Chapter 1: Technical overview
4:3 TVs showing 16:9 programs
For a standard 4:3 TV showing a widescreen program, the program is too wide to fit on the screen. The DIRECTV® High- Definition Receiver gives you 3 ways to fix the problem:
Letter box: If you choose the letter box format, the 16:9 image is shrunk until the entire width of the program fits on your TV. Since the aspect ratio of the program is maintained, the image is no longer tall enough to fill your screen, so black/gray bars are seen at the top and bottom of the screen.
Full: | If you set your DIRECTV HD Receiver to the Full |
| setting, 16:9 images are shrunk to fit the width of |
| the screen, like in the Letter box format. But instead |
| of applying black/gray bars to the top and bottom of |
| the screen, the program image is stretched vertically |
| until it is tall enough to fill your screen. Your entire |
| TV screen is full, but the program images are a little |
| stretched to compensate for the program – to – |
| screen mismatch. |
Zoom: | The third screen format option is to magnify the |
| image, keeping the 16:9 aspect ratio intact, until your |
| entire screen is filled. This eliminates the distortion |
| present in the Full option, but as the image becomes |
| tall enough to fit your screen, it pushes some of the |
| program content off the left and right edges of the |
| screen. |
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