4:3 TV for HS2 widescreen recordings

[wellsi]

Any ideas how to make a widescreen recording play back with two horizintal bars (ie Letterbox) on a 4:3 TV?

In the set up for the HS2, there is a setting for 4:3 TV dubbing aspect, with the options Squeeze or Letterbox. This seems to make absolutely no difference; nor does changing the TV type on the standalone DVD player. The picture always comes out horizontally compressed.

Any help appreciated...

 

[Kevo]

You can't with DVDR, the AR is fixed to whatever it was recorded in.

Although you should be ok with HDD and RAM recordings.

 

[wellsi]

Yep,

I knew the aspect ratio is fixed to 4:3 for dvd-r discs regardless of their original aspect, but it should be able to squeeze or letterbox any recordings it makes; otherwise what's the point of having the dubbing settings?

 

[LV426]

Isn't there a playback option, as on virtually all (if not all) DVD players whereby you tell the player what shape the screen is. And, if set to 4x3 letterbox, the player re-scales the image to fit into a 4x3 signal/frame (same as with commercial anamorphic discs)?

 

[wellsi]

Yep; and this makes no difference to the picture either;
I can't understand why such a seemingly straight forward playback option should be so hard to achieve...

 

[Kevo]

Unfortunatley it isn't as straight forward as that.

A DVD player and a TV need the ws flag to determine the AR.
Also it cannot scale down a 16:9 recording to letterbox mode without this flag.

I always thought (until recently) the ws flag signal was just to tell the TV to switch to 16:9 mode. It isn't, it is also essential to allow for LB and cut out mode for 4:3 TVs.

 

[tichtich]

But it's a pity DVD players don't give you the option to override the flag setting, i.e. display the programme as if it had the flag set to 16:9, when it's set to 4:3.

More to the point, it's a pity DVD recorders (at least my E50) don't give you the option of setting the flag to 16:9 when recording. This could perhaps be done at finalize time, or, if that's impossible, before you start recording to the disk.

 

[phelings]

When you set the aspect ratio up on the HS2,16:9 will result in a compressed picture that fits perfectly on a 16:9 set.But on -r it will not auto switch.
If you set it to 4:3 it will record an uncompressed image,but if your source material is compressed,the HS2 cannot change it.If you want a l/box picture,you need your source changed to 4:3 l/box(Sky does this in picture settings-you can choose l/box on or off)and the HS2 needs to be set for 4:3 also.

 

[wellsi]

You're right Phelings; I recall seeing that in the Sky PIcture setings; and that woudl indeed work for a 4:3 TV to view the recording.

Thanks for that!