Hi All. Right I have now connected all my Kit as follows;
Bog Standard Sky-Goodmans 5.1 DVD Recorder/Home Cinema System-Cyberhome DVD Recorder (Used for playing DVD'S Recorded On It)-LG 37" LCD.

The Problem: Aspect Ratio, The picture seems to jump from one AR to another and another! I have 16:9 Selected on Skybox (Both Picture Locations) whatever that means, The TV set to 16:9 but It will nt seem to settle down, are there Aspect Ratio settings on the Goodmans DVD HC thingy and the Cyberhome DVD that need setting as well? If so where are they, if not does anybody have any suggestions????
A Frustrated skTHEcat

Do you mean the aspect jumps when watching sky back to 4:3 or jumps when you change from sky to the DVD player/rec....

If you TV is "Intelligent" it will automatically jump from 16:9 to 4:3 when the program broadcasted is 4:3...

Yes, they need to be set to 16:9 as well. There should be an options/settings page on the DVD players/recorders somewhere. Check the manuals.
Last edited by gargleroadside : 30-11-2006 at 12:13

Yes it sounds as if it's behaving properly.

skTHEcat: is it behaving as it should and you want it permanently in fattyvision? Or is it that it's switching to 4:3 for 16:9 programmes?

Hmmm not sure, but last night I watched Star Wars Return Of THe Jedi, Sound was awesome but the picture was switching during the film through most of the Aspects?

Kindest Regards

sk THE cat

This sounds like it could be a scart pin-8 voltage problem. Your dvd player should set the voltage to indicate the aspect ratio, and the tv should read it and set its screen accordingly. Problems can happen if the devices have different tolerances to voltage levels.

You could try a different scart lead in case it is affecting the voltage.

Thanks re Scart change, have not tried it yet butwill tonight and what is fattyvision?? and when watching SKY Sports live, where should the Sky logo be in relation to the right hand corner of the screen? Close or 5-6 inches in from the edge??

Thanks in advance

sk THE cat

"Fattyvision" is a comical way of describing a 4:3 picture stretched and shown as 16:9 on your widescreen tv.

Many people use this - I do as well for The Simpsons and some other programmes that the stretchyvision are not as noticeable.

Funny thing was showing my brothers wedding on our LCD tv and forgetting to change it to 4:3 as the video was shot in 4:3 - everyone looked like they'd put a few pounds on and my missus wanted me to change it immediately !

All the widescreen sets I have had, had problems with 4:3 material if I left the 4:3 aspect ratio on Auto. In Auto sets try to detect "letterbox" broadcasts, and then zoom to fill the screen. If a 4:3 broadcast has a lot of black at the top or bottom, this fools the set and it will keep flipping in and out of zoom.

I find it's best to force 4:3 Aspect material to use 4:3, and not use Auto.

Check your manual again to see that you've got the right mode. Auto modes works extremely well - they use widescreen flags in the broadcast to decide whether to use 16:9 or 4:3.

However, some TVs also have a mode as you describe where they try to second-guess a 16:9 broadcast by looking for black bars top and bottom - these modes don't work very well and you can find the aspect ratio flipping uncontrollably. My 8-year old Sony Wega CRT can work either way but I leave the second-guessing one off. The proper Auto mode is invaluable and works a treat.

Check my post again, I said 4:3 material. I have never had a problem with 16:9/4:3 switching. It's just that once the set is in 4:3 mode, they then have the extra "zooming" functions to expand the image, and if left in Auto this can zoom all kinds of inappropriate programs.

Sorry, your post was ambiguous, it said that it's best to switch off the Auto mode when viewing 4:3 material, which is clearly not the case. You probably meant to specify Auto *Zoom*, as opposed to Auto *Wide*?

I have never found a setting to disable scart 16:9/4:3 switching on a TV, only on the SKY STB menu. As far as all the TV's I've had where concerned, Aspect Control in the menu meant how 4:3 was zoomed or expanded to fill a 16:9 screen.

Panasonics are a pain for that - My Philips does what the WSS signals say.