Sky missing edges of screen?

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dale77

294 posts

Ultimate Geek

#92153 27-Oct-2011 23:12

Possibly an FAQ but I don't watch a lot of Sky as we have FreeviewHD...

Here in our hotel we noticed that Discovery channel was missing the left and probably right sides of the screen. No black bars, just missing content. For example when the name of some joker appeared in the left bottom of the screen the name "Bobby" showed up as "bby"

The samsung TV is set to 16:9. Why the missing bits? I noticed the same thing on my mum's set at her place as well. Seems strange to me that the Sky feed would slice off some content on a 16:9 display.

What gives? Anyone know?

Thanks

Dale

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DrCheese

382 posts

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#538411 27-Oct-2011 23:15

Did you set the Sky box to show 16:9, or did you only do this for the TV?

David.

dale77

294 posts

Ultimate Geek

#538416 27-Oct-2011 23:28

DrCheese: Did you set the Sky box to show 16:9, or did you only do this for the TV?

David.

Er... In the hotel I just get what config the hotel provides. I don't know how mum's box is set up.

On this holiday I've watched two sky setups, and both have missing content left and right. Is this normal for sky?

DrCheese

382 posts

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#538417 27-Oct-2011 23:29

No, this is not normal. The Sky box should allow you to change the settings. The hotel doesn't provide the settings.

Do you have a Sky box in your hotel room or is the signal piped in from somewhere else in the hotel?

David.

dale77

294 posts

Ultimate Geek

#538421 27-Oct-2011 23:44

DrCheese: No, this is not normal. The Sky box should allow you to change the settings. The hotel doesn't provide the settings.

Do you have a Sky box in your hotel room or is the signal piped in from somewhere else in the hotel?

David.

In the hotel, it seems we have it piped from elsewhere, just an RGx? cable into the TV.

At mum's place it's a different story, the sky box is right there under the TV. Mum has just moved from a 4:3 set to a 16:9 though.

michaelt

425 posts

Ultimate Geek

#538423 27-Oct-2011 23:51

This is extremely common, but it's usually the TV at fault rather than the Sky box. It's called 'overscan'. See if the TV has a "full pixel" or "1:1 mapping" option somewhere in the settings. It's largely for legacy reasons.

Basically, back in the days of CRT TV's, if you tried to display a complete image you'd get wavy edges and wasted space (as you'd experience if you ever used a CRT computer monitor), so the TV's used to just zoom in on the centre and cut off the edges. It minimised the visible effects of distortion.

Since the edges were never visible, network providers started putting signalling information on the edges of the picture.

Consequently, since the edges of the TV picture often had visible garbage on them, many modern digital TV's also overscan, to remove it.

hdinsider

552 posts

Ultimate Geek

#538434 28-Oct-2011 00:33

Discovery channel is anamorphic widescreen. It changed sometime ago but it doesn't surprise me that a lot of hotel setups wouldn't have been set to widescreen. To make it easy for viewers most broadcasters restrict any titling to fit within the old 4:3 tv display. Ideally the decoder should be set to display 16:9 widescreen and then the missing 33% or the picture will be seen again. This is different to overscan which is only 10% of a picture.

don't mess with me.... i'm the hd insider....

sbiddle

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Biddle Corp

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#538457 28-Oct-2011 05:58

It's 100% normal to find hotels in NZ with poorly configured TV's and STB's. Most have absolutely no concept that TV braodcasts these days are 16:9, and it's common to find them also with 16:9 TV's in fat-o-vision mode displaying everything stretched.

I've stayed in probably 6 or 7 different hotels in NZ this year, and every one had an incorrectly configured TV setup.

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illicit

553 posts

Ultimate Geek

#538479 28-Oct-2011 07:36

The Sky box at the motel is set to 4:3 - Ask them to change it to 16:9

Nothing to do with overscan etc - as above it is a common problem for hotels/motels not to change the settings for the decoders when they upgrade the TVs to widescreen models.

dale77

294 posts

Ultimate Geek

#538984 29-Oct-2011 11:59

i guess i can see why the hotel might have the sky box set to 4:3, as they have a mix of 4:3 and 16:9 TV's in their suites.

My mum is a different story though, she has just moved from a 4:3 set to a 16:9 set. Perhaps my bro did not change the setting on her sky decoder for her. I'll have to get him to check it out.

