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Shows like Black Narcissus show bars at top and bottom when live but not when played On Demand
AshburnVAFIOS
Newbie
‎11-26-2020 05:36 AM

Several times I've noted that when I watch a show when it's "broadcast" or recorded on my DVR, primarily on FX or Showtime (maybe on other channels too), it will be squished with black bars at the top and bottom. However, if I watch it On Demand, it fills up the screen correctly as other HD shows do. I don't think, then, that this has anything to do with my TV settings because it would be consistent if so. Any help?imageimage

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Re: Shows like Black Narcissus show bars at top and bottom when live but not when played On Demand
clem21
MVP MVP
MVP
‎11-26-2020 05:55 AM
@AshburnVAFIOS wrote:

Several times I've noted that when I watch a show when it's "broadcast" or recorded on my DVR, primarily on FX or Showtime (maybe on other channels too), it will be squished with black bars at the top and bottom. However, if I watch it On Demand, it fills up the screen correctly as other HD shows do. I don't think, then, that this has anything to do with my TV settings because it would be consistent if so.

Hmm....now that I've screen-grabbed a frame from both my DVR version and the On Demand version, it looks as if it

Any help?

imageimage

Humm, can't see your screen grabs but are you sure you are recording the shows in HD not SD? That's one reason you'd see the bars on an SD recording that wasn't zoomed to fit to HD format.

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Re: Shows like Black Narcissus show bars at top and bottom when live but not when played On Demand
clem21
MVP MVP
MVP
‎11-26-2020 05:55 AM
@AshburnVAFIOS wrote:

Several times I've noted that when I watch a show when it's "broadcast" or recorded on my DVR, primarily on FX or Showtime (maybe on other channels too), it will be squished with black bars at the top and bottom. However, if I watch it On Demand, it fills up the screen correctly as other HD shows do. I don't think, then, that this has anything to do with my TV settings because it would be consistent if so.

Hmm....now that I've screen-grabbed a frame from both my DVR version and the On Demand version, it looks as if it

Any help?

imageimage

Humm, can't see your screen grabs but are you sure you are recording the shows in HD not SD? That's one reason you'd see the bars on an SD recording that wasn't zoomed to fit to HD format.

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Re: Shows like Black Narcissus show bars at top and bottom when live but not when played On Demand
AshburnVAFIOS
Newbie
‎11-27-2020 12:16 PM

Hi there!

Thanks for your response. I should have posted an update here. Yep, I figured out the next day that my wife had recorded that show (and others at times) and that she always seems to choose the SD channel, this time Channel 53 rather than 553. 

This leads me to a related question: in the FIOS settings you can tell it to switch to the HD channel automatically when someone jumps to a channel that is SD. That's a great option. I wonder if that can be applied when someone chooses to record the SD channel - switch to the HD to record instead (assuming there is an equivalent HD channel). 

And, yes, regarding images here, it was a headache to make those work! I uploaded them, could see them clearly while editing, but after posting they would show up as broken links. No idea why. Seems to be a bug in the system here. Except that now that I look at your response, I can see them! Whoa.

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