Analog TV & Digital Cable

[Ace H]

I have a 36" JVC D Series TV (NTSC_Non Digital) that still works like a champ. Would Digital Cable Service be compatible with this set? Would the picture be dislpayed in letterbox format or worse, would the picture be a little square in the middle of the screen which does not cover the entire screen like those digital/analog converter boxes display some OTA digital channels?

[Smokey]

I have a 36" JVC D Series TV (NTSC_Non Digital). Would Digital Cable Service be compatible with this set? Would the picture be dislpayed in letterbox format or worse, would the picture be a little square in the middle of the screen.

Not if you subscribe to their non HD program package. I also have 4:3 TV with basic digital cable (with Cinemax) and 95% of programs are 4:3 ratio.

[Ace H]

I got one of those digital/analog converter boxes to see what the OTA digital would look like on a non-digital TV. While picture quality is very good, some stations make the picture in a little square which does not utilize the entire screen. Cropping the picture just cuts a lot of the total viewing out.

[Smokey]

I got one of those digital/analog converter boxes to see what the OTA digital would look like on a non-digital TV. While picture quality is very good, some stations make the picture in a little square which does not utilize the entire screen.

Those programs are natively in SD so there is no way around it unless your TV have some type of zoom/stretch function. My TV also have a digital turner and by default, all of OTA HD programs that are 16:9 ratio are stretched vertically to fill entire 4:3 screen without any type of noticeable distortion.

And on SD program where I get a box, I can use stretch mode to fill out the whole screen.

See if you can go to your converter box menu and set your monitor ratio to 16:9 instead of 4:3. This way at least with programs that are HD, you will not have bars on top or bottom of screen.

[Ace H]

See if you can go to your converter box menu and set your monitor ratio to 16:9 instead of 4:3. This way at least with programs that are HD, you will not have bars on top or bottom of screen.

Thanks for the tip.