Hi has anyone had the same problem as me?All of a sudden yesterday my T+ box started to show 4/3 programmes on my widescreen telly with side borders.Which is strange since up till then it had stretched them to fullscreen.I have 16/9 selected in the options.Anyone had this or know how to fix it? thanks.

Funny, I would have complained if it was the other way round. 4:3 with borders is showing the original broadcast the way it is meant to be, not unnaturally stretched.

You'll expect to see real life that way if you're not careful...

Often when I switch from a 4:3 programme on (for example) Animal Planet or Discovery to BBC1/2 etc, the aspect ratio remains at 4:3 instead of switching to 16:9. I have to remind the box in Settings. Occasionally the aspect ratio will correct itself if I do a bit of channel-hopping.

It's a nuisance

parthena

There are now 2 settings on the Set Top Boxes which control the aspect ratio if you have a widescreen TV. They are accessible from channel 999. If you select widescreen, you are prompted with:

Cable options
How is your Widescreen TV connected to Tiscali TV? ...
1. Scart
2. HDMI or older Scart.

If you select (1), then the STB signals the aspect ratio to the TV via SCART widescreen signalling.

With option (2), the STB always scales the picture for widescreen (16:9) output, inserting black bars at the sides where necessary. In this case, the TV aspect ratio setting should be set to widescreen 16:9 all the time.

If you have problems with (1), perhaps the TV is not responding correctly to widescreen signalling. In that case it is worth trying (2).

Thanks for the info Chris,I selected 16/9 and then connection scart (even though its thru HDMI) and now the side borders are gone on programmes and the menu screens.I know this streches 4/3 programmes but I find this less annoying than black borders down the side.

I have 2 other PVRs connected via a cheap SCART adapter on AV1/RGB and they always respond correctly: 4:3 is displayed with side bars and the picture reverts automatically to 16:9 when appropriate.

The TV displays its own picture correctly, with aspect ratio as broadcast.

The Tiscali+ box is connected to AV2/CVBS, and I have indicated this in the settings. When I used to have one of the other PVRs connected on AV2/CVBS it behaved correctly.

I prefer the picture to be displayed as broadcast, rather than have fat people and even huger American veHicles populating my screen I will try the (2) option and see what happens.

parthena

I'm glad I read this thread, it seems at some point there's been an update that stops 4:3 content over HDMI always being stretched out. That combined with the no longer ultra-bright green light is a nice improvement. Hopefully the crazy fan can be brought under control next...

Report:

Tiscali+ SCARTed into AV2/Composite

Box settings now =

Video output - SCART Composite
Widescreen options - HDMI or older SCART

That's fixed it, thank you very much MK_Chris

parthena

...except that the TV Guide now displays 4:3, and quite small. I can put up with it, but it seems to make the 'east/west, north/south' navigation even more laborious and sore-thumb-tipped. O for a revised remote control - the combination of the sharp bars and the very slow screen response renders me frustrated and sore-thumb-tipped. I'm experimenting with using the individual channel guides, but it's not possible to see clashes then.

parthena

One thing I would like is if they added a 16:10 aspect ratio option for 16:10 TVs, so that black bars would automatically be added at the top and bottom instead of image stretch from 16:9 to 16:10 (which is what happens now).