Thanks

Dale

Talkiet

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#538986 29-Oct-2011 12:13

sbiddle: It's 100% normal to find hotels in NZ with poorly configured TV's and STB's. Most have absolutely no concept that TV braodcasts these days are 16:9, and it's common to find them also with 16:9 TV's in fat-o-vision mode displaying everything stretched.

I've stayed in probably 6 or 7 different hotels in NZ this year, and every one had an incorrectly configured TV setup.

Agree, I make a point of complaining about it every time, and if I'm staying multiple nights and have the opportunity, I'll check out after the first night. It's clearly utterly unimportant to them so unless people vote with their wallet, no change will happen.

On the other hand, the hotels listed here - http://www.skybusiness.co.nz/Default.aspx?tabid=1055 - do it properly and have full digital sky decoders in each room. I have stayed at a few of these places and can say they make sure things work as they should... I can really recommend http://www.sandsmotel.co.nz/

I actually shifted out of a hotel in Whangarei where I was doing a couple of weeks work into the Sands Motel because I wanted to watch a Formula 1 race and nowhere else at the time in Whangarei had Sky sport channels at all, let alone in the right aspect ratio.

Not getting the TV right annoys me even more than stupid priced hotel Interwebs... And that makes me want to kill!

Cheers - N

Please note all comments are from my own brain and don't necessarily represent the position or opinions of my employer, previous employers, colleagues, friends or pets.

ilovemusic

1435 posts

Uber Geek

#539305 30-Oct-2011 16:24

sbiddle: It's 100% normal to find hotels in NZ with poorly configured TV's and STB's. Most have absolutely no concept that TV braodcasts these days are 16:9, and it's common to find them also with 16:9 TV's in fat-o-vision mode displaying everything stretched.

I've stayed in probably 6 or 7 different hotels in NZ this year, and every one had an incorrectly configured TV setup.

It's not just hotels.

Lots of retailers, through laziness or ignorance, do not run their sets with correct aspect ratio settings.

Dingbatt

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#539340 30-Oct-2011 20:28

For your Mum's TV.
Hit the yellow circle on the remote and then go to setup (the spanner) -> advanced setup (will need PIN) -> TV setup. Change 4:3 centre-cut to 16:9 Widescreen and her problem should be fixed.
AS for the hotels I have given up trying to provide tech advice and now just manually change the TV to 4:3 and leave it that way for the next guest to complain about...
Perhaps someone who does commercial installations could advise why it is so difficult for hotels to make the change.

“We’ve arranged a society based on science and technology, in which nobody understands anything about science technology. Carl Sagan 1996

illicit

553 posts

Ultimate Geek

#539370 30-Oct-2011 21:44

The work on most systems is done by either A) an electrician, B) the Sky tech, C) Staff or D) No-one

Dingbatt

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#539583 31-Oct-2011 14:16

illicit: The work on most systems is done by either A) an electrician, B) the Sky tech, C) Staff or D) No-one

Option D seems the most likely in my experience.
One of the establishments I stay at has all the channels except Sky Sport 2 on centre-cut, SS2 is in the correct (WS) aspect. This leads me to believe it is technically feasible to change the others to the same if the will is there. The setup has a module that connects to the TV and must be what receives the multiple channels provided. It only has a simplified remote with it (vol +/-, channel+/-, buy this movie, etc) that is provided by the AV system provider. I assume because it is tied in with in-house movies it is not necessarily as easy to change as normal Sky Digital.
I guess the look of having a WS flat panel TV in a room is more important than the quality of what it shows.

“We’ve arranged a society based on science and technology, in which nobody understands anything about science technology. Carl Sagan 1996

Jaxson

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#539594 31-Oct-2011 14:41

Stayed in a hotel last week with a 42" screen in every room.
All fed by the same composit/rf feed, the ones with the in room movie booking options etc.

TV volume was turned way up so the unit buzzed/hissed horribly at normal listening levels, worse if you tried to turn it down. Cropped picture, seriously obvious interference/moving bands and noise everywhere, which I haven't seen since the old analogue days, and no colour depth, all low saturated. Whole thing was a joke, but yeah to them it's a feature to have a big TV in every room, just doesn't say what's going to feed it....

So yeah, what you are describing is normal for hotels.