I recently started to experience problems with some of my HD channels having black borders on sides or sides, top & bottom. For instance, right now I am watching How its made HD on the Science channel HD. And I am getting a 2" black around the entire picture on my 62" screen. The 1080i light is lit on my HR20-100. I have experienced this same problem with other HD channels & HD programming, but not all channels. Is this a problem on my end or Directv's? Anybody else getting this?
HD Channel Black Borders
- Thread starter leehound
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Depending on how the film was produced, that is normal. Not all HD at this time is going to fit your screen completely as you want, and the most of us want. Older produced films will more likely have this if it is in native format. Some HD shows are up converted and may have the black bars. During commercials you will notice some are HD and some are not, the commercials that are not HD will have bars either all around or just on the top & bottom, or right and left of the screen. It doesn't matter the brand of HD television you have, and it doesn't matter who the carrier is. Think of it like letterbox, most anything that says that is going to have black bars on the top and bottom.
I think as February 2008 approaches for the HD & Digital TV deadline, you will see less of this happening. I'm assuming the new HD DVD format doesn't have this problem or any black bars or letterbox.
Something has definatley changed recently. Becasue I watch How Its Made all the time, both HD and non HD. The formatting is differnt than it used to be. If the program was actully being shown in SD and not HD then why do I get a 2" black border around the whole picture on my widscreen TV. Either Directv or the Science Channel has change something!
the digital requirement isn't until february 2009 and doesn't affect hd. it means analog tv sets will no longer be sold. so if your tv is older, you'll need a digital setup box.
Yup. With the sd material, they are zooming a little bit, cropping the top and bottom, leaving a smaller border on the sides. Animal Planet and TLC are also doing this. Are they owned by the same company?
You guys are just not getting it. I have a a fairly new Widescreen TV capable of 1080i. Other HD channels are fine. But a few like the Science channel HD and Animal Planet HD are displaying something funky just recently. A 2" black border around the whole picture for HD programming is not normal. If it was an SD program, I would expect 2 black bars down the sides of the picture, this I accept for SD programming. But an HD program shot in 16 x 9 should not have any black around the screen. I watch the science channel all the time and this is something new that just started happening. Can someone else confirm that they get the same when they are watching the science channel?
leehound,
I GET IT. I understand. I know what you are talking about. Yes. I understand!
Discovery Science sometimes shows a STANDARD DEFINITION program which would be seen as a letterboxed program on a regular TV, but instead of zooming it, they show it "Pillar Boxed" on the HD channel leaving a black bar all the way around the channel!
Since you won't go to the page I posted for you, I will reprint it here:
----------------------------
Out of sequence on the page
-----------------------------
Why are there bars ALL AROUND the picture on your new TV?
16x9 image in a 16x9 TV (Window Box)
This type of effect drives quite a few people off their rocker making them want to go back to the store to punch the salesman in the nose! You just paid lots of money for your new TV and you see something that has lots of real-estate showing nothing but a black screen! It is nothing more than the TV station being very, very lazy and just passing through a letterboxed 16x9 image made for a "regular" TV screen (Left) shown on a 16x9 channel or HDTV signal with a pillar box (Right).
There is a simple consumer remedy for this. On your TV's remote there is a "Zoom" or "Aspect" or "Wide" button. Just press this button repeatedly to get the image to fill up the screen with no black bars anywhere. Every 16x9 TV set will have this feature.
The real remedy to this is to have the broadcasters "up-convert" the window box programs to full screen rather than pillar box the letterboxed image, but that may be easier said than done.
------------------------------------------------
Why are there VERTICAL bars on your new HDTV? Why does the picture some times look distorted or fuzzy?
In order to understand why you have black bars on the screen or why you have a weird looking image on your new TV you have to understand the source of the so-called problem.
There are dozens of different movie shapes and two TV shapes. All are rectangles, but they have different widths. It is very difficult to explain in words, so here are some pictures to show you the difference in shapes. All the pictures are exactly the same height. But they vary in width. The difference in width to height is called the aspect ratio. For reference, a regular TV has an aspect ratio of 4x3. If the picture is 4 inches wide, it will be 3 inches tall. This is also known as 1:33 to 1. A new HDTV is 16x9 or 1.77 to 1.
From the first movies made until the mid 1950's and from the beginning of TV until 2000, every program and movie ever made was made in the 4x3 format. This is no coincidence. The standard TV is the shape it is because that was the shape of movies in the theater when TVs were developed. Also many movies were cropped in pan & scan mode (explained above) to fit the 4x3 standard TVs. Most broadcast and cable channels whether they have an "HD channel" or not, still air the "edited for TV" movies which are 4x3. It is only in the last few years that all the broadcast networks started making many of their programs in the new screen size. Some cable networks are just now (2007) starting to make their programs in the new screen size.
So what do you do when you have a wide screen TV and a standard size program?
You have three options:
1) Watch the program in its original size (OAR)
Regular TV/Older Movie on HDTV set (Pillarbox)
This allows you to see the image as it was originally recorded. Or in "Original Aspect Ratio".
2) You distort and stretch the image to fit the screen.
Regular TV / Older movie on HDTV set (Stretch-o-vision)
In this image it looks like Zeus put on a few pounds! The cherubs to either side look completely unreal. All the detail is lost in the distortion.
