DSTV aspect ratio all messed up.

[Zewp]

It seems DSTV is broadcasting every single channel as 4:3 now. No matter what I do, picture gets cut of at the side and on top, whether I set it to ARC1, 2 or 3. We've got a 42" HD TV, 16:9 aspect ratio with a HD PVR decoder. Never used to have these issues.

What the hell is going on at multichoice? They've always been complete tosh, but lately their quality seems to have slipped enormously. If it wasn't for the sport channels, we would have cancelled this crap ages ago.

 

[werny]

Saw the same thing at work, Supersport and some random news channel were 4:3 aspect ratio, never used to be like that before.

 

[Captain Beer]

Supersport has always been 4:3.

Nothing wrong my side, also using HDPVR. Make sure you haven't changed the aspect ratio setting on your TV.

 

[HAL 9000]

DSTV ASPECT RATIO SETTINGS

DSTV Aspect Ratio Control (ARC) settings are as follows:

16:9 - view 4:3 as.. Pillarbox (ARC 1)
16:9 - view 4:3 as.. Zoomed (ARC 2)
16:9 - view 4:3 as.. Stretched (ARC 3)
4:3 - view 16:9 as.. Letterbox (ARC 4)
4:3 - view 16:9 as.. Cropped (ARC 5)

It is always best to set the TV via its menu settings to the default aspect ratio - 16:9 for wide-screen LCD, LED or Plasma sets & 4:3 for conventional CRT's - and then choose the correct aspect ratio on the decoder according to your preferences as detailed above.

As DSTV has STILL not standardised all their channels correctly for 16:9 widescreen broadcasts, you will often have to manually adjust the decoder settings per channel or even by program, by using the Green SHIFT button and TV Guide / ARC button on your remote to change the aspect ratios accordingly, as detailed below.

According to me, your TV should be set to 16:9 (widescreen) and the decoder set to ARC 1 - this should be for any widescreen TV.

ARC 1 means 16:9 broadcasts will be shown correctly in widescreen (and full screen). 4:3 broadcast will show with black bars on the sides - they way they were filmed and are being broadcast in.

ANY other ARC will mean 4:3 pictures are either zoomed (and you loose part of the top and bottom) or stretched (and not in proportion making people fatter etc).

If something is then shown letterboxed on a 4:3 broadcast (so it has black bars all around (e.g. South Park on Comedy Central), you can then change to ARC 2 to zoom the picture - filling the screen AND not losing picture AND not distorting it.

And all those times when MC stuffs up and shows a widescreen program squashed into a 4:3 screen (so everyone looks extremely thin) you can then use ARC 3 to stretch the picture and see properly in widescreen.

This may help you as well - from the DSTV forum website:

http://forum.dstv.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=1398&d=1300361547