Aspect Ratio Problems
 

I have this ongoing problem with aspect ratio since the upgrade, also friends in Stevenage have the same problem. I am in Letchworth/Hitchin area with two 4001NC boxes and have had this problem on both boxes at the same time since the upgrade, prior to this I didnt have a problem.

Both boxes set to 16/9 Widescreen, one Sony Wega and one standard 4:3 Hitatchi TV

What happens is maybe once or twice a week overnight I come down in the morning to see most channels have black borders to the left and right, both boxes are always set to 16/9 ratio. If I leave them for a few days the rectify themselves or I can fix it by going into the visual settings going to 4/3 and then back to 16/9 again. When this happens some channels the program will have black borders to the left and right of the picture and when the commercials come on it will change to 16/9 for all the adverts and then when the program comes back again you can see it shrink again. It was like this on ITV1 London this morning on GMTV. List of some channels affected

Channel: Black borders

ITV1 In program
C4 all the time
c5 no problem
Smash Hits all the time
QVC all the time
Remaining music channels all the time
ITV2 in program
Buy NTL all the time
BBC News 24 no problem
BBC Three No problem
BBC Four No problem
BBC Parliament No Problem
e4 Plus 1 No Problem
CBBC No Problem
Cbeebies No Problem
BidupTV No Problem
Sky Movies 1 no problem
Sky movies 2 all the time
3 all the time
Movies 4 no problem
movies 5 no problem
movies 6 no problem
movies 7 no problem
movies 8 no problem
movies 9 no problem
remaining movie SKY channels and Filmfour no problem


I wont list the rest, but that the general problem: info from the boxes if its any help

AGC Signal Level 73
SNR 36.0 db
pre RS errors: 0.0e+00 per 0.5s
Post " " 0.0e+00 per 0.5
AGC Signal level: 73
Return power: 53dbmV


Im getting continous streams of code 166 lost IB lock every one minute with the occasional lost oob lock.

Any ideas, as I have an eng booked again for next week and realy not sure what he is going to do,

Thanks in advance

Re: Aspect Ratio Problems
 

Not sure if I understand you correctly here. Are you saying that the TV shows 4:3 programs with black bars down each side, and widescreen pictures fill the screen?
If that is what you are saying then thats what is supposed to happen.

Re: Aspect Ratio Problems
 

I've noticed this before on the pre-LCR3 software. Although it's not one of the official setups of the NTL software, the boxes are capable of sending 4:3 pictures (and 14:9 as well) in a vertical letterbox. The reason I know that it's not the TV doing this is that if you bring up the guide while this is happening it stretches the whole width of the screen (whereas if the TV was doing the letterboxing the guide would be in the centre of the picture).

Re: Aspect Ratio Problems
 

No, Widescreen programs show borders to left and right, its like the whole thing goes back to front and cant decide if its going to show 4:3 or widescreen, It happened yesterday morning, and always once or twice a week this will happen.

This has only started to happen the night of the upgrade and continues to happen once or twice a week, as Ive said, I can resolve the picture size by switching from 16;9 to 4:3 and back again

Re: Aspect Ratio Problems
 

GMTV isn't broadcast in widescreen, but the adverts during it are, so you are seeing the correct picture there. If you mean that the STB is adding black borders on the left and right instead of the TV, then that is a little weird, but as long as it's still sending a 16:9 signal, the picutre will look fine.

Re: Aspect Ratio Problems
 

What hardware version of box is yours, and your friends boxes? (Page up, page down, blue, more).

Re: Aspect Ratio Problems
 

Proppin this was post on the 22/04/04 originally as a seperate thread then merged into the CR3 feedback.

This is unconnected to any visual output from the television companies. So its not about GMTV not being in widescreen or the fact that Sky transmit 16:9 during a program but then drop back into 4:3 for the adverts(quick aside when will this stop?)

Its funny that we have gone from problems with 16:9 on the Pace boxes to problems with 4:3.

Guess this sort of thing keeps people paid ;)

Re: Aspect Ratio Problems
 

Hi Propin

HW Type: 4001-2b
HW Version : 2 B

All channels are still showing correct ratio in program and advers on both boxes. Ile post again when it happens again, prob will be next week overnight some time again :)

Thanks for you help guys.

Re: Aspect Ratio Problems
 

AHHH Great, someone else with a 4001NC box. Propin, Do you think it might be somat to do with the 4001N code, HW version ?

Re: Aspect Ratio Problems
 

OK its just happened again Sunday May 02 12:00


This time though its all 4:3 channels have borders to left and right.

Ive gone into settings again on both boxes, changed 16:9 to 4:3 and back to 16:9 again and all ok again.


Yawn. :(

Re: Aspect Ratio Problems
 

What hardware version have you got Jonathan?

Re: Aspect Ratio Problems
 

Do you know what channel you were watching, and was it the same channel on both boxes? Did they go at the same time?

Re: Aspect Ratio Problems
 

I had this same problem on my Grundig 16:9 set.

In the STB setup screen their is an option to turn on or off Scart control. When I switched it off my problems finished. For some reason, some times when i changed channel, the scart signal flutuated fooling my TV in to 4:3 mode, even when the TV was set to always use 16:9.

Weired.

Re: Aspect Ratio Problems
 

Re: Aspect Ratio Problems
 

I was on one of the music channels at the time, sure it was The box, which was ok, then next time after 12:00 pm yesterday I flicked through found all channels had the left and right borders, or all that were not in widescreen. Ile try turning scart controll off, one one of the the boxes, see if that does anything. Thanks mrm1