Tech-Master NIB TV Kit #5516

[Electronic M]

Originally Posted by Crist Rigott

Tom,
Not sure what you mean by letter-boxed or pillar-boxed. The DTV does not have a zoom feature.

Maybe I can borrow another converter box.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Letterboxing_(filming)

[Crist Rigott]

Originally Posted by Electronic M

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Letterboxing_(filming)

The test pattern is one I made from a hi res 4:3 pattern. I converted a jpg to a 30 minute movie and saved it to a DVD.

[Electronic M]

Originally Posted by Crist Rigott

The test pattern is one I made from a hi res 4:3 pattern. I converted a jpg to a 30 minute movie and saved it to a DVD.

There is enough variance in digital processing implementations that I can't comment based on that info as to whether your system generated a good pattern or not.

The best advice I can think of to confirm things is to connect another 4:3 display (such as a modern CRT set) that is known NOT to have excessive over scan to both signal sources in the same manner as your Tech-Master and see if there is a black bar wrapped around that test pattern, or if the DTV picture is excessively zoomed (I suspect one of those is occurring).

With changing aspect ratios and poorly standardized means of dealing with it flooding consumer and broadcast markets alike, there is good argument to keep a VCR or pre-2000 test pattern generator on hand...So you know you have a signal source that will always give you an accurate measure of over-scan...

Too many modern signal sources are capable of distorting things and giving a misleading signal.

[Kevin Kuehn]

Originally Posted by Crist Rigott

The test pattern is one I made from a hi res 4:3 pattern. I converted a jpg to a 30 minute movie and saved it to a DVD.

I'm guessing your digital TV signal is broadcast in wide screen format, don't you think? It does fill out the width on a modern wide screen set, no? But when you made your 4:3 aspect ratio test pattern DVD, the machine plays it back as it was originally formatted.

If you put your digital TV box in letterbox mode it should shrink the picture width down and put a black bar at the top and bottom, although I don't have such a device so I have no idea if they even have that feature these days.