# CBS HD wont fill the screen...what's the solution?



## imthduke (Nov 6, 2004)

The CBS HD wont fill the screen on my 50" plasma screen...leaves space on each end. I can change the aspect to get it done but when I change back to another channel I have to switch the aspect again. What is confusing to me is that CBS HD is the only HD channel like that. Any ideas to the problem here with a solution? Thanks for your help.


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## Mark Lamutt (Mar 24, 2002)

If you're wating KCBS-DT off of the 148 dish, I believe that you are seeing an upconverted SD 4x3 picture when you report this. They broadcast their SD upconverts in a 4x3 aspect ratio with black bars on each side of the image. If you watch it during the west coast's prime time, when they are showing a program in HD, the picture should fill the screen completely. 

Now, if you're talking about very thin black strips on the sides of a HD picture (half inch or less), then you're probably in an underscan situation. But I'd expect this to show up on all of the HD channels, not just CBS.


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## imthduke (Nov 6, 2004)

Mark Lamutt said:


> If you're wating KCBS-DT off of the 148 dish, I believe that you are seeing an upconverted SD 4x3 picture when you report this. They broadcast their SD upconverts in a 4x3 aspect ratio with black bars on each side of the image. If you watch it during the west coast's prime time, when they are showing a program in HD, the picture should fill the screen completely.
> 
> Now, if you're talking about very thin black strips on the sides of a HD picture (half inch or less), then you're probably in an underscan situation. But I'd expect this to show up on all of the HD channels, not just CBS.


Thanks for your speedy reply. I am watching CBS on the 61.5 bird out of NY. I think that I remember that the prime time football game did fill the screen. So are you saying that to expect the picture not to fill on non prime time broadcasts? Thanks.


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## Mark Lamutt (Mar 24, 2002)

That's right - only HD broadcasts will fill the screen, and currently the only regular HD broadcast that CBS does is The Young and the Restless (I think). All of their scripted comedies and dramas in primetime are HD, and some sporting events on the weekends are, but not all. CBS-HD off of 61.5 should have gray bars on the sides though, unless WCBS recently made a change from gray side bars to black ones.


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## imthduke (Nov 6, 2004)

Yes....that is exactly what I am getting. Gray bars. One other question. Will it harm a plasma set to view that screen for long periods, like burning into the screen? Thanks for taking time to help with this, you have been very helpful.


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## BobMurdoch (Apr 24, 2002)

I wouldn't want to test it and leave it on the screen for 12 hours with a Plasma TV but I have not had any issues with my CRT RPTV.


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## lujan (Feb 10, 2004)

imthduke said:


> Yes....that is exactly what I am getting. Gray bars. One other question. Will it harm a plasma set to view that screen for long periods, like burning into the screen? Thanks for taking time to help with this, you have been very helpful.


I've read that the only type of TV that does not have the burn-in problem are DLP TVs. It might also be possible that LCDs do not have this problem as well but I'm not sure?


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## tnsprin (Mar 16, 2003)

lujan said:


> I've read that the only type of TV that does not have the burn-in problem are DLP TVs. It might also be possible that LCDs do not have this problem as well but I'm not sure?


A few other types as well, e.g. LCOS, but most others do have problems with burn in. 
Plasma may be the worst
CRT may be next
LCD (not sure where they fall, may not have a problem, or may be worse then CR)
DLP and LCOS have no problem.


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## Mark Lamutt (Mar 24, 2002)

Yes, the gray bars will harm your plasma television over a long period of time. It will take longer to harm it than black bars would, but if you were to primarily watch a 4x3 picture with the gray sidebars over a period of months, you would definitely see the burn in (middle of the screen would be darker than the sides where the bars are).


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## chuckbernard (Aug 3, 2004)

tnsprin said:


> A few other types as well, e.g. LCOS, but most others do have problems with burn in.
> Plasma may be the worst
> CRT may be next
> LCD (not sure where they fall, may not have a problem, or may be worse then CR)
> DLP and LCOS have no problem.


No problem at all with LCD. That is one of their strong points 

It has taken about 5 years to have problems with my RPTV but I've tried to only use stretch mode as much as possible.

With the 921 your options are not as good since they don't have the partial zoom mode like the 6000 and others have. Will they ever add it??? Mark?

One other problem with the 921 is that if you turn on the gray bars there is STILL a small space of black between the gray bars and the video image! This is REALLY bad since you get a very bad black stripe doing the worst damage.

I thought that this was maybe a hardware limitation but the local OTA digital sub-channels don't have this problem. The main OTA digital 4x3 content has this problem. Note to programmers! Use the same code or settings so this dissappears.

Furthermore, I came across a bug with the 921 the other day which I will report in the other section later when I have the time.

I came home the other day and the 4x3 SD content was MUCH narrower on the screen than usual. The stretch mode didn't fill the screen either. Gray bars were still on the side when selecting that mode but the black zone between the gray bars and the video was very wide.

I rebooted but it was just the same! I tried the HD stations (HBO) went through the different aspect modes and there was no problem. I went back to the SD channels and the problem was gone. Very strange.

After seeing these things it is clear that they should fix the software problem and get rid of the black zone between gray bars and video.


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## SimpleSimon (Jan 15, 2004)

The black bar inside the gray bars problem has been known about for several months.

Given the rate of bug fix coming down the pike, I don't expect that one or most of the other bugs to be fixed.


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