Dual Tuner 4 Black Bars

[Scott Corbett]

My VIP-722K has started doing this recently : Same SD channel, same program - One tuner shows normally, black bars on the sides. The other tuner shows black bars all around the picture. These 4 black bars are recorded. The 722K is in single TV mode. I switched to two TV mode and back to single, no change. I have gone through the menu and found nothing that might affect this. Both tuners are fine with HD programs. 16:9 TV, connected through Denon AVR-591. Cold booted several times.

 

[boba]

Have you tried the page up and down buttons on the remote they serve as format buttons.

 

[Allen1982]

Or the * button on the bottom left.

 

[dare2be]

I don't think the format button will work in his case, it's an SD channel he's referring to. The format button on TV2 will only work with HD channels. I think it's the channel messing up the feed, sending a 4x3 aspect program in a 16x9 window through a 4x3 SD channel. On TV1, you have more zoom options for an SD channel than on TV2, since the TV2 output is a modulated SD 4x3 signal, which is why you are able to see it properly on TV1 but not TV2. Does the side black bars on TV2 look thicker than the black bars on top? If so, then my assumption is correct.

 

[Scott Corbett]

Have you tried the page up and down buttons on the remote they serve as format buttons.

This doesn't seem to make any difference. However, it now appears that this problem may only happen with a specific program, Wings on channel 299. I need to check more channels but one tuner is recording Becker on 299 now and both tuners are normal (black bars only on the sides).

 

[Scott Corbett]

I don't think the format button will work in his case, it's an SD channel he's referring to. The format button on TV2 will only work with HD channels. I think it's the channel messing up the feed, sending a 4x3 aspect program in a 16x9 window through a 4x3 SD channel. On TV1, you have more zoom options for an SD channel than on TV2, since the TV2 output is a modulated SD 4x3 signal, which is why you are able to see it properly on TV1 but not TV2. Does the side black bars on TV2 look thicker than the black bars on top? If so, then my assumption is correct.

It looks even worse on TV2, all four bars are there but the side bars are relatively thicker.

 

[Scott Corbett]

Or the * button on the bottom left.

The * button will cure the problem on TV1 (which is HD) during the actual program but leaves black bars on TV2. But the effects of the * button are different during commercials. I think I am giving up.

 

[Tampa8]

Take the Denon out of the equation, see if any change?

 

[dwarren2]

What type of TV is TV2? If it is an hdtv, you may also need to play around with the P Size or what ever your TV calls the picture size/format etc

 

[dare2be]

It looks even worse on TV2, all four bars are there but the side bars are relatively thicker.

The * button will cure the problem on TV1 (which is HD) during the actual program but leaves black bars on TV2. But the effects of the * button are different during commercials. I think I am giving up.

Yep, there you go. It's the SD channel shrinking the 16x9 transmission into a 4x3 window. Because the program itself is 4x3, you have a 4x3 image in a shrunken 16x9 transmission over a 4x3 channel. Some commercials are produced in 4x3 and some are 16x9, which explains the differences with the commercials. TV1 will give you some stretch/zoom options that TV2 won't. I agree that if your TV2 is an HDTV you should be able to use the TV zoom controls to help zoom it.