Good Afternoon all,
I'm writing because my father in law has xfinity. He pay 95 a month for just above basic service that does not include anything HD. The problem comes in the size of the picture on the TV. He is using a sony bravia 55" hdtv (not smart). We've had them switchout the boxes to the newest boxes but they are saying that the tv picture is the fault of the networks and that he is not paying for HD. I don't care about the HD part i just want him to have a full size picture. Does anyone have any recommendations, keeping in mind that he is 89 and my mother in law is 82, so the solution cannot be technically challenging (no more than one remote). Could i use my stream from my channels in the 23662 zip to work with his TV if i was using channels (like away from home) and then use locast for local channels? Also he does not need to record anything at all, just strait watch tv. Any idea's you all have would be greatly appreciated.
Can you clarify what you mean by this? Are you saying portions of the TV screen remain black?
yes sir...the picture is like a smaller square in the middle of the tv...
I'm guessing the problem here is that the SD feed carries letterboxed HD content. And then when you show SD on an HDTV, it adds pillar boxing. So you wind up with the worst of both worlds with a thick black border all the way around. (This article might help to explain the phenomenon -> https://chetdavis.typepad.com/chet-davis/2009/11/when-your-video-becomes-a-postage-stamp-or-window-box-mixing-aspect-ratios.html)
I suggest you try the various zoom modes supported by the TV. Usually there's some kind of "zoom" or "aspect ratio" button on the remote or in the TV's GUI that lets you compensate.
That being said, it seems a terrible waste of a 55" high-definition TV to show zoomed SD content. You'll wind up with a picture that has less than 50% of the original high-definition resolution.
So, I just did the math...
An HD picture has a resolution of 1920x1080.
An SD picture has a resolution of 640x480.
To cram an HD picture into an SD frame without chopping off the left and right edges of the frame, or without "squishing" the picture, you have to reduce the resolution by a factor of 3 in each dimension. So the 1920x1080 image becomes 640x360.
The end result of this process is that you've thrown away 66% of the scan lines (1-(360/1080)), and 89% of the pixels (1-(640x360)/(1920x1080)).
So without having to use the second remote would I be able to use my channels up there along with locast for local channels? That would take care of the problem I think?
Most Xfinity boxes have a video settings menu accessed by holding guide and info while the box is powered off.
You'll need to setup a Channels DVR server at your FiL's place and install a client dongle on their TV (like an AppleTV, FireStick, etc.). Then, on his Channels DVR server, you should be able to add your own cable subscription as a TVE source as well as Locast for their region as a second source (no reason for them to remotely connect to your Channels DVR server, unless you're trying to share OTA content from an HDHR tuner with them).
Get basic internet with a firestick subscribe to sling that should be about the same cost.