Warning! Possible stupid question ahead.........

Darby OGill

How exactly is letterbox mode on the digibox meant to be used?

I've noticed that when viewing with letterbox mode OFF, my TV "loses" information at either side of the picture (particularly noticeable when text is being displayed). When I switch letterbox to ON, I seem to get the full picture (with black bars of course). What I don't understand is why I'm losing parts of the picture when the programme is not being broadcast in letterbox format. Or am I just a gob****e? (Not to be ruled out. ).

I understand widescreen, and don't have a widescreen TV.

A confused Darby O'Gill.

I could be wrong now, but afaik, the letterbox format on your digibox is there for you to view channells like Sky premier widescreen and the box office widescreen channels on a 4:3 ie non widescreen telly.
It's only to be switched on for those channels only,if you have a widescreen tv it should switch automatically when presented with a widescreen broadcast.

If you try to watch those channels with the widescreen format off, you will lose bits of the picture.
mm

dmeehan

i have a "normal" (ie 4:3) telly and i use the digibox in the letterbox mode always. if the broadcast is in widescreen i get the black bars top & bottom, but the full picture. if the broadcast is in the 4:3 format then i get the full screen picture.

for a 4:3 telly i think this is the best option as you dont miss any of the picture. mind you it took a while to get used to the black bars:D

watty

Some TVs overscan (permenant "zoom in") more than others. Only PC monitors and Studio Monitor TVs shrink the raster so no bits of picture chopped off.

The Digibox does clever stuff with its "frame buffer" for 4:3 TVs.

If in WS mode and BBC (worst culprit) TXs a 4:3 picture "side" letterboxed in an 16:9 animorphic raster, on Digibox Letterbox mode on a 4:3 TV you get a black border all the way round and no chopped off bits.
In 4:3 Cropped mode the Digibox scales the image, but not as much as if it was not 4:3 in animorphic, so you will see edge of pictures, but sharpness is lousey.

"letterboxing" 4:3 material in a 16:9 animorphic frame ought to be banned. It looses nearly half the sharpness. WS TV users don't need it. (They can zoom, stretch, or crop by TV menu). Digibox 4:3 TV Letterbox users get stupid shrunk picture (letterbox mode) or fuzzy picture (16:9 crop to 4:3 mode).

I have a 29" 4:3 with TRUE 16:9 anamorphic support so I tell digibox that I have 16:9 TV. The TV automatically switches from 4:3 (full height) to animorphic 16:9 (reduced height, NOT same as letterbox, really sharp, same as WS TV) according to transmission. With this the 4:3 in a 16:9 animorphic box is REALLY annoying!

Darby OGill

dmeehan, is it my imagination or are more and more programmes broadcast in widescreen, as the black bars seem to appear most of the time if I leave letterbox mode on? The "w" on the programme info. means widescreen (I think), and it seems to be there for practically everything.

Are the broadcasters trying to get us all to gradually change over to widescreen t.v.s?- I can't see why that should matter to them.

My ancient tv has only a 21" screen, so almost permanent black bars leaves the picture very small indeed.

What is the experience of widescreen out there- is it the bees' knees or just another way of getting you to buy another telly? :eek:

carrolls

Watching a Widescreen movie on BBC or something like Michael Palin's Sahara is an absolutely huge improvment over 4:3.
When I watch a 4:3 television now (In my mates house) I am dazzled by the inferiority of the presentation (Even though I watched 4:3 for 20 years).
Now that you can get Widescreen televisions for €450 these days there is no need to suffer anymore.

sceptre

Originally posted by Darby O'Gill
dmeehan, is it my imagination or are more and more programmes broadcast in widescreen, as the black bars seem to appear most of the time if I leave letterbox mode on?

The beeb love widescreen - even Eastenders uses it. Within a fairly short time, I'd expect all their new shows to be broadcast in WS. Sky are rumoured to be switching SkyOne and News to widescreen fairly soon.

Mossy Monk

Originally posted by Darby O'Gill
My ancient tv has only a 21" screen, so almost permanent black bars leaves the picture very small indeed

i have a 21" as well and i will not allow the box be set to 4:3. it ruins the whole show IMO

jez

Someone please clarify.. I watched Celtic on Sunday in someones house on a widescreen TV. I was not impressed . Neil Lennon and his mates looked even tubbier than usual. Is this the norm for widescreen or was this the fact the programme was not in widescreen format. Please assist as I would have no interest in a w/s tv otherwise.

Thanks

Darby OGill

System is probably not set up properly. When my sister got the widescreen tv, everyone looked to be about 25 stone and built like brick ****houses!! I don't know the exact problem, maybe some ws experts out there can advise.

