Hi,

I have a problem with my 540HX-S when using the built in DTT tuner - my widescreen TV broke, so I have been watching on a 4:3 TV with the box set to show 16:9 tranmissions in letterbox format.

There is a problem with all BBC and ITV channels being shown in 14:9 though. Channel 4 and Channel 5 (and E4, More4, Film4, etc) all correctly display in 16:9 letterbox format.

Is this some sort of flag being used by the broadcaster to force you to watch in 14:9, or some feature of the 540 that I don't know about?

I am suspicious that it is a broadcaster issue as ITV and channel 4 channels sharing the same mux display differently: ITV channels in 14:9, Channel4 channels in 16:9.

Anyone else get this problem?

Is there a way around it? It is bloody annoying because if you make a recording in this mode, it doesn't record in widescreen, it records a 4:3 picture onto the HDD with 14:9 letterbox stripes at the top and bottom of the 4:3 frame! Useless!

Thanks in advance,
Alex.
Last edited by AlexD : 14-02-2007 at 13:37

I'm almost positive it's a flag. I own a 540 and have the same issue. I've also seen it on other completely unrelated hardware. I suspect they do it as the content is 4:3 but they're accommodating for WS TVs.

All I can suggest which "kind of works" is to set the 540 to 4:3 LBX, which is far from ideal but better than 14:9.

Maybe I didn't explain properly, or I haven't understood you correctly, but I *have* set the 540 to 4:3 Letterbox mode (when watching on a 4:3 TV). All channels display a 16:9 picture letterboxed correctly, except the BBC and ITV channels which are shown letterboxed as 14:9.

Any ideas?

Does yours do this or do I have a duff machine?

I have a similar problem with my 440HX.
HDD is playing through 16:9 WS TV with no problems but when I make a copy onto DVD and then playback through 4:3 TV I get the annoying white dots-stripes at the top of the picture.

If you've set it to 4:3 LBX already then I don't know sorry.

If you set your 540 to 4:3 letterbox do all channels display correctly as a 16:9 letterboxed picture (with very thick black bars top and bottom) including the BBC and ITV channels?

On my box BBC1,2,3,4 and ITV1,2,3,4 channels display a 14:9 picture, i.e. thin black bars at the top and bottom on the screen, but all the other channels are shown correctly with thick black bars.

Thanks for your help, just trying to work out if it is a machine feature or just my box being duff.