Hi,

I posted about this some time ago but never really got to the bottom of it and it has recently been annoying me again.

My Philips CRT refuses to display the epg with out cropping the edges off unless I set the TV to 4:3. I usually set the TV to superwide which kind of fills the screen without too much distortion and saves me from flicking backwards and forwards all the time when the AR of the transmission changes.

You can see what I mean by looking here.

Any suggesting which don't involve buying a new telly gratefully received.

TB

That's your problem right there. Leaving your TV set at superwide is distorting every thing you watch. It may make 4x3 tv appear to fill the screen but it's possibly copping off the edges of genuine 16x9 broadcasts too. Most programmes are made with a 4x3 safe area which may be why you haven't noticed.

If you really can't bear black bars at the sides of the screen when watching 4x3 stuff, try forcing your TV to display everything in 16x9 and you should have no problems with cutting off the edges.

The second image maybe 16:9 its marked as widescreen.

There's more cutoff left and right but less top and bottom than the superwide image.

The issue is with the TV... it appears badly calibrated.

I have a CRT it does not cutoff like that CRT.

Thanks for the replies.


Yes, but unfortunately my widescreen setting stretches everthing horizontally, including what I assume are proper 16:9 broadcasts (i.e. contemporary, non imported shows on the main channels.)

The 16:9 zoom and 14:9 zoom options are pretty poor which otherwise leaves me watcing everything in 4:3 - i.e. no point in having 16:9 telly!

I am beginning to think that my widescreen TV doesn't really know what to with a 16:9 picture. Bummer, its only about 2 years old and had already had a major (power related) component go last year (under warranty thankfully).

Is recalibration possible/ expensive/ likely to be worth it?

There's possibly a service mode (a Philips CRT I had from circa 1990 had one) accessible from a combination of front-panel buttons and a special remote.
This could be used to adjust all the parameters - width, height, barrel, twist etc, just like on a CRT PC monitor .
The remote code needed was in the standard RC5 set but not normally assigned on handsets, and was only needed to enter the service mode, all operations were carried out menu-style with cursor/ok.

Thanks nvingo,

I just did a bit of digging and have found the service mode through the RC ('062596 i+' done in quick succession).

There are a whole bunch of settings for the horizontal and vertical geometry - not sure what they all do but I will look into it.

I have
HP, HB, HSH, EWW, EWP, EWT, UCP, LCP
in the horizonal menu and

SBL, VS, VSH, VAM and VSC
in the vertical.

Any ideas?
(I have noted all the current settings in case I make anything worse)

Well done!
Regarding which settings affect what, I wouldn't like to just guess, my TV was 4:3 so had far fewer anyway, and I think were represented by icons rather than initials.
Your set will be particularly complex if the adjustments include the various widescreen stretch/distort parameters.

Take it careful and adjust one parameter at a time, and note down the effect and the allowed range (eg. 0-63) and return it to the initial value before adjusting the next.
Have fun....

Before you delve into the Service Mode settings, you might want to try looking at the settings for your STB/PVR.

A widescreen signal (from a SCART etc) is simply a widescreen picture squashed into a 4:3 signal. A separate control tells the TV to switch to Widescreen to display the picture properly. Ideally, the STB and the TV will be set up for 16:9, with automatic switching when a non-WS picture is being displayed.

So, it might be that your problem isn't the EPG itself, but the incorrect setting in the STB. Alternatively, your SCART or TV might be defective and not receiving the additional WS switching signal properly.

Could it be that you have your Humax PVR set to 4x3 or 16x9:Letterbox instead of 16x9?

Not according to the 9200T setup image supplied in the OP...

There's definitely something wrong with your widescreen mode - it shouldn't have things dropping off the edges. The two zoom modes are for for zooming into 4:3 transmissions that are letterboxed so you shouldn't have to be using them.

Maybe check with the repairers from last time - did they screw up the calibrations last time around??

Most STBs set up in 16x9 mode will transmit the signal as received. That is framed to fully occupy the 4x3 picture and 16x9 content flagged as such for the WS TV to stretch as required.

Has your TV got an "auto" mode for Aspect Ratio? Does that work. As previously mentioned, the various stretch and zoom modes are not intended to be used with a STB that is capable of 4x3 & 16x9 switching in the way yours is.

P.S. Just found this...

Thanks again for your inputs.


I have fiddled with the other settings (i.e. 4:3 with the different letterbox/cut out options) on the Humax but without any improvement.


That's what I thought and both are pretty awful anyway! If something is obviously transmitted in 4:3, like some football matches from overseas broadcasters, then I would usually switch to 4:3.


Funny you should say that, I don't think there is an option to turn OFF the auto switching of the aspect ratio. It used to drive me nuts when the picture kept clicking backwards and forwards between adverts. However I havent noticed it doing this for some time now so I reckon that this "feature" may well have packed up.

Having said that the fact that the epg has always been cropped off one way or another as far as I can remember makes me think that 16:9 has never been displayed properly and that calibration may well be an issue. Although I suppose this could be chicken/egg territory. I was probably less aware of it before we got the Humax (our first STB)

Ta for the link as well. While searching for the hidden meaning of the geometry settings I came across a review for Philips widescreen TV's which raved about the picture quality, colour balance contrast etc. but said that it was possibly the worst factory calibrated TV they had ever seen!

If I can get some more info about calibration and time to play about with it (without being moaned at by everyone else) I'd be well satisfied if I could set it up so that 16:9 broadcasts fill the screen properly and make do with manual switching for everthing else.

btw apologies if this is turning into a Philips thread rather than a Humax one.

In case anyone is interested I had a go at re-calibrating the TV geometry.

I found that you can get BBCi to display 'testcard W' (the famous one with the little girl playing noughts and crosses, but updated for widescreen) with a few button presses on the Humax RC.

This makes an excellent backdrop for fiddling about with geometry settings in the TV's service mode. The picture had been overstretched in both directions and shifted somewhat.

I have now reclaimed the widescreen setting on the TV - probably for the first time since we had it. I can see the epg now and the test card picture does not appear unduly stretched or cropped in any direction. I am well chuffed.

The only slight downer is that the 4:3 setting on the TV appears 'sucked in' at the sides so I need to go back swhen time allows and find a compromise setting.

Updated photos here