HDTV picture problem

[Joeyboy]

Hey guys,

So i just got my HDTV for Christmas and its really good!( had to turn down sharpness, was hurting me eyes)

My 360 games look really good now I've set it to 720p ( is 1080i any better? Since the TV ca support that to), halo 3 is like wooo though COD4's graphcs wern't as amazing as i expected, good, just not as good as reviews seem to say(seemed similar to COD3 really..(bar better vehicles.)

Anyway there are two problems, one probably can't be fixed, the other might be able to.

The first problem is that although the 360 now looks amazing, my non HD Virgin Media box looks worse. I assume it's because the pictures now has to fit a bigger screen so the imperfections of NON-HD are more visible, but generally it is more blurred and you can kind of see the pixels like they are too big, if that makes sense. Not unwatchable to it is kinda annoying..

The second problem which i haven't seen in games yet but i have seen in Sky news is text not fitting. Basically if anyone watches a news channel they will know text scrolls along the bottom of the screen. Well that text doesn't fit, the time is only half visible, etc. Basically it's like its too tall for the wide screen TV, can be be set so it fits a little better...

any help would be great!

 

[freak67]

First Problem: Do you know if you HD Vigin Media Box supports 1080p (1920 x 1080) ? because it seems like the pixels are being stretched, which is basically your playing/watching your T.V. at a lower resolution with not enough pixels for the screen so it wouldn't be as blurred.

Second Problem: Check to see if you can shrink down the picture through the preferences on your T.V. Sometimes they have a button to expand 16:9 or 4:3 in case your watching a movie that does not fit the screen completely.

 

[atomic tofu]

your info is kind of vague...but let me desribe my setup and maybe you'll be able to figure it out

my hdtv has modes for full, 4:3 and I think letter box...or something, lol
my satellite service has a mode to switch various view modes from 4:3, zoom, partial zoom, full...stretch, etc

if you are watching a 16x9 broadcast it will fit the screen normally if you have it set to full
If I stretch a 4:3 broadcast of a 16x9 aspect show, the image will fill the screen but the various texts, station ids, etc will extend beyond the viewing range...shrinking the bogus widescreen 4:3 show will fix the "problem"

hope that helps...I would assume your tv can adjust views as well.

 

[Joeyboy]

ok i'll be a little less vague, though i'm going to check play with settings to see if i can fix this since my friends HDTV gets no blurry pictures even though it isn't a HD broadcast..

Ok so my Virgin Media box isn't HD. Plugged in the scart and the picture is kind of blurres. It looks like a veil of blur in front of a good picture, stretched pixels maybe?

Also i'm not sure how you would change settings on the virgin media box itself? It's cable not satellite if that makes any difference. I'm guessing there is an option to re-size the picture so it fits 16:9...

ALSO just found out. xbox 360 games fill the whole screen usually. BUT if i play split careen it seems to go into 3:4 and so has two large black bars either side and it also has two large black bars above. So it's shrinks...