New TV shows video with sides cropped - halp!

I'm not an AV smarty guy. My family got a new TV for the holidays. It's a Vizio E40-C2. There's also an SD analog-out-only DirecTV sat TV tuner in the mix. Using the composite video output from the SD DirecTV to the composite video input on the back of the TV, we have an okay picture, but the sides are clipped off. I know there's different modes to try and stretch the video out to the ends of the display, but it's still missing parts of the image. I've played with the TV a bunch and I cannot get this to work any better.

The previous TV was a couple years old, a Sharp LCD that had an S-Video input. The TV was set up to use the S-Video output from the box straight to the TV and things were pretty good. Now they're not good. So what do I do next? DirecTV wants $100 for an HD tuner box with an HDMI output. I know that would be best but I'd like to contain costs. I could also get an analog to HDMI converter box, Monoprice has one for $50. I know it'd be standard-def and not going to make the picture any better than the S-video output from the tuner box. I'm just trying to get this TV and tuner box to play nice if possible.

I'm not seeing anything good in the owner's manual that's online for the TV. I haven't tried to find anything worth messing with in the DirecTV tuner box; is there something hiding there? What to do??

Does the TV has a menu feature that allow you to change the aspect ratio? Usually this will get the entire image on the screen without making it all wonky, but you may have black bars at the top and bottom like widescreen movies on a regular TV.

In reply to EastCoastMojo:

There's four different selections dealing with displayed aspect ratio. Unfortunately they just stretch the same image shown in "normal". Watching a news show with the time in the bottom right left just the hour shown, with the minutes cropped out. And none of the other modes, "wide", "panoramic", and "zoom" got that stuff back.

Watching a DVD from a pretty basic Blu-Ray player via HDMI straight from the player to the TV is just fine. So, uh, it should be possible...

You want the TV set in whatever mode displays everything native aspect ratio and gives you the whole picture, then configure the box to kick out widescreen, probably a button on the remote.

In reply to Kenny_McCormic:

I've yet to see everything shown via the DirecTV box. "Normal" mode shows everything native from the Blu-Ray player; the others trim things slightly one way or another to fill the screen. It's like the TV doesn't really respect SD content from analog sources. Which seems really screwy because I've tried using the co-ax input of the TV and the RF modulated co-ax output from the DirecTV tuner box. Should be just like an antenna which in theory wouldn't do this... I think I've more testing to do. Tomorrow.

If it were me, I'd spring the $100 for the HD box. Feeding an SD-only signal to a nice new HDTV seems kind of wasteful to me. Might as well get an old tube TV off Craigslist for $20.

In reply to Tom_Spangler:

It's just more money to spend that wasn't expected. And it's no fun dealing with some analog and some digital equipment like this. Kind of want to stay all on one side or all on the other. So yeah, I think we'll end up with an HD sat tuner when it's all said and done, but I like avoiding the forced replacement where I can.

Beware with DirectTV, if you get the box it may extend your contact 2 years. Not sure how important that is with you.

pres589 wrote: I'm not an AV smarty guy. My family got a new TV for the holidays. It's a Vizio E40-C2. There's also an SD analog-out-only DirecTV sat TV tuner in the mix. Using the composite video output from the SD DirecTV to the composite video input on the back of the TV, we have an okay picture, but the sides are clipped off. I know there's different modes to try and stretch the video out to the ends of the display, but it's still missing parts of the image. I've played with the TV a bunch and I cannot get this to work any better. The previous TV was a couple years old, a Sharp LCD that had an S-Video input. The TV was set up to use the S-Video output from the box straight to the TV and things were pretty good. Now they're not good. So what do I do next? DirecTV wants $100 for an HD tuner box with an HDMI output. I know that would be best but I'd like to contain costs. I could also get an analog to HDMI converter box, Monoprice has one for $50. I know it'd be standard-def and not going to make the picture any better than the S-video output from the tuner box. I'm just trying to get this TV and tuner box to play nice if possible. I'm not seeing anything good in the owner's manual that's online for the TV. I haven't tried to find anything worth messing with in the DirecTV tuner box; is there something hiding there? What to do??

