Stretch Picture to screen - Canadian TV, Computing and Home Theatre Forums

upsdriver · 2012-05-15, 09:17 AM

I have a question, on Rogers is there anyway to stretch or zoom a picture to fit the screen? alot of the channels are a square in the middle of the tv screen, so is there a way to stretch it to fill up the whole screen? if there is what is the method for that?

Thank you in advance

Larry · 2012-05-15, 09:20 AM

Your TV should have the capability to do a variety of stretches to fill the screen. Look at your TV manual.

Hooter · 2012-05-15, 09:26 AM

The # button of the Rogers remote can used to change the zoom on an HD TV. You can also change the settings on the TV itself.

This is my experience with the HD box. The HD picture is a 16:9 ratio and should display on your TV in a full screen format - with a nice crystal clear HD picture. An SD picture is a 4:3 ratio so you should get a border on the left and right of your picture. You can use a stretch or zoom mode but the picture is distorted and I prefer watching in the original 4:3 ratio.

What I have also noticed though, is that some channels are broadcasting their HD feed on their SD channel and the picture is in a letterbox format - borders on the left and right and top and bottom. With these feeds, I do use the # button and the "zoom 1" setting and it simply enlarges the picture to a full screen without the distortion you would normally get with with a standard SD format. Of course, since the channel is SD, you will not get the clarity of an HD picture.

It is all a matter of personal taste though. Leave your TV settings alone, but adjust your picture size using the # button on the Rogers remote and simply change the setting to suit your own individual preferences. For me, with most shows, it is the "normal" setting.

57 · 2012-05-15, 09:47 AM

As mentioned above, from a picture quality standpoint and for no distortion, you should watch 4:3 as 4:3 and 16:9 as 16:9. Here are the FAQs on Black Bars and Stretch Modes.

http://www.digitalhome.ca/forum/showthread.php?t=76089 Black Bars

http://www.digitalhome.ca/forum/showthread.php?t=76074 Stretch Modes

Useful Post - FAQs, Search tips, Optimization, etc:

http://www.digitalhome.ca/forum/showthread.php?t=57741

RGBaker · 2012-05-23, 07:20 PM

Sometimes, stretching is/was the right thing to do.

For instance, Mad Men is only available in SD, but it is a letterboxed SD. So the right zoom fills the screen perfectly with the original image, albeit at a less than perfect actual resolution.

That is, I can do this on two of my PVRs ... on the latest, with the new software, the zoom function no longer upsizes a letterboxed 16:9 signal in SD to fill a 16:9 screen .... Oddly, it describes itself as a 25% zoom but stretches the image off screen.

So stretching was the right thing to do, but Rogers has 'improved' the box to render what was a sensible option now useless.

And for those not reading closely, I'm not advocating stretching to the wrong aspect ratio.

Cheers,
GB

JamesK · 2012-05-23, 10:18 PM

Which STB are you referring to? And what update? I just checked a couple of my sets and zooming letterbox SD works fine. My 8300 PVR has a 2nd stretch mode, which is definitely to large, but zoom 1 works fine. My 4250 has only the one zoom which also works well.

57 · 2012-05-24, 12:09 AM

I'm sure he's referring to the 8642 and the new firmware, as discussed in the following thread. If you click the link in post 1, the zoom function is one of the faults listed.

http://www.digitalhome.ca/forum/showthread.php?t=150889

I don't zoom "windowboxed" material because the PQ suffers too much for my taste, but some people hate black bars more, I guess.

RGBaker · 2012-05-26, 06:25 AM

Well, the image quality in any measured sense doesn't change -- before zooming, the image was 640x360 pixels -- the rest was black -- after zooming the image was 640x360 pixels ...

So zooming doesn't actually reduce the quality, it just makes it larger. I could choose instead to sit in a chair closer to the TV, and gain the same 'advantage', but the zoom button is at hand!

Cheers,
GB

Hooter · 2012-05-26, 08:23 AM

I agree with you. With the letterbox picture, I find the picture quality remains the same when using the Zoom 1 setting. Even zooming or stretching the 4:3 picture does not decrease the picture quality, though the distortion is quite obvious so I leave that one alone.

