Aspect ratios from Virgin

helijohn

Is anyone else having problems with the aspect ratios on Sky 1, Sci Fi and so on through Virgin Cable? I had this problem once before many moons ago. After endlessly messing with settings when I tackled Virgin they said it was how the show was delivered to them!!!
Text is lost at the left and right side of the screen so for example Sci Fi is just Fi. Lord knows how much picture and subtitles I am missing.

bingo_bango

Never had such a problem (6yrs+ with NTL/VM). If your TV is in Cinema mode it will do this though.

kelloggs36

I've had this for years and I'm with Virgin. I used to have a little portable TV which died a death so we went out about 10 years ago and bought a 28" screen TV. On normal terrestrial TV it was fine, but as soon as we put the cable on it was too wide and Brookside became Brooksid etc! Any names on news programmes were cut off too. We thought that it was the TV and took it back lol. Changed TV and got another and same problem! Lived with it for all that time. Bought a new 42" TV this Christmas and still the same issue, have tried changing the ratios but it has no effect. Clearly it is a Virgin issue then!!!!!!

helijohn

Yes, I guess so. I think many peeps don't notice it or don't mind as there would be more complaints to Virgin. When it happened a year or so ago I had Virgin on the phone while I was watching the TV trying to get it sorted by playing with settings. I knew it was a waste of time but I went along with it. I know when this happens at the cinema it is because they have the wrong projection lens in use. Virgin's answer was to blame Sky. It is just another "difficulty" with Virgin viewing. They can sort it if they bother.
At least I am not alone.

banger9365

mine is set to 16.9 on the tv and i am not missing any thing ,and it set to wide on the v box

husemin

Hi, Ive noticed problems like this on a few VM channels and itis down to them, the way in which the movie or whatever your watching is broadcasted, sometimes movies become squished from top to bottom because the movie is not broadcasting in widescreen but your settings on the VM box is, also dont forget to play with the TV settings as well as the VM (Virgin media) box settings too.

H

helijohn

I wonder if the V+ box is any better in this. I have an oldish regular Virgin box and think the problem might be because it is an earlier box. I have played with the box settings and TV settings until I am sick of it and now just accept it. Just like the way the volume hikes in some channels for the adverts - I just put up with it but I shouldn't have to

roddydogs

With V-Box set it to normal, NOT wide. unless u like "Fattyvision"

Beaker99

If you've got a widescreen TV, it's probably your TV settings, not the digibox settings!! If have got a widescreen TV, make sure both are at 16:9 (or 'wide') - If you've got a 4:3 (non-wide) TV, set the digibox to 4:3 for 'zoomed in' or 'letterbox' if you want black lines top and bottom (but all the picture).

To be honest, it sounds like your TV is set to 'zoom' or 'Auto' on the aspect ratio, adn the TV is trying to 'guess' what's best.

I've got a widescreen TV and standard V+ box - both set to 16:9, never any problems...

edit: at the same time, make sure you've watching on 'RGB', not 'composite' - amazing how many people still have it set to composite, even with a decent quality scart. (incidently, if you set to RGB and nothing happens, it's probably that you don't have a fully wired scart cabel. in that case invest in one - it's worth it! (note - you may have to go out of the menus for the 'rgb' setting to be picked up, so don't give up if it looks like it hasn't worked first time! - you'll notice it working by the text sharpening up, with no 'fuzzyness' around it)