Is there any way to get a decent 16:9 SD with 942?

[waltinvt]

Lots of great things about the 942 but 2 that bother me a lot and I cant seem to understand them:

Why doesn't the HD center properly (it's much worse on the 942 than it was on the 811) and why can't a 4:3 SD program be be made to look right on a 16:9 monitor.

I have the Dish 34" widescreen monitor and as everyone's been reporting, HD PQ looks great - it's just that the picture is too far low and left on many HD channels.

I think SD would look good too if I could get it to stretch / zoom properly.

With my 508, I got a great picture using the TV's "Cinerama" mode - very little distortion or noticable stretch but the 942 doesn't have S-Video and the composite connection is not giving the same results. It's like the 4:3 picture has the black bars built in and the same Cinerama setting won't get it to fill the screen the same way.

Of course if I watch SD through the DVI connection, I only have the 942's zoom choices which I believe are the same (and as bad) as the 811 had.

Thanks

 

[NightRyder]

Lots of great things about the 942 but 2 that bother me a lot and I cant seem to understand them:

Why doesn't the HD center properly (it's much worse on the 942 than it was on the 811) and why can't a 4:3 SD program be be made to look right on a 16:9 monitor.

I have the Dish 34" widescreen monitor and as everyone's been reporting, HD PQ looks great - it's just that the picture is too far low and left on many HD channels.

I think SD would look good too if I could get it to stretch / zoom properly.

With my 508, I got a great picture using the TV's "Cinerama" mode - very little distortion or noticable stretch but the 942 doesn't have S-Video and the composite connection is not giving the same results. It's like the 4:3 picture has the black bars built in and the same Cinerama setting won't get it to fill the screen the same way.

Of course if I watch SD through the DVI connection, I only have the 942's zoom choices which I believe are the same (and as bad) as the 811 had.

Thanks

Walt, try setting the resolution on the 942 to 480 and see if that helps on SD.

NightRyder

 

[waltinvt]

Walt, try setting the resolution on the 942 to 480 and see if that helps on SD.

NightRyder

I'll try that. Can it be set seperatly for different outputs? In other words, can I set it to 480p or i for either the composite or RF outputs of TV-2 and still keep 1080i for the DVI on TV-1?

 

[bert522]

What I do is set the resolution to 480i or p and the aspect ratio to 4:3#2, yes, this is for a 16:9 set. Then set the format to zoom and your TV to the desired stretch mode. This will stretch the 4:3 digital channels to fill the screen and produce a much better picture then the dish locals.

 

[waltinvt]

This seems to be a decent workaround

What I do is set the resolution to 480i or p and the aspect ratio to 4:3#2, yes, this is for a 16:9 set. Then set the format to zoom and your TV to the desired stretch mode. This will stretch the 4:3 digital channels to fill the screen and produce a much better picture then the dish locals.

I remember reading something similar to this before and have done a little experimenting.

I found setting the aspect ratio (in the setup HD menu) to 4:3 #2 but leaving the rez at 1080 seemed to work pretty well if I view all the 4:3 SD from my TV's composite input. Not quite as good as I used to get with my 508 through S-Vid but pretty darned close. I also set up the 942's TV-2 RF to one of the tv channels and that didn't look bad either.

I still use the DVI input for watching HD and use the 942's first "stretch" setting to fill the 16:9 screen ("normal" mode gets letterboxed by changing the AR to 4:3 # 2). I believe the HD PQ looks the same as the "normal" mode with the 16:9 setting.

I don't understand how this is able to work but it does. Normally using "stretch" with the AR set to 16:9 looks stretched and distorted but with the AR set to 4:3 # 2, that same stretch setting provides what appears to be a good, undistorted picture that fills the 16:9 screen - the same as I'd get with the "normal" in 16:9 mode. Although I haven't studied this in depth, it doesn't appear to impair the HD PQ at all.

All in all, this appears to be a decent workaround and the only downside I've seen so far is in the extended epg looses the bottom line when viewing from the tvs composite or RF inputs.

 

[Bichon]

I still use the DVI input for watching HD and use the 942's first "stretch" setting to fill the 16:9 screen ("normal" mode gets letterboxed by changing the AR to 4:3 # 2). I believe the HD PQ looks the same as the "normal" mode with the 16:9 setting.

Look again, with a more critical eye. Using 4x3 #2 and stretching to fill the 16x9 screen results in a 33% loss in vertical resolution. Essentially your 1920 x 1080i becomes 1920 x 720i, and your 1280 x 720p becomes 1280 x 480p. I watched the same short HD clip both ways, and the PQ loss in 4x3 #2 was pretty apparent.

 

[waltinvt]

Look again, with a more critical eye. Using 4x3 #2 and stretching to fill the 16x9 screen results in a 33% loss in vertical resolution. Essentially your 1920 x 1080i becomes 1920 x 720i, and your 1280 x 720p becomes 1280 x 480p. I watched the same short HD clip both ways, and the PQ loss in 4x3 #2 was pretty apparent.

You're right. In fact I think I agreed with you in a different thread today. After watching it more, I have to agree, you can definitly see the loss in PQ. For my eyes it's more evident in some programs than others but it's definitly there.

 

[bert522]

Bichon,

I agree. That is why I only do this when watching SD channels. When I watch HD channels, I switch back to 1080i and 16:9 for full resolution.