Upgrade to TW Pioneer 3510HD?

[Paul S.]

My widescreen shows 4:3 (bars on left and right ) on digital unless its a widescreen broadcast. Should mine not do that???:confused:

[mhz40]

Originally posted by Paul S.
My widescreen shows 4:3 (bars on left and right ) on digital unless its a widescreen broadcast. Should mine not do that???:confused:

No, it should 'do that'... it's normal.  Most newer TV's provide an option to strech a 4 x 3 pic if desired.  If your set has no such option, the Pioneer set top can do it for you.

[Paul S.]

Originally posted by mhz40
No, it should 'do that'... it's normal.  Most newer TV's provide an option to strech a 4 x 3 pic if desired.  If your set has no such option, the Pioneer set top can do it for you.

Yeah, mine does have the option to streatch it, but its not doing that. Maybe its the box? Regular channels will streatch for 'full', but digital channels such as 504 505 506 etc do not unless its broadcast in WS.

[mhz40]

Originally posted by Paul S.
Yeah, mine does have the option to streatch it, but its not doing that. Maybe its the box? Regular channels will streatch for 'full', but digital channels such as 504 505 506 etc do not unless its broadcast in WS.

I think some sets may not let you strech component inputs.  Try switching to a composite source and try it.

[Paul S.]

Originally posted by mhz40
I think some sets may not let you strech component inputs.  Try switching to a composite source and try it.

Mine's on DVI.

[oz]

I wish the box auto-stretched non-HD signals on the HD channels (504, 505, etc). Do you think will ever be possible or does the box not know if the signal is HD or not, and just stretches the permanently non-HD channels?

When an HD program goes to commercial, it would be cool if the box stretched it automatically to fill the whole screen.

[Gregg Lengling]

The signal is being encoded from the Network/local station as a 16:9 signal and that's why you can't stretch it.  It has nothing to do with the box....it's part of the format of the technology.

[FreQi]

I may never understand why people want to stretch a 4:3 image and distort the aspect ratio just to fill the screen.  Don't fat heads and elliptical circles bother you? ;]

It reminds me of people that would intentionally buy Full Screen versions of movies because they figured the Wide Screen versions didn't use the whole screen, not realizing the FS version shows less of the movie.

[borghe]

I don't necessarily agree with that.... I avoid P&S because the majority of the time you lose picture... however there is also the fact that by going with widescreen, I have little to no black bars on my TV...

4:3 is different though.. yes you are distoring the picture, but you are not losing any of it... also, for 480i material my TV has a decent stretch mode which keeps the center of the screen geometricly intact (as most HD sets do).

Basically it falls like this.. if I feel the show is REALLY important (movies from the 30's and 40's, uber-classic television, etc) I will put my set into narrow mode, but on Entertainment Tonight or some b-flick on Encore Action? No, I couldn't care less if part or all of the screen is squished.

[oz]

I just want the commercials stretched and distorted, nothing else.

[Joseph S]

How does this box handle audio?

Here is what I need to switch:

1) Digital coax or opt - carries digital audio for all analog and digital stations  (3100HD doesn't do this for analog)

2) L + R - carries analog audio for all analog and digital stations.

3) Both work at the same time

I want to connect the L+R + Svideo to my HTPC PVR Card and dig coax + DVI/Component to my HDTV display. With the 3100 it works as above but all the analog audio stations are silent because the coax doesn't carry that signal.

[The Law]

I, too, have been using this box for the past few months specifically for the aspect ratio.

Here's a tip:  use the "bypass" button no your timewarner remote to cycle through aspect ratios without using the menu.

w/respects to audio, I use the orange digital output (coax).  This will send all audio out as digital (even on the analog channels).  I can't vouch for the other outputs, however.

Hope this helps

[Joseph S]

The 3510 does output (analog and dig channel) audio to both the R/L outs and the digital audio simultaneously. It also produces more consistent HD channels without the dropouts I had previously.

So that solved one issue, but as mentioned the analog and nonHD digital channels do appear worse in quality than the 3100HD box.

[mhz40]

Originally posted by Joseph S
The 3510 does output (analog and dig channel) audio to both the R/L outs and the digital audio simultaneously. It also produces more consistent HD channels without the dropouts I had previously.

So that solved one issue, but as mentioned the analog and nonHD digital channels do appear worse in quality than the 3100HD box.

I've tested the analog performance of both in the lab.  They are as close in performance as the gear I used could measure.

[Bigdog]

On my 3510 the analog channels are a lot worse than they were on the 3100 or w/o the box.  The only reasons I got it was that it only needed 1 audio connection and it would show the guide while watching a HD show but even that looks blurry.