I noticed something weird about today's lunchtime episode. I know Neighbours is in widescreen anyway, but when it started, the black bars were about an inch thick. Then after a while they changed and got smaller (their normal size) Does anyone know what might have caused this?
I have Sky on a widescreen tv in my room, however the main skybox (the same thing has to be watched in every room) is not connected to a widesreen tv, but a normal square-screen tv. So all programmes in widescreen have an inch of black (like was seen on neighbours). Is the only way to get rid of that is by having the main Skybox hooked up to a widescreen tv ?
I have Sky on a widescreen tv in my room, however the main skybox (the same thing has to be watched in every room) is not connected to a widesreen tv, but a normal square-screen tv. So all programmes in widescreen have an inch of black (like was seen on neighbours). Is the only way to get rid of that is by having the main Skybox hooked up to a widescreen tv ?
You can set your Digibox to whatever setting you like. It doesn't matter which TV is connected to it, although it'll affect how the picture is displayed on all TVs connected.
If you set it to 16:9 output, you'll get full widescreen on the TV in your room, but on the other 4:3 sets, including the main one, the whole wide picture will be squashed into the squarer screen resulting in everything looking too tall.
The alternative is to set it to 4:3 output instead of 4:3L (Letterbox). You'll now get the whole screen filled, but you'll lose a lot of the picture from the right and left edges.
Short of getting different digiboxes for all TVs, there's no perfect solution.
It's a bit of a con really as I found out when I connected my portable 4:3 in the kitchen up to the sky box in the lounge (set to 16:9) expecting to be able to watch in the correct aspect ratio on both.
As I discovered subsequently, the second set option only works with TV Link devices. What happens apparently is when you use your Sky remote pointing to one TV, it instantly switches the aspect ratio to the one you've chosen for that screen. Then when you go back to the other telly, it switches it back again. Essentially the box still only gives you one output at any time.
I noticed something weird about today's lunchtime episode. I know Neighbours is in widescreen anyway, but when it started, the black bars were about an inch thick. Then after a while they changed and got smaller (their normal size) Does anyone know what might have caused this?
Are you in Northern Ireland or Scotland? I think you'll find it was a mistake in London, which should not be repeated at 5:35.
Something similar happened on Sunday night when I was watching the last 10 minutes of Match of the Day 2. It stayed like that into the credits, a couple of the trailers, the 2 ident and into the film. The bars as Russell said were certainly thicker than what they normally are.
Yes, apparently MotD2 is meant to be like that... to "differentiate" it to the BBC1 MotD. Graphics on the BBC2 version go right to the edges of the 16:9 frame!
Well I had a go at changing the ratio. It was on 4:3L, it was really big at 4:3 and a mess at 16:9. What I mean is we have one digibox, and Sky is tuned into all the rooms, but I am the only one with a widescreen tv. The box is hooked up to a normal square-screened tv set. On the widescreen tv, if I am watching BBC1(and others) through Sky, the bars are thick, as they are on the square tv. I want the BBC1 through Sky to look like it does on anologue, or is that not possible ? If my digibox was hooked up to my widescreen tv, would I still have the same problem, or would the black bars be at the correct size (that is, what they are on anolugue) ?
But what I don't understand is that tv programmes that I watch on UK Gold, and are filmed in widescreen, they are at the normal size, and do not have thick black bars like BBC1 on Sky. How is that?
