# 522 Letter Box and reduced picture size



## robert koerner (Aug 20, 2005)

Some of the channels I get have converted to letter box; one channel, local PBS, has letter box with bars on the left and right hand sides.

While talking with Dish Tecs, they have denied that the PBS signal is a reduced pix, have told me that this is a unique problem for me and the reduced pix size because of the letter boxing is not a Dish problem--they have no suggestions to restore normal pix size (other than calling the manufacturer of my 3 year old Sony TV).

ANy suggestions for restoring the normal picture size to my SD TV?

The options I've come up with are:

to redo my TV room to sit closer to the TV
buy new glasses for increased magnification
buy a TV with a larger screen (sorta hard to do with SD TVs)
buy a HD TV to watch SD signals
buy a Dish 722 for SD use to get a unit with a format option (Dish claims I'll have to pay them an extra $7 a month if I buy my own 722 HD receiver and don't spend $10 more a month for HD programing!)

I don't watch any sports, don't rent any movies, and don't have any movie channels, just the beginning "100" channels, of which I record from about 12.

No cable where I live.

Best from Tucson
Bob


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## kf4omc (Apr 11, 2006)

I am sorry but there is nothing you can do about this problem but upgrade an HD TV. What is happing is that you PBS station is down converting its HD signal. This is why it is in letterbox. this is why you have black bars on the Top and Bottom of the screen. This is so they can fit the 16:9 picture in you 4:3 screen. Now since they are now in a 16:9 format and they have to broadcast a show that is in the 4:3 format, they have to add black bars to the left and right of the screen to keep the 4:3 aspect ratio. this give you what is called a postage stamp picture on your screen. Unless you have a TV that is 16:9 you will just have to put up with PBS being like that.


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## javaman (Sep 26, 2004)

I've also seen that pathetically small stamp sized picture from time to time on my local PBS station. It seems to me this whole switch to digital hasn't been thought through at all. For the past several months all the HD content on the major networks has been cropped at the sides so you end up with missing text and people's noses poking from the side of the frame and nobody seems to know what to do about it other than say buy an HD TV. :nono2: Didn't someone think of a way to have a standard def receiver make the necessary change and letterbox the programs? Cripes they've had years to prepare for this and this is the result we get? What a joke.


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## Barry K. Nathan (Dec 31, 2008)

You don't have to get an HDTV! You can simply upgrade from an SD satellite box to a ViP. In order to be able to change the format, you will either need to sign up for HD programming from Dish, or you will need to use an antenna to receive channels OTA. (If you want to fix problems with PBS, you'll need the antenna for sure, at least at this point.)

When you try to order the upgrade, the Dish Network customer support rep may tell you (incorrectly!) that upgrading to an HD DVR is useless without an HDTV. I'm not sure what the best solution to this particular problem is. Without intending to do so, I ended up arguing with the CSR until he gave up and let me order the upgrade anyway, but if I had to do it over again, maybe I would just lie and tell him I have an HDTV. (The installer who showed up, however, had no problem with the fact that I was connecting it to a regular TV.)

I can personally attest that upgrading to a ViP722 fixed my formatting problems with KCET.

If you want to avoid the extra fees ($10 HD or $7 "HD-enabling") associated with a ViP receiver, perhaps you could just get a converter box and use that along with your Dish receiver. However, I haven't tried any of the coupon-eligible boxes, so I don't know how well they allow you to control the format. (The format control on the Samsung DTB-H260F is flexible enough to do the job _if_ you have component input on your TV; unfortunately the format control has no effect on its composite or S-Video outputs.)


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## robert koerner (Aug 20, 2005)

Grrrrrrrrr!

I was considering the 722, guessing I would get an HD TV next year--no real hurry, and then use it to record locals over the air.

But, having to pay $94 a year extra for the honor of owning a Dish HD PVR, think I'll pass on that.

One of the reasons I haven't bought an HD TV is that the rumor is SD looks worse than on an SD TV. And, I believe it will be a few years before Dish would even think about chewing up bandwidth for our local stations in HD from Dish.

Best from Tucson
Bob


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## ch3 (Dec 1, 2004)

robert koerner said:


> One of the reasons I haven't bought an HD TV is that the rumor is SD looks worse than on an SD TV. And, I believe it will be a few years before Dish would even think about chewing up bandwidth for our local stations in HD from Dish.
> 
> Best from Tucson
> Bob


The rumors are both true and false. It depends on the HDTV and its built-in scaler. Some TVs do a horrible job with HD.

Our 60" Sony HDTV does a fine job with SD Dish. I took our 508 to the store when we went shopping to make sure the TV did a good job with SD on Dish. I have no intention of upgrading to Dish HD any time soon (and I am also not interested in paying an extra $120 per year - $10 per month).

(I did however get a DTVPal DVR so I could record HD OTA for no monthly fee.)


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## flatus (Aug 18, 2006)

robert koerner said:


> Grrrrrrrrr!
> One of the reasons I haven't bought an HD TV is that the rumor is SD looks worse than on an SD TV.


When I was shopping for a TV 6 years ago, this was definately the case. As a result I bought a SD TV. When that TV unexpectedly died a few months ago, finding a tv that did SD well was my top priority. What I found was that most TVs do a pretty good job with SD signals. But I'm just a regular TV watching kind of person -- if you are really picky you may want to do some more legwork.


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