Dish Network 622 DVR cropping issue

[tbarney]

I'm trying to figure out if my tv is the issue, or if this is a problem with the Dish DVR.  I first noticed when watching CBS HD football that the picture was cropped on the left and right. When they have the sports ticker up they show what team has the ball and it may say 2nd and 10 on the very left part of the screen. I always had the "2n" cut off and just saw the "d and 10" because it seemed that my picture was cropped, or perhaps zoomed in.  

I have checked my TV as well as the dish DVR settings and both are at Normal aspect ratio but I still get the cropping issue. I also noticed it on History HD channel because the outer edge of History HD logo is cut off, specifically the D in HD is cut off.  

I had sears out to look at my set because I have a warranty through them and they claim that the problem is with my satellite provider and signal, even though the CBS football I was watching was an antenna passthrough with the built in tuner.  I'm thinking of recording some content and taking the DVR to a friends house to check the output on his set.

Does anyone else have this issue?

Thanks

[brewtownska]

It might be easier to pinpoint the problem if you mention what TV you have, but my guess is that if it's a rear projection model (especially a CRT), it's probably the standard 5% or more of overscan that is causing that stuff to not show up.  I definitely have the same issue on my 50" Toshiba rear-projection CRT TV.  If you have one of the newer fixed-pixel TVs, then overscan usually isn't an issue because you can tell the TV to match 1-to-1 pixels to fill the screen perfectly.

Mike

[tbarney]

My TV is infact a CRT rear projection. It's a Hitachi 57s500.  I suspected it was an overscan issue but I belive that the technicans at sears should be able to use the service tech menu to make adjusments to correct the issue.  My opinion is that my TV is not working 100% as expected, and based on my warranty agreement it should be repaired. If they are unable to repair it then it should be replaced.

[brewtownska]

The way I've always understood it, a CRT is expected to have 3-5% overscan on all sides.  How much is actually being taken up on your TV is unknown, although if you have access to one of the Home Theater setup DVDs (Digital Video Essentials, Avia, etc), you might be able to get a better idea of what percentage your overscan is currently set at.

Sure, the Sears guys my be able to get someone over to look at it.  Whether they actually do anything about it is a different story.  I highly doubt you'll get a replacement TV out it, mostly because the overscan is considered a normal thing.

Maybe it's worse than I picture in my mind and you have a good case.  I'd first start with a setup DVD to find out a percentage, and from there you can tell if it's outside the norm.  If outside the norm, you might have more of a case with a repair shop.

[jkane]

Are you using TV1 or TV2 output?  TV2 does that.  It is a 4:3 formatted output only.  IT does that horrible cropping when you watch wide screen shows.  You have to use TV1 to get 6:9.  If you are on TV1, then in the bottom left corner either next to 0, or it is the 0 button, is the screen size adjustment button.  It is a round robin thing.  Press it over and over to get it to change formats.

The Vip 622/722 do stretch also.  I wish they would just do native and let my TV pick the best format.  But they don't.  They assume you have a crappy TV and they need to use the least common denominator format so it works on the TV's of the uneducated TV viewer.

[tbarney]

Are you using TV1 or TV2 output?

I'm using the TV1 output, that is the only output that has component or HDMI on it.  I've also gone through the aspect ratios on the DVR using the remote and the TV. When I'm on an HD channel and the zoom/aspect ratio is set to Normal I still get a slight cropping.  If I were to zoom in using either the DVR or the TV then I almost entirely lose the History Channel HD logo, but in this case I just lose the outside edge.

[jkane]

Somewhere in the menu's is a setting for 3:4 or 6:9.  Make sure it's right also.

My toshiba has a mode of it's own for stretch.  Make sure you ahve the TV set to Natural or Native, what ever it's called.  If I tell my TV to stretch also, it does the over lapping thing.

That is about it for my ideas!  

[tbarney]

I checked my TV against the HDNet test pattern that they throw on Saturday mornings from time to time (like today at 5:30am).  The last few minutes put up an overscan pattern. They say that if you can see a 3 on the top and bottom, and a 4 at the left and right that the TV is "within acceptable limits".

I have a 5 at the top and bottom (close enough to the 3 they suggest)
I have a 12 at the left and a 14 at the right (compared to the 4 HDNet suggests).  I think I have a valid complaint. Based on the test pattern my TV has an abnormally high overscan and is also shifted to the right causing the numbers on the left and right of the pattern to be noticeably different.  It's time to get sears back out here to work on it now that I have a bit more ammunition.