The s-video should make the picture better, particularly in the sharpness of high-contrast vertical elements. It's not a big difference by today's standards, and I wouldn't spend much to get that going, but it sounds like you already own the cable.

I would not buy the Monoprice box. I'd only spend that for connecting a large investment or legacy device.

If you have a component connection, that would be better than the S-Video. The connectors look like RCA, but there are three of them, and they're usually labeled Y, PB, and PR, and/or color-coded red, green, and blue.

If your sat box can, in the menus, be configured to 16:9 or widescreen, that'd probably be best. Next best would be to have it at 4:3 (which may be default, depending on age) and use the TV's aspect (or "zoom," "view," "ratio," or some glyph representing same) button. Most widescreen sets can stretch a 4:3 input to fill the screen (everyone looks fat), stretch the sides more and the middle less, so whatever is centered doesn't look fat, but sideways pans look bizarre, zoom everything, so the top and bottom are cut off (which actually works well with letterboxed content and news shows with tickers you don't care to see, and finally boxed, with bars on the side. Depending on the underlying display technology's penchant for burn in, and the maker's technical finesse, this mode may include either a warning about burn-in, or a burn-in mitigation system.

Your ultimate solution is the HD box. You do want to make sure your dish is up for HD content. Last time I was really in this field, round dishes couldn't get HD.

In reply to Mike:

Lot of good input there. I'll dig into the sat box and see what kind of output formats it can support. The new TV doesn't have an S-video input; I'd be using that if it did. The sat box doesn't have component outputs or I'd be using those.

I still don't get why the S-video output shows all content properly and the composite doesn't. Should be the same, just using a balanced output instead of a pair of conductors.

And the dish my parents have is round. I didn't even think about that being an issue. Ugh.

If it were me, I'd call DirecTV and explain the situation, tell them you don't really want to spend the money on the HD box, and are thinking about cancelling your service. This should send them into customer retention mode, which often results in them offering you stuff, or at least discounts, to stay with them.

FWIW, Sirius sent me a new top-of-the-range radio last year when my old one crapped out and I called and told them I was cancelling as a result.

pres589 wrote: In reply to Mike: Lot of good input there. I'll dig into the sat box and see what kind of output formats it can support. The new TV doesn't have an S-video input; I'd be using that if it did. The sat box doesn't have component outputs or I'd be using those. I still don't get why the S-video output shows all content properly and the composite doesn't. Should be the same, just using a balanced output instead of a pair of conductors. And the dish my parents have is round. I didn't even think about that being an issue. Ugh.

Now that I think about it, it's been more than ten years since I did this kind of work. The round dish might be okay now. You might check with DirecTV.

With standard def, aren't you limited to 4:3 aspect ratio, no matter what your connection cables are?

Tom_Spangler wrote: If it were me, I'd spring the $100 for the HD box. Feeding an SD-only signal to a nice new HDTV seems kind of wasteful to me. Might as well get an old tube TV off Craigslist for $20.

I gotta agree with Tom, here. You wouldn't put a carbed SBC in a brand new Corvette, would you?

Yeah, you are either going to have to find the settings for that current box and change them or get a new box.

Through more research, I found the following; the current HD receivers from DTV can use the round antennas, but there's some potentially setting nonsense to do once you get the box. I'm unable to get into any kind of settings for the box we have; no manual and the thing is at least 10 years old. So online guidance doesn't seem to really apply to this box anymore. And I agree, the only output option is probably 4:3.

This is about cost containment on a project that I didn't really think was a great idea but understood why they wanted a new TV. It's one of those deals where I end up being tech support weather I wanted this to happen or not.

Will try to get a new HD receiver coming here and try to get someone to come out and set it up since I won't be around to help with that OR it stays like this until I come back up here. And yes, I would totally put a carb on a new Corvette, pfft.