HD Gripes... bad settings, or mangled at the source?

[miamicanes]

I just got DirecTV a few days ago (with HR21), and two particular channels have absolutely driven me crazy with artifacts that I think are unfortunately inherent and can't be tweaked away:

* HGTV HD appears to be 4:3 source that comes "off the satellite" zoomed and adaptively pre-stretched to 16:9, so people who prefer pillarboxing to distortion are out of luck. I can't actively watch this channel for more than an hour or so without getting vertigo due to the progressive edge-stretching. The fact that I'm sitting ~6 feet away from a 61" TV that almost completely fills my field of vision obviously doesn't help, but this channel in particular stands out as one that makes me queasy to watch.

* I can't stand to watch CNN HD. The interlace comb distortion is absolutely intolerable... ESPECIALLY when they're showing video that's almost certainly 480i60 source. It's like they're double-converting it in a way that completely confuses my TV (Mitsubishi WD-62627) and leaves it unable to even fall back to its "Bob" algorithm.

For the record, I have the box set to output everything in native format, and indicated that my TV supports all four formats (480i, 480p, 720p, and 1080i) on the theory that the scaling capabilities of my TV probably exceed those of the HR21.

Is it just me, or ARE one or both of those two channels being "mangled at the source"?

 

[rad]

Is it just me, or ARE one or both of those two channels being "mangled at the source"?

Can't say for sure about CNN-HD but HGTV-HD is the guilty party with messing with the aspect ratio, not D*, they just pass along what they are given.

 

[raoul5788]

As stated, HGTV hd is stretched at the source, as are some of the other hd channels. As to CNN hd, I have no issues at all with the picture. I have a Mits 65" dlp set to native. The picture quality is excellent.

 

[Bob Nielsen]

Wait until you see some of the 16:9 programming which is converted to letterboxed 4:3 and then stretched back to 16:9. Who was the idiot who came up with that?

 

[ChrisPC]

I got so sick of the stretch-o-vision, too. I just set my receiver to 480p and my TV to 4:3 whenever I watch one of these shows. It works really well, and the PQ is still better than the SD channel.

 

[imthedevil]

Why on earth are you sitting on "top" of the television? HG does look funny but CNN always looks good to me at least.

Bill

 

[Ronnie-]

Why on earth are you sitting on "top" of the television? HG does look funny but CNN always looks good to me at least.

Bill

I was kind of thinking the same thing, although I dont like to question someones personal preference. Personally, I would move back a little if possible. Dont think you can really do anything for HG

 

[Sori4mvp]

I believe TNT does the same thing as HGTV, the stretch o vision really does piss me off.