I have to say though, that I was in D.I.D. recently, and there was a bank of maybe 15 widescreen tv sets on display. The pictures varied enormously in terms of quality, colour tones and most importantly, the "Neil Lennon" effect as above.

Lennoxschips

The "short & fat" syndrome is due to a 4:3 signal being stretched to fit onto a 16:9 screen. The plus point of Sky Digital is that the picture is actually broadcast in 16:9, so it fits a widescreen TV perfectly.

If in WS mode and BBC (worst culprit) TXs a 4:3 picture "side" letterboxed in an 16:9 animorphic raster, on Digibox Letterbox mode on a 4:3 TV you get a black border all the way round and no chopped off bits.
In 4:3 Cropped mode the Digibox scales the image, but not as much as if it was not 4:3 in animorphic, so you will see edge of pictures, but sharpness is lousey.

They did this again for Ireland-Australia during the weekend. The only BBC signal I get in Holland (don't have a card for digibox) is the analogue cable one. The cable company use 4:3 letterbox mode to downlink the signal to the analogue cable network. So I had to watch the whole match on a small 4:3 box in the middle of my screen. Ridiculous. The BBC should have broadcast the match in 4:3, who cares if we can watch the pundits in the studio in 16:9, it's the match we're interested in! The whole World Cup final was also broadcast 4:3 letterbox, even though the source signal was 4:3 - ridiculous.

Cloud

This effect is caused by watching a 4:3 program in widescreen mode on a WS TV. 4:3 is the old square TV format, but if the program is not broadcast in widescreen then some WS TVs might stretch it out to widescreen anyway.

For 4:3 programming (RTE etc.), you'd be better off using 14:9 or 16:9 zoom settings on your WS TV (though you'll probably lose a little off the top and bottom) or super-wide if your WS TV has it.

For widescreen in combo with a Sky Digital box, only a certain number of channels are in WS, BBCs etc. This only works well with a widescreen TV if you have 16:9 chosen instead of 4:3 in the DigiBox Picture settings (you'll probably have to change your TV mode as you change channels on the DigiBox from widescreen to non-widescreen ones) [the letterbox situation is explained well above, it's really for watching WS programs on a non-WS TV].

DMC

The problem with the rugby was, RTÉ were the host broadcaster, and the BBC were using RTÉ's pictures. No widescreen jiggery-pokery from Montrose now!

SRB

If in WS mode and BBC (worst culprit) TXs a 4:3 picture "side" letterboxed in an 16:9 animorphic raster, on Digibox Letterbox mode on a 4:3 TV you get a black border all the way round and no chopped off bits.

---

Can't say I've noticed this, but I'd guess if they have a WS sports prog and the incoming feed is 4:3 that would happen....

Lennoxschips

Cloud, just to clarify, I get my BBC via Dutch cable only (i have no card of any kind for my digibox at the moment) and I have a 4:3 television. The cable company use a digibox permanently set on 4:3 letterbox mode to downlink the signal which they relay across the analogue cable network. So what I got was vertical black bars and horizontal black bars as well.

Now, when the BBC show old programmes (ie Fawlty Towers) they obviously send some sort of signal to the Digiboxes which tells it that the signal is 4:3 and it turns off the letterbox mode. They should have done this for the rugby match also.

SRB

http://www.nascr.net/~rgwill/widescreen.htm

Quite a well presented little piece on WideScreen and the various settings.....

DMC

Originally posted by Lennoxschips
Cloud, just to clarify, I get my BBC via Dutch cable only (i have no card of any kind for my digibox at the moment) and I have a 4:3 television. The cable company use a digibox permanently set on 4:3 letterbox mode to downlink the signal which they relay across the analogue cable network. So what I got was vertical black bars and horizontal black bars as well.

Now, when the BBC show old programmes (ie Fawlty Towers) they obviously send some sort of signal to the Digiboxes which tells it that the signal is 4:3 and it turns off the letterbox mode. They should have done this for the rugby match also.

And so the problem was with RTÉ and their pictures. BBC Sport is transmitted in widescreen at all times, but unlike the News, they do switch it back to 4:3 for analogue. BBC News is tranmitted in 16:9 on Digital, but 14:9 on analogue. Why cant they do the same for both operations? So, you had the brilliant effect of the BBC's OB operation coming in widescreen, but the match pictures being produced by RTÉ, in 4:3. As for switching between states as they opt in and out of RTÉ's pictures, oooh there'd be a whole lot of picture shaking going on, and lots of complaints, asking why are there so many glitches on the programme.

ShaneOC

Originally posted by SRB
http://www.nascr.net/~rgwill/widescreen.htm

Quite a well presented little piece on WideScreen and the various settings.....

A little bit heavy regarding streching images though...