Bars above and below or bars on the sides? 1080i vs 480i

[Moonraker]

UGH!!

Okay, I have a noob question here. The cable company (Charter in CA) just left my house after replacing my cable box for an HD cable box so I can enjoy my TH-42PX500U Panny plasma in all the HD glory.

I have it connected through a Denon 2805... and here's when it gets interesting.

If I use the S-Video connection out of the cable box and into the Denon, the channels that aren't broadcast in HD fill up the screen nicely in "FULL" mode on the TV in 480i. However... the HD channels show grey (not black) bars above and below the HD channels... sux

Now, if through my Denon I choose to use the component video signal from the cable box (using video in assign), the HD channels look marvelous at 1080i and fill up the screen, but there's grey bars on the SIDES of regular channels. I check the TV to see what signal it's getting, and using S Video it receives 480i, and using component it receives 1080i....

Here's the question: is there any way I can watch the HD channels in full screen (like I'm supposed to) in 1080i and view the regular channels without the stupid grey bars? This is kinda driving me nuts here... any insights will help a LOT!

ps. a good friend has a Mitsu 55" rear projection and he said that he got the grey bars on the sides at first, but they "disappeared" after a while... ::shakes head::

 

[LikeABanshee]

I would just leave both the component and s-video cables hooked up to the TV, and switch the TV A/V input to accomodate.

There probably is no way to get rid of the grey bars on SD channels - other than to use the zoom feature of the TV.

 

[Moonraker]

FOUND IT!!

Okay, if anyone else is experiencing this issue, here's what I did:

I downloaded the setup manual for my cable box from the internet (scientific atlanta). There is a setup guide for the cable box, the default is for the cable box to only display 1080i signals, which aren't available using S-Video, so it will show the grey bars above and below.

I told my cable box that I wanted it to transmit in all signal formats (480i, 480p, 480i widescreen, 720p, and 1080i). After the cable box knows it can do all this (the cable guy will hit the easy setup and not give you those options) then you can choose the "pass through" setting so that if the programming is transmitted in 480i, the HDTV will display it in that format, and if it's transmitted in 1080i, it will go to widescreen hi-res automatically.

NO MORE STUPID BARS!!

okay, now I love my 42" Plasma Panny!