2012-05-15, 09:17 AM	#1
upsdriver Join Date: Nov 2008 Location: Toronto Posts: 173	Stretch Picture to screen I have a question, on Rogers is there anyway to stretch or zoom a picture to fit the screen? alot of the channels are a square in the middle of the tv screen, so is there a way to stretch it to fill up the whole screen? if there is what is the method for that? Thank you in advance

2012-05-15, 09:47 AM	#4
57 Moderator Join Date: May 2002 Location: Toronto, Rogers, 8300HD, eHDD, Panasonic TCP65S1, Denon AVR4310Ci; 8300HD, eHDD & Sony KDL40W3000 Posts: 50,302	As mentioned above, from a picture quality standpoint and for no distortion, you should watch 4:3 as 4:3 and 16:9 as 16:9. Here are the FAQs on Black Bars and Stretch Modes. http://www.digitalhome.ca/forum/showthread.php?t=76089 Black Bars http://www.digitalhome.ca/forum/showthread.php?t=76074 Stretch Modes Useful Post - FAQs, Search tips, Optimization, etc: http://www.digitalhome.ca/forum/showthread.php?t=57741 __________________ 57's Home Theatre (Latest equipment & photos) 57's Optimization Services (Home Theatre Optimization)

2012-05-24, 12:09 AM	#7
57 Moderator Join Date: May 2002 Location: Toronto, Rogers, 8300HD, eHDD, Panasonic TCP65S1, Denon AVR4310Ci; 8300HD, eHDD & Sony KDL40W3000 Posts: 50,302	I'm sure he's referring to the 8642 and the new firmware, as discussed in the following thread. If you click the link in post 1, the zoom function is one of the faults listed. http://www.digitalhome.ca/forum/showthread.php?t=150889 I don't zoom "windowboxed" material because the PQ suffers too much for my taste, but some people hate black bars more, I guess. __________________ 57's Home Theatre (Latest equipment & photos) 57's Optimization Services (Home Theatre Optimization)

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2012-05-15, 09:20 AM	#2
Larry Veteran Join Date: Mar 2006 Location: Ottawa, Ontario (Rogers) Posts: 1,521	Your TV should have the capability to do a variety of stretches to fill the screen. Look at your TV manual.

2012-05-15, 09:26 AM	#3
Hooter Join Date: Sep 2009 Location: Toronto Posts: 160	The # button of the Rogers remote can used to change the zoom on an HD TV. You can also change the settings on the TV itself. This is my experience with the HD box. The HD picture is a 16:9 ratio and should display on your TV in a full screen format - with a nice crystal clear HD picture. An SD picture is a 4:3 ratio so you should get a border on the left and right of your picture. You can use a stretch or zoom mode but the picture is distorted and I prefer watching in the original 4:3 ratio. What I have also noticed though, is that some channels are broadcasting their HD feed on their SD channel and the picture is in a letterbox format - borders on the left and right and top and bottom. With these feeds, I do use the # button and the "zoom 1" setting and it simply enlarges the picture to a full screen without the distortion you would normally get with with a standard SD format. Of course, since the channel is SD, you will not get the clarity of an HD picture. It is all a matter of personal taste though. Leave your TV settings alone, but adjust your picture size using the # button on the Rogers remote and simply change the setting to suit your own individual preferences. For me, with most shows, it is the "normal" setting.

2012-05-23, 07:20 PM	#5
RGBaker Rookie Join Date: May 2009 Posts: 13	Sometimes, stretching is/was the right thing to do. For instance, Mad Men is only available in SD, but it is a letterboxed SD. So the right zoom fills the screen perfectly with the original image, albeit at a less than perfect actual resolution. That is, I can do this on two of my PVRs ... on the latest, with the new software, the zoom function no longer upsizes a letterboxed 16:9 signal in SD to fill a 16:9 screen .... Oddly, it describes itself as a 25% zoom but stretches the image off screen. So stretching was the right thing to do, but Rogers has 'improved' the box to render what was a sensible option now useless. And for those not reading closely, I'm not advocating stretching to the wrong aspect ratio. Cheers, GB

2012-05-23, 10:18 PM	#6
JamesK Veteran Join Date: May 2009 Location: Mississauga Posts: 5,047	Which STB are you referring to? And what update? I just checked a couple of my sets and zooming letterbox SD works fine. My 8300 PVR has a 2nd stretch mode, which is definitely to large, but zoom 1 works fine. My 4250 has only the one zoom which also works well.

2012-05-26, 06:25 AM	#8
RGBaker Rookie Join Date: May 2009 Posts: 13	Well, the image quality in any measured sense doesn't change -- before zooming, the image was 640x360 pixels -- the rest was black -- after zooming the image was 640x360 pixels ... So zooming doesn't actually reduce the quality, it just makes it larger. I could choose instead to sit in a chair closer to the TV, and gain the same 'advantage', but the zoom button is at hand! Cheers, GB

2012-05-26, 08:23 AM	#9
Hooter Join Date: Sep 2009 Location: Toronto Posts: 160	I agree with you. With the letterbox picture, I find the picture quality remains the same when using the Zoom 1 setting. Even zooming or stretching the 4:3 picture does not decrease the picture quality, though the distortion is quite obvious so I leave that one alone.