Display 4:3 material zoomed on a 16:9 TV (7700HDPVR)

[MHD]

To display 4:3 material on a 16:9 TV and vice versa, there are typically three possibilities in each direction: centered, zoomed and strechted. The 7700HDPVR supports centered in both directions (called letterbox in the direction 4:3 material on 16:9 TV), but zoomed only in direction 16:9 material on 4:3 TV. Instead of that, only the ugly (because of its wrong aspect ratio) streching is available in direction 4:3 material on 16:9 TV (for 16:9->4:3 conversion, nobody seems to miss streching, including myself).

So my main feature request is:

Add the essential feature to display 4:3 material zoomed on a 16:9 TV. This is especially worth implementing for 4:3 material in letterbox format, as zooming it loses no information but the black bars at top & bottom of the material.

Additional feature request:

The button on the remote control should not switch through all available modes, which is IMHO senseless. If a 16:9 TV is selected in the setup menu, switch through the modes for 4:3 to 16:9 conversion, NOT through all modes 4:3->16:9 AND 16:9->4:3 conversion, as the latter modes do nothing if a 16:9 TV is connected. The same holds for a 4:3 TV, where vice versa selecting a 4:3->16:9 conversion mode makes no sense.

This additional feature could even better be implemented by letting the user select via the setup menu, which of the available conversion modes of both directions are switched through by the remote control button (for example I would never use streched).

Regards, Mark.

[hgdo]

[quote=""MHD""]Add the essential feature to display 4:3 material zoomed on a 16:9 TV. [/quote]
That is not neccessary because every 16:9-TV can do this

The button on the remote control should not switch through all available modes, which is IMHO senseless.

If a user owns e.g. a 4:3 TV and a 16:9 Beamer is makes sense to switch through all available modes

[wolke7]

[quote=""MHD""]To display 4:3 material on a 16:9 TV and vice versa, there are typically three possibilities in each direction: centered, zoomed and strechted. The 7700HDPVR supports centered in both directions (called letterbox in the direction 4:3 material on 16:9 TV), but zoomed only in direction 16:9 material on 4:3 TV. Instead of that, only the ugly (because of its wrong aspect ratio) streching is available in direction 4:3 material on 16:9 TV (for 16:9->4:3 conversion, nobody seems to miss streching, including myself).

So my main feature request is:

Add the essential feature to display 4:3 material zoomed on a 16:9 TV. This is especially worth implementing for 4:3 material in letterbox format, as zooming it loses no information but the black bars at top & bottom of the material.

Additional feature request:

The button on the remote control should not switch through all available modes, which is IMHO senseless. If a 16:9 TV is selected in the setup menu, switch through the modes for 4:3 to 16:9 conversion, NOT through all modes 4:3->16:9 AND 16:9->4:3 conversion, as the latter modes do nothing if a 16:9 TV is connected. The same holds for a 4:3 TV, where vice versa selecting a 4:3->16:9 conversion mode makes no sense.

This additional feature could even better be implemented by letting the user select via the setup menu, which of the available conversion modes of both directions are switched through by the remote control button (for example I would never use streched).

Regards, Mark.[/quote]

I Totaly agree!

hgdo you are right one can use the tv to manualy select zoon´BUT only manual!
On the 5x00 and 6000 series one can use the great WSS-Killer TAP to solve that.
But as you know the 7700 does not support TAPs so this request for a zoom mode by the 7700 is vaild. I would request the implementation of the WSS-Killer funcionality!
I will need that function, if someone does not need it, turn it off...
wolke7

[MHD]

[quote=""MHD""]
So my main feature request is:

Add the essential feature to display 4:3 material zoomed on a 16:9 TV. This is especially worth implementing for 4:3 material in letterbox format, as zooming it loses no information but the black bars at top & bottom of the material.
[/quote]

[quote=""hgdo""]That is not neccessary because every 16:9-TV can do this[/quote]

[quote=""wolke7""]
hgdo you are right one can use the tv to manualy select zoon´BUT only manual!
[/quote]

Futhermore, if the TV zooms, the Topfield OSD get cut off at the top & bottom (only the info box can be moved via settings menu, but none of the other information that gets displayed). The same holds for the subtitles, which are essentially unusable, if the TV has to zoom.

There are two workarounds for the missing Topfield zoom feature, but both have quality drawbacks:

• SCART has a control signal, that indicates 16:9 or 4:3 to the TV. The TV (16:9) can then automatically switch between a 16:9 setting (display 1:1) and a 4:3 setting (zoomed, streched, centered, as configured by the user). HDMI seems to miss that feature. Since SCART sacrifies so much quality, this is not really an option.
• Another possibility, that works with HDMI, too: Configure the Topfield to output on a 4:3 TV with letterbox and let the 16:9 TV zoom the (then constantly) received 4:3 material. Since 16:9 material then gets first scaled down by the Topfield, and again scaled up by the TV, there is a loss in resolution for 1080i material and a small quality loss due to the two unnecessary scaling operations.

The latter would be better then nothing, but the extremely problematic OSD and subtitle cutoff renders it essentially unusable.

[wolke7]

YES! I agree the WSS Killer functionality schould be impemented!!!!!!!!!!
I totaly support that request. If this function is missing I don't need a Topfiedl like the 7700.
There are better Products availabe e.g. by Humax iCord HD; I trust them a lot more that all their promises will come true eventualy...

Nevertheless I am waiting on two more features before I buy the iCord HD
1. multidecrypt
2. convert the timeshiftbuffer into a recording.
Once they have that, you will definitly find my7700hdpvr in ebay...

wolke7