Because of programme clashes I have had to record the Tour de France Highlights (ITV4 7pm) on my DVD Recorder HDD. I have found that, for some reason, it is recording it on 4:3 squashed, instead of the usual 16:9 meaning I have to fiddle with the TV's settings to get it back to the correct shape.

I have checked the DVD-R's settings and I can't see anything which is set to 4:3 and anyway it doesn't do it on other channels.

Has anyone come across this, and found a way of forcing it to record in the correct aspect ratio. Or is it a transmision problem which needs mentioning to ITV?

After a bit of experimentation, it looks as if the aspect ratio switching signal does not get recorded, and so it stays on whatever the state was at the start of the recording. The programme immediately preceding the TdF was on 4:3, and so the whole recording was done at 4:3.

So my question now changes to "Is there any way for the aspect ratio switch signal to be recorded and acted upon?".