AT&T U-Verse TV, and the chopped off SD channels

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@BenP4680 wrote:

First this is not the solution!  How can someone mark it as "Solved" when it clearly is not.

 

Second MicCheck please scan your dial and note that it is EVERY channel below 1000 that has the frame.  Kind of hard for the provider to be sending a poor or reduced signal when it is CNN, BBC, MTV, all of them.

 

No the one reducing the picture and trying to pass it off is AT&T.

 

Why is a company in this day and age still trying to use something like this to get more money out of the customer.

 

Ben

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Um... All channels below 1000 are SD channels.  See my post above. If you don't like 'em, watch the HD counterparts.

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@JefferMC wrote:

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@BenP4680 wrote:

First this is not the solution!  How can someone mark it as "Solved" when it clearly is not.

 

Second MicCheck please scan your dial and note that it is EVERY channel below 1000 that has the frame.  Kind of hard for the provider to be sending a poor or reduced signal when it is CNN, BBC, MTV, all of them.

 

No the one reducing the picture and trying to pass it off is AT&T.

 

Why is a company in this day and age still trying to use something like this to get more money out of the customer.

 

Ben

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Um... All channels below 1000 are SD channels.  See my post above. If you don't like 'em, watch the HD counterparts.

 

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@So @BenP4680, is your gripe that some (if not all) programs being broadcast in SD are either chopped off or framed?  Everything below 1000? 

Like Jeffer says...those ARE SD channels and you will not and are not supposed to get the 16:9 version of them.

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@BenP4680 wrote:

First this is not the solution!  How can someone mark it as "Solved" when it clearly is not.

 

Second MicCheck please scan your dial and note that it is EVERY channel below 1000 that has the frame.  Kind of hard for the provider to be sending a poor or reduced signal when it is CNN, BBC, MTV, all of them.

 

No the one reducing the picture and trying to pass it off is AT&T.

 

Why is a company in this day and age still trying to use something like this to get more money out of the customer.

 

Ben

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@BenP4680 a solved solution soes not mean that it's solved to your satisfaction, it means that it is a reasonable or the best answer to a given issue.  Truthfully I have never seen SD pictures cut off on National cable channels only on local's where they are plastering the HD picture on an SD screen.

Can you post sone photos of BBC, MTV etc cut off?  I ain't seeing it, on mine, lol.

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@dhascall wrote:

@BenP4680 a solved solution soes not mean that it's solved to your satisfaction, it means that it is a reasonable or the best answer to a given issue.  Truthfully I have never seen SD pictures cut off on National cable channels only on local's where they are plastering the HD picture on an SD screen.

 

Can you post sone photos of BBC, MTV etc cut off?  I ain't seeing it, on mine, lol.

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Actually, there is an abomination on TNT: the reruns of Married With Children shown in the early morning.  If I remember correctly, the HD channel  has the 4:3 show in stretch-o-vision to 16:9, and the SD channel crops the 16:9 stretch to 4:3!

These are with the format set to normal on both the TV and the U-Verse box.  This is on both of the boxes/TVs that I have.

Now that you see what I see, please tell me it is fixable and a complete missunderstanding.

Press ENTER (lower right) - Zoom - OK - select zoom setting to fill screen

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@BenP4680 wrote:

These are with the format set to normal on both the TV and the U-Verse box.  This is on both of the boxes/TVs that I have.

 

Now that you see what I see, please tell me it is fixable and a complete missunderstanding.

 

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One of my TVs does the same thing (I'm not sure about the others).  However, I don't think there is anything AT&T can do about it.

AT&T can't make the assumption that every TV is 16 x 9; this isn't true.  In fact, until this Thanksgiving, my mother's main TV was 4 x 3.  If AT&T tried to fill all SD signals to 16 x 9, then it would result in the people with 4 x 3 TVs to have the top and bottom of the picture chopped off.  Because of this, all SD signals are being set in a 4 x 3 ratio, even if it means taking the widescreen picture and adding black bars to the top and bottom.  Because of this, when this SD signal is then shown on a widescreen TV, the TV thinks it's 4 x 3 and adds its own black bars to the left and right.

The problem is, your TV's "Zoom" feature will also chop off the top and bottom of the "true" 4 x 3 signals; it doesn't know which SD pictures are widescreen, with the black border on all 4 sides, and which ones are 4x3, with the black borders only on the left and right.

I think the only possible "fix" would be for the FCC to mandate that all SD signals be in 16x9 format - but in that case, why not go one step fuirther and get rid of SD broadcasts altogether?

No "Zoom" is not the answer.

As I have said this U-Verse is the first place I have encountered this.  I have used Time Warner, Cox, and Charter, and none of them have this happen on the "SD" channels.

As to the issue of viewing a broadcast on any older TV, I to just changed my mother from a CRT 4:3 to a new flat panel so that she can see the sides of the picture now.

It is very clear that this AT&T is deliberately shrinking the picture, and I am sorry I think it is wrong.  A customer should not have to pay for the cable service, and then pay again for "HD", when they don't really care about the extra lines of resolution.