Contributor
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22 Messages
non HD channels shrunken
In early July 2017, apparently our 2 XG1-A boxes received an update because I noticed a new "notifications" menu item. At that time, the way SD content was displayed changed.
Most channels below 650 and a few above, had large black borders on all 4 sides. The picture(in correct aspect ratio) was shrunken to the center ~60% of the screen. No combination of changing X1 zoom, X1 resolution, TV zoom, TV resolution, TV input type, swapping in a different TV(3 models from 2 different mfrs), swapping X1 box for new, would result in simultaneous display of both the correct aspect ratio and fewer than 4 black borders. If full zoom was applied, on both TV and X1, the picture would stretch horizontally eliminating the vertical borders but the aspect ratio was now off making everyone look short and fat, plus the guide and all HD channels were stretched off screen. Phone support couldn't do anything but follow their script and send out an in home tech. The Tech tried all the same things I did, proper signal levels, verified correct display of HD channels and correct display of a very few SD channels with fullscreen 4:3 content which the box actually output in 480i, which my TVs recognized and scaled properly. The majority of problem channels without HD in their name were sent to the TV in whatever resolution was selected in the X1 box. That means the black bars were encoded in the content sent to the TV, not created by the TV. He concurred with my opinion that the content was being broadcast incorrectly. In the past week the problem has spread to even more channels, including premium channels wich previously had HD versions such as HBO extreme.
My working theory is that the original content was widescreen format. During the update, something went wrong and fullscreen formatted letterbox feeds were broadcast instead of the native widescreen. This added horizontal bars at a loss of effective picture resolution.
The content, originally widescreen, now converted to fullscreen letterbox, must now be sent to a widescreen TV, so the new box firmware "fixes" the apparent missmatch by adding pillarbox bars, resulting in 4 black borders and horrible picture quality.
If that is actually the case, the problem must be widespread. It cannot just be my house.
So the tech could not fix it. He said call back in a few weeks if it still isn't working. It got worse, I called, got disconnected 4 times, suffered through the same scripts and same refresh/reset with each operator before they finally scheduled a supervisor visit for Sunday. So before he comes, I wanted to gather some information and see if we can find a solution now so we can both be with our families on sunday instead of banging our heads against a wall. Has anyone else experienced this, has anyone found a solution? The Xfinity troubleshooting flowchart addresses about 4 common problems and doesn't work at all if your issue is "other". We pay too much for this programming to get a fuzzy 32" picture on a 55" screen. If we cannot get it fixed soon, our next stop is each one of the networks who's content is being mangled. Perhaps they can get to the bottom of it.
slomobile1
Contributor
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22 Messages
7 years ago
As I stated before, yes it happens on all of our boxes including a new box that was swapped in to test.
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XfinityZach
Official Employee
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11.1K Messages
7 years ago
slomobile1 -- I reviewed your boxes and they were in need of a firmware update. I have pushed this firmware to both boxes. Can you see if that has resolved your issue?
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slomobile1
Contributor
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22 Messages
7 years ago
No, that did not resolve the issue. In fact, now some on demand programs are doing it too.
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CCChe
Official Employee
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6.9K Messages
7 years ago
Hi slomobile1,
Are you still having issues with the HD channels?
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MapleShade
Frequent Visitor
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12 Messages
7 years ago
If I may tag on:
I started having the same issues on all four of out TV's. The quality of the SD channels has dropped considerably and it shows a large black bar on the top and bottom of the screen. The picture quailty is poor. Even on SD channels in the past, the entire screen was full. As a matter of fact it is still that way on some SD channels (1426,1412) still fill the entire screen as before, even old black and white shows.
Using the HBO channels as an example, the first 1802 is an HD channel and works and looks great as before. Any of the remaing SD HBO channels have the black bars and the poor quality picture.
I had a Comcast Tech out here today and he said that is the way it looks on SD which is ridiculous since I have been watching these channels for awhile and I know what it looked like before. Many of the post I am seeing on the forum seem to baer me out. I don't exactly know what is causing this but would like to get it back the way it was. All the reset, refresh, and unpluging has not helped.
Any help would be appreciated, this is unacceptable.
Thank you
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ltcap
New Poster
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4 Messages
7 years ago
i may be a little late to the party here. nuthin' new on that front, lol
anyway....i haven't hooked up my x1 yet. still on the rng150. the problem you're describing sounds like what's happening on my tv(toshiba about 7 or 8 years old) 42". anyway........if you're getting fup picture on hd channel, tune ot non-hd channel, then grab the tv's remote. go to picture size. it'll probably say "natural" for the picture size. change thatg to a "theaterwide" setting.
hopefully that helps. it's what works on my old tv anyway.
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slomobile1
Contributor
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22 Messages
7 years ago
The problem remains unresolved despite numerous calls, chats, service visits, and this forum post.