3)You "Zoom" the image.
Zoomed in 4x3. The red rectangle represents the area that would be seen on an HDTV
It is difficult to see here, but there is a loss of detail since the image is zoomed in. Essentially there is less information for every square inch of picture than there would be if it was the regular image. Some times the higher quality of a high definition broadcast can make up for some of the difference by sending the best possible quality standard definition image possible. But much of the time the image gets a little fuzzier than we are used to with regular TVs and much fuzzier than what you get used to with HD sets. It still looks okay. Just nowhere near as good as is should.
The Discovery Networks use a similar type "zoom" on some of their programs on their HD channels which leaves a slight black bar on either side
Discovery Networks' style zoom.
Notice how there is a little more room below Zeus' feet. But you still lose quite a bit of picture that you could see if the program were shown in original aspect ratio. Discovery does a great job on the up-converts and the images are rarely fuzzy, but the picture quality is not anywhere near the level of a true HD program or movie.
I GET IT. I understand. I know what you are talking about. Yes. I understand!
Discovery Science sometimes shows a STANDARD DEFINITION program which would be seen as a letterboxed program on a regular TV, but instead of zooming it, they show it "Pillar Boxed" on the HD channel leaving a black bar all the way around the channel!
Since you won't go to the page I posted for you, I will reprint it here:
----------------------------
Out of sequence on the page
-----------------------------
Why are there bars ALL AROUND the picture on your new TV?
16x9 image in a 16x9 TV (Window Box)
This type of effect drives quite a few people off their rocker making them want to go back to the store to punch the salesman in the nose! You just paid lots of money for your new TV and you see something that has lots of real-estate showing nothing but a black screen! It is nothing more than the TV station being very, very lazy and just passing through a letterboxed 16x9 image made for a "regular" TV screen (Left) shown on a 16x9 channel or HDTV signal with a pillar box (Right).
There is a simple consumer remedy for this. On your TV's remote there is a "Zoom" or "Aspect" or "Wide" button. Just press this button repeatedly to get the image to fill up the screen with no black bars anywhere. Every 16x9 TV set will have this feature.
The real remedy to this is to have the broadcasters "up-convert" the window box programs to full screen rather than pillar box the letterboxed image, but that may be easier said than done.
------------------------------------------------
Why are there VERTICAL bars on your new HDTV? Why does the picture some times look distorted or fuzzy?
In order to understand why you have black bars on the screen or why you have a weird looking image on your new TV you have to understand the source of the so-called problem.
There are dozens of different movie shapes and two TV shapes. All are rectangles, but they have different widths. It is very difficult to explain in words, so here are some pictures to show you the difference in shapes. All the pictures are exactly the same height. But they vary in width. The difference in width to height is called the aspect ratio. For reference, a regular TV has an aspect ratio of 4x3. If the picture is 4 inches wide, it will be 3 inches tall. This is also known as 1:33 to 1. A new HDTV is 16x9 or 1.77 to 1.
From the first movies made until the mid 1950's and from the beginning of TV until 2000, every program and movie ever made was made in the 4x3 format. This is no coincidence. The standard TV is the shape it is because that was the shape of movies in the theater when TVs were developed. Also many movies were cropped in pan & scan mode (explained above) to fit the 4x3 standard TVs. Most broadcast and cable channels whether they have an "HD channel" or not, still air the "edited for TV" movies which are 4x3. It is only in the last few years that all the broadcast networks started making many of their programs in the new screen size. Some cable networks are just now (2007) starting to make their programs in the new screen size.
So what do you do when you have a wide screen TV and a standard size program?
You have three options:
1) Watch the program in its original size (OAR)
Regular TV/Older Movie on HDTV set (Pillarbox)
This allows you to see the image as it was originally recorded. Or in "Original Aspect Ratio".
2) You distort and stretch the image to fit the screen.
Regular TV / Older movie on HDTV set (Stretch-o-vision)
In this image it looks like Zeus put on a few pounds! The cherubs to either side look completely unreal. All the detail is lost in the distortion.
3)You "Zoom" the image.
Zoomed in 4x3. The red rectangle represents the area that would be seen on an HDTV
It is difficult to see here, but there is a loss of detail since the image is zoomed in. Essentially there is less information for every square inch of picture than there would be if it was the regular image. Some times the higher quality of a high definition broadcast can make up for some of the difference by sending the best possible quality standard definition image possible. But much of the time the image gets a little fuzzier than we are used to with regular TVs and much fuzzier than what you get used to with HD sets. It still looks okay. Just nowhere near as good as is should.
The Discovery Networks use a similar type "zoom" on some of their programs on their HD channels which leaves a slight black bar on either side
Discovery Networks' style zoom.
Notice how there is a little more room below Zeus' feet. But you still lose quite a bit of picture that you could see if the program were shown in original aspect ratio. Discovery does a great job on the up-converts and the images are rarely fuzzy, but the picture quality is not anywhere near the level of a true HD program or movie.
Good data Tony! You didn't mention (or I didn't catch it) stretched letterbox, which has shown up on a few channels (really ugly )
)
Yeah, that one drives me crazy too! Nothing more than taking a 4x3 letterboxed image and stretching it to a 16x9 image without zooming! Ough!
See ya
Tony
See ya
Tony
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