Video Asylum

Posted by David Aiken (A) on July 09, 2009 at 18:11:59

In Reply to: RE: Are you using an HD cable box? posted by mauimusicman on July 09, 2009 at 14:56:04

If it is a settings issue with your cable box, then you can't really blame Time Warner. They have to choose a set of default settings and not everyone has the same displays, or uses the same settings on their display. Some people like 4:3 aspect material expanded to full screen and some like it displayed accurately with bars at the side. Some DVDs are mastered to display a wide screen movie on a 4:3 screen and if shown with the picture in the right aspect ratio end up with bars top and bottom and on each side as well.

With any source component the manufacturer chooses a group of default settings based on what they think will suit the bulk of the purchasers. No set of default settings will work for everyone, that's why there are options. If a set of defaults did work ideally for everyone there'd be no need for the device to offer options for those settings.

It's a fact of life that you often have to tinker with a device's settings in order to get the result you want, or the best result which may often be something different from what you want :-)



David Aiken