Anyone ever hear rough numbers on the % of receivers still active that do not support an HDMI output (i.e. wide screen capable) ?
Dish: fix SD's aspect ratios to 16:9
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Anyone ever hear rough numbers on the % of receivers still active that do not support an HDMI output (i.e. wide screen capable) ?
Other than my favorite: anamorphic widescreen.
The problem with that idea is the remaining CRT SD TVs out there with no option to crop a 16:9 signal. 
Or is that what you meant? I have a very good friend in town who intends to keep his SD Sony TVs until they die. Unfortunately, they refuse to die. I tease him incessantly, and suggest great deals on modern HDTVs, but so far he's intransigent.
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Try watching a sports game or a newscast. Sports scores get cut off. A third of the picture is cut off. It's terrible. There's gotta be a happy-medium. FOX/Disney do it perfect. Take a lesson from them.
But there's no reason the RECEIVERS couldn't give you the option. I know Motorola cable boxes give you the option... either center cut, letterbox, or anamorphic. Let the customer decide.Other than my favorite: anamorphic widescreen.
Yes, and I have, for a long time, been advocating this on Dish HD receivers where it does not currently exist (TV2 output). But for SD receivers? I doubt that the hardware capability exists in those boxes, but frankly I don't know one way or another. If it did, Dish could "do the right ting" for all customers on both arcs.
If the score bug or the ticker is cut off, then that is the fault of the broadcaster. ROOT Sports does NOT do it right. Whether viewing letterboxed or full screen 4x3 SD, those things should be viewable. Off the top of my head, MNF and NBC SNF does it right (score bug centered on the top or bottom of the screen. NFL Network has their ticker at the bottom, but only the area in the center 2/3rds of the ticker has the readable text. If I'm stuck watching sports in SD, I'd rather it be transmitted full screen 4x3 for better resolution than have a lower rez postage stamp that needs to be zoomed both horizontally and vertically, losing even more definition.
Are you using HDMI and is your TV 1080P? If Dish is downconverting the HD signal without changing the aspect ratio you shouldn't notice much of a difference in rez with SD 4:3 and 16:9 in full screen. Dish uses 16:9 ratio on ION-W and 4:3 on our local ION station. When the ION-W is in timestamp mode the rez much better than the 4:3. When I increase the 16:9 timestamp to full screen 16:9 I can't tell a difference in rez.
With all that being said, I agree with some of the posters on here that Dish should let the viewer decide from the receiver what type of picture they want. I know we'd all rather Dish upgrade everything to HD.
Not to try to bash Dish, but the Native resolution feature on my Directv receiver works great and has solved most of the issues I had with Dish.
I have a sony Wega 32 inch CRT television from 2001. Could never watch HD on it because of the enhanced 16x9 feature on the Component Inputs and got tired of switching between inputs on the box and changing the outputs on the receiver to match.
I have a sony Wega 32 inch CRT television from 2001. Could never watch HD on it because of the enhanced 16x9 feature on the Component Inputs and got tired of switching between inputs on the box and changing the outputs on the receiver to match.
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