCD does. While watching 720p or 1080i on the Mitsubishi I only have the option of 720p/1080i Wide Expand (useless, I want to preserve the aspect ratio) and 720p/1080i Standard. Also, the zoom when watching 480p DVDs on the TV has way too much overscan.


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## looter (Oct 1, 2007)

cygnusloop said:


> I hear what your saying, OP. You are correct that the format controls do nothing when the incoming signal is 720p or 1080i. However, this is only when the TV Ratio is set to 16:9 (under HDTV in the setup menu). When set to 4:3, the format controls are active on the HD resolutions, but not the SD resolutions, however, the format choices are slightly different (stretch, crop, and _letterbox_). It should be possible to "zoom" into widowboxed programming on an HD channel, but how you do it will depend on the formating modes of your HDTV. When set to 4:3 mode, format=stretch, HD programming appears exactly how it otherwise looks when set to 16:9 mode.
> 
> This post describes in detail how it can be done with my HDTV.


cygnusloop,

Thanks for this. I hadn't thought about changing the HR21 to 4:3. I would be great if "Set by program" was an option on the HR21 instead of just 16:9 and 4:3.

I see if you change to 4:3 then the HR21 stretches all 480i content and the Format button has no effect on 480i content.

Do you just change from 16:9 to 4:3 depending on what content you are viewing?


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## cygnusloop (Jan 26, 2007)

looter said:


> Do you just change from 16:9 to 4:3 depending on what content you are viewing?


It has been on 4:3 for a long time now, and, for me, it works well in all modes. The HD programming is just as it was (as long as it is set to stretch), and for 480i 4:3 programming, I always left the HR2x in stretch mode anyway. Not that I like my SD stretched, I just prefer that my HDTV provide the 4:3 viewing environment. (Why?)

Like most HDTV's, mine "remembers" its format setting based on the resolution of the incoming signal, so when I tune to a SD channel, my TV's pillars come on, and when I tune to an HD channel, the pillars go away (this assumes you have native=on, and at least one SD and one HD resolution selected).


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