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slomobile1
Contributor
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22 Messages
7 years ago
Every time I get the same unhelpful advice I get more angry at Comcast. I took the time to write a very detailed description of the problem with pictures. The least you could do as a Comcast employee is to read it. If you had read it, you would see that I tried every combination of screen size adjustment and none would fix the problem. The problem is with Comcast equipment. FIX IT!
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slomobile1
Contributor
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22 Messages
7 years ago
As you quoted in your question, they are XG1-A boxes. The TVs are all 16:9 physical format with maximum 1080 60P resolution. I have tried all combinations of resolution available on the cable boxes(480i, 720p, 1080p) and the TVs automatically adjust and indicate they are receiving that selected resolution. Also tried analog connection with same results. No available mode displays SD channels correctly. Black bars on top, bottom, left, and right.
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slomobile1
Contributor
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22 Messages
7 years ago
I don't know how it could possibly matter, but I am subscribed to the premier tier.
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skintime
Contributor
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277 Messages
7 years ago
I recorded a movie off of one of the non-hd starz channels last week and when I went to watch it on my laptop it was a shrunken screen. No big deal, I don't watch much non-hd but it was definitely noticible
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slomobile1
Contributor
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22 Messages
6 years ago
There has finally been some movement on this issue one channel at a time after escalating at Comcast Business technical support. They are aware of this thread, so please post any channels that continue to show black bars on all 4 sides all the time. For example, in the Memphis market channel 200 Disney Junior, which has no HD alternative here, is still shrunken with black bars all 4 sides all the time regardless of the channel displaying 4:3 content or 16:9 content.
To recap, almost 5 months out now, this problem has been reported several ways and escalated several times but remains unresolved.
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Rustyben
Expert
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24.6K Messages
6 years ago
use cable TVland network running Rita in 16:9 but in SD it is postage stamp with curtains on all sides. If you notice the TV land image is inside the video not at the edge of the screen itself in the black curtain area. TVgo has same channel in HD in full 16:9 mode. AFD is not being 'used' / passed through to the TVs so the 16:9 is not displaying in 16:9 with no curtains. the broadcast channels MeTV, Movies!, & AntennaTV are local broadcast channels with the same AFD flag passed through and the channels content is displayed depending on source (SD is panned and scanned original to be in near 16:9 - usually 14:9) and true 16:9 magically fills your TV screen. The iOS devices interpret the AFD properly during rendering while the android devices make the 14:9 look like a left-to-right squashed 1:1 window. I haven't read why the AFD is not being passed on to our devices (like TVland's Rita not being full screen).
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slomobile1
Contributor
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22 Messages
6 years ago
It may seem like a small group because every time we report it we get **** like you with no hands on knowledge assuming the problem is something else and dissmissing it as user error. That is unacceptable. RickGr4 please do not reply to this thread again, you are not helpful.
I did hire audio/video professionals many times, Comcast technicians. They have confirmed multiple times, after being in my home for hours, contacting supervisors and peers, that the problem is NOT a TV configuration issue. For what its worth, I was a Best Buy repair technician for 5 years prior to Herf college of engineering for engineering technology degree. I have actually written image scaling firmware in the past. If none of us could get it to work with the equipment in our hands, what makes you qualified to presume you know better?
That is rhetorical. I've read your profile, I know you THINK you know what you are talking about, but that illustrates the problem. Repair efforts just stop there and no one actually does anything about it.
In case anyone wonders why this matters to me, I have a young child and a spinal injury that limits the kinds of things I can do with him. Watching TV is one of the things we can do together. He loves watching Disney Junior with me. For me to watch that "postage stamp" in the center of a largely unused screen, knowing it isn't right, it was fine before, having my knowledge of the cause of the problem, but relying on people that don't understand to fix it is frustrating. Watching TV should be relaxing, this is frustrating, bottom line.
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slomobile1
Contributor
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22 Messages
6 years ago
Thank you, that was helpful.
What I believe you are saying is that AFD information is being ignored by our X1 boxes on SD channels which are not local.
I concur.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windowbox_(filmmaking)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Active_Format_Description
AFD for the ATSC DTV transition
A concerted effort on the part of US broadcasters to broadcast AFD began in 2008 in preparation for the US DTV transition which occurred on June 12, 2009.
After the DTV transition, 4:3 versions of programming are not available directly from a large percentage of US broadcasters. Cable and satellite providers down-convert 16:9 HD feeds from these broadcasters to generate the 4:3 SD versions for their SD viewers. The most common forms of down-conversion are letterbox or center-cut (cropping off the left and right sides of the 16:9 image to fit into the 4:3 raster).
Some US broadcasters transmit AFD with their HD DTV signals in order to maintain control over how SD viewers will receive their programming. With AFD included in these signals, cable and satellite providers are able to dynamically control whether HD content is to be either letterbox or center-cut for their SD viewers. However, there