811 Question

[bcope9]

I know that the 811 is designed for HD and OTA HD, but my question is-Will the 811 output the HD channels in SD off of the HD Channels and Digital OTA channels thru the analog outputs? I know that when a person buys a stand alone HD decoder it has analog outputs for hookup to an older TV.

 

[Foxbat]

bcope9, yes, it does. I had mine hooked up to my VCR and other than the letterbox bars on widescreen programming, it works just as expected.

 

[sprintcarcrazy]

Yes, but it will be in SD, not HD

 

[bcope9]

Thanks, that's what I wanted to know

 

[redline65]

Mine does not work quite as expected with certain OTA channels in the Dallas area. With SD programming on these channels (with S-video out) I get the side bars applied by my widescreen TV (expected), but then within my 4:3 picture the 811 puts black bars on the top, bottom, and both sides. So I end up with a very small picture. But if a station is multicasting, it seems like it doesn't do it on the second channel (ie. 5.1 has this problem but 5.2 does not). I think it must have something to do with the broadcast by the station though, rather than the 811 itself. All the Dish SD channels are formatted correctly.

With HD programming my TV puts bars on the sides, and within the 4:3 picture the 811 just puts black bars on the top and bottom. Is there any way to get the 811 to output a 16:9 picture over S-video? I've messed with the menu options but I can't get it to do this.

 

[Carl B]

S-video will not carry 16X9 format video except as a letterbox picture within a 4X3 Full Screen box.

 

[mike_johnson]

Mine does not work quite as expected with certain OTA channels in the Dallas area. With SD programming on these channels (with S-video out) I get the side bars applied by my widescreen TV (expected), but then within my 4:3 picture the 811 puts black bars on the top, bottom, and both sides. So I end up with a very small picture. But if a station is multicasting, it seems like it doesn't do it on the second channel (ie. 5.1 has this problem but 5.2 does not). I think it must have something to do with the broadcast by the station though, rather than the 811 itself. All the Dish SD channels are formatted correctly.

This happens when the local station upconverts their standard def 4x3 signal to high def. High Def is always 16x9, so when the 4x3 SD is upconverted to HD, the black side bars are added to fill the 16x9 picture area. When the 811 downconverts the picture, it letterboxes it like any other 16x9 signal, but since it has black sidebars it ends up being a small picture surrounded by black. Fortunately, you can correct this issue by using the 811's "SD:Full Zoom" mode by pressing the page down button on the remote.

The other sub-channels you see are digital Std Def 4x3 programs, so they look fine on the composite outputs.

 

[redline65]

Fortunately, you can correct this issue by using the 811's "SD:Full Zoom" mode by pressing the page down button on the remote.

Yes, I actually discovered this last night when messing with the HD and SD Zoom buttons on the 811 remote. Thanks for explaining it!