I've had an Hitachi PVR for several weeks now and have a wide screen tv, everything was fine and dandy with the screen config, then suddenly today shows like Friends and Scrubs on E4 size down to 4:3 and i can't get them widescreen. It says it's on the wide setting but is sized down to 4:3 with black bands at either side. This has never happened before and i'm sot sure whats going on?

Is it the box? Is it the channels fault? Is it the signal?

Well I could be wrong but there is nothing wrong. Those two shows are 4:3 so your box and telly are showing them properly.

But they haven't been like that before, they have always shown in 16:9 since i've had the PVR and then thats suddenly changed today without me doing anything?

But they are not 16:9 programmes to the best of my knowledge. Least ways all the times I've seen bits of them they have been 4:3.

So somehow your box/TV have started aspect ratio switching correctly. Quite why if as you claim nothing has changed is anybody's guess. But unless you really like watching "fatty vision" I would be tempted to leave it alone. Assuming it does switch to 16:9 for real widescreen programmes?

If you hit the Wide button on the Vestel remote control you usually get a pleasant "half measure" - the display widens a bit, but there's no distortion to fatness.

However, since I had my new plasma TV, it sometimes doesn't work as well as it did on my CRT widescreen

Yes, I suspect the WIDE button has been pressed, so that it always outputs 16:9 (and adds black borders to 4:3 source material) - this is the best mode, IMHO, because you get the full 4:3 picture plus the overscan picture on the left/right which is not visible in 4:3 output mode. If you press the WIDE button again during these programmes it will switch the box to output a true 4:3 picture, and then your TV can do what it likes with that (can usually be changed with your TV remote). Usually the TV will either add black bars itself, stretch/squish the image and zoom in to fill the screen (but losing the top/bottom of the picture as a result).

Echoing what futaura said, the best way to have the settings for a Vestel box, is to set your TV to 16:9 mode (not Auto). Then use the WIDE button on the Vestel remote while a 4:3 programme is on. The WIDE setting should be remembered until you do something drastic like First time installation. You can change the WIDE setting on a 16:9 programme but you won't see what you've done until you go to a 4:3 programme.

If Friends is filling the screen then this is wrong