# Weird results with new TV



## campbeji (Oct 30, 2004)

Hi Guys,

I'm not very knowledgable about how TV's and Tivo's work together, so if this is a stupid question I'm sorry!

My old TV, a CRT 'old shape' type, gave up the ghost recently and I had to replace it on Christmas eve. I bought a Sharp Aquos widescreen TV, which is working well except for my weird results. 

First off the picture still seems to be in the old shape format but stretched out ot the sides to fill the space, this gives the effect of things rushing in from the sides. For example if there is a pan shot from left to right an object will rush in from the right hand side of the screen to about a 1/3 of the screen then go at normal speed over the central 1/3 of the screen and then rush out the last 1/3 of the screen. It makes it very hard to watch, especially in action pictures.

I think it is one of these problems;
1/ Busted TV
2/ Incorrect settings on TV
3/ Incorrect settings on Tivo
4/ Something else

I've tried all of the settings on the TV that I can find but nothing seems to make any difference, but as I said at the top I don't understand a lot of this stuff. I couldn't find anything on TIVO that might be relevant.

Has anyone seen this problem before, is it something I'm doing wrong. Any ideas or help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

Jim


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## Ashley (Apr 20, 2002)

It's in a mode that my Sony set calls Smart where 4:3 pictures are stretched at the sides to fill a 16:9 screen.

Pressing the Wide Mode button (under the flap on the remote?) should step thru all the wide screen modes.

Are you feeding the set with 16:9 pictures? Sounds like it's only getting 4:3.


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## campbeji (Oct 30, 2004)

Thanks Ashley,



> Are you feeding the set with 16:9 pictures? Sounds like it's only getting 4:3


O-Kay, Do you mean that the Tivo is sending 4:3, or is it something else?

I'll check the settings on the TV later when the kids are finished watching the Simpsons (probably in 2009)

Thanks

Jim


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## Cainam (May 25, 2004)

There are 4 main sources of programmes which could be displayed on your TV

Analog = Channels 1 to 5, through an RF cable
Freeview
Sky
Cable

In general, most recent programs shown on Freeview, Sky and Cable will be broadcast in 16:9 (assuming you have configured the box correctly), while programmes shown on Analog are 4:3

So to get most use of your new widescreen telly, you really need to feed Tivo with Freeview, Sky or Cable, and configure them to say you have a widescreen TV.

Setting the TV settings to 4:3 should work fine then, as anything broadcast in 4:3 will look correct, and anything broadcast in 16:9 should automatically switch to widescreen mode.

HTH.


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## dvdfever (Jun 2, 2002)

Once when I went round to a friend's new house where he lived with his fiancee, I saw their 16:9 TV was being fed a letterboxed 16:9 image from their Sky box, so it looked like a 2.35:1 image with an awful lot of fat people.

At one point they went in the kitchen, so I grabbed the remote and corrected it. They came back into the room and didn't even notice, but at least *I* was happy


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## blindlemon (May 12, 2002)

Hehe - once I visited a couple and the guy was prodly showing me his new 'hi-fi' with a graphic equalizer with some very pretty led displays and sliders. He was demonstrating to me how much of a difference it made to the sound but... somehow... something... didn't seem quite right. 

As fate would have it they popped out later leaving me alone with the equipment so I had a poke around at the back and found - not exactly to my surprise - that the equalizer was hooked up incorrectly and would never actually be in the signal path  Doh! 

I never had the heart to tell him....


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## Ian_m (Jan 9, 2001)

blindlemon said:


> Hehe - once I visited a couple and the guy was prodly showing me his new 'hi-fi' with a graphic equalizer with some very pretty led displays and sliders. He was demonstrating to me how much of a difference it made to the sound but... somehow... something... didn't seem quite right.
> 
> As fate would have it they popped out later leaving me alone with the equipment so I had a poke around at the back and found - not exactly to my surprise - that the equalizer was hooked up incorrectly and would never actually be in the signal path  Doh!
> 
> I never had the heart to tell him....


Reminds me of the time went round to see a mates new £30,000 kitchen extension, a couple of years ago. "You must try our new filtered water...". They had a wonderful under the sink filtery thing, that many years ago were not all that common.

Well I tried the "filtered water", compared it to tap water, but unlike the my mate having spent £30k, I couldn't really taste any difference.

Anyway couple of years later my mate came to change the filter and guess what the filter was still in its plastic bag (and bone dry)!!!. The filter was on bypass having never actually ever filtered any water !!!


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## iankb (Oct 9, 2000)

dvdfever said:


> ... I saw their 16:9 TV was being fed a letterboxed 16:9 image from their Sky box, so it looked like a 2.35:1 image with an awful lot of fat people.


The brain is a remarkable thing. It can very quickly adapt so that it would have 'translated' the aspect ratio in their heads and they probably wouldn't have even noticed which aspect ratio it was in.

Scientists once tried experiments where people walked around with prism glasses that inverted the image. They very quickly learnt to correct the image in their heads.

Now, if only the brain knew how to upscale SD images.


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## cwaring (Feb 12, 2002)

iankb said:


> The brain is a remarkable thing. It can very quickly adapt so that it would have 'translated' the aspect ratio in their heads and they probably wouldn't have even noticed which aspect ratio it was in.


Well I know mine couldn't. I absolutely hate with a passion seeing a TV pic in the wrong aspect ratio


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## blindlemon (May 12, 2002)

iankb said:


> Now, if only the brain knew how to upscale SD images.


Well, if you sit far enough from the TV it will downscale HD ones pretty well


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## Pete77 (Aug 1, 2006)

campbeji said:


> First off the picture still seems to be in the old shape format but stretched out ot the sides to fill the space, this gives the effect of things rushing in from the sides. For example if there is a pan shot from left to right an object will rush in from the right hand side of the screen to about a 1/3 of the screen then go at normal speed over the central 1/3 of the screen and then rush out the last 1/3 of the screen. It makes it very hard to watch, especially in action pictures.


What is your program source for your Tivo? Is it a Sky box or Freeview box or Cable box?

If so you will probably have had that box set up to feed a 4:3 format picture to your previous 4:3 television and you will only start receiving 16:9 format pictures from any of those set top box sources if you go in the box's menu system and under Picture Settings or similar alter the picture format to 16:9.

There is no setting on the Tivo you can alter as it merely records the picture in the aspect ratio that is supplied to it by the set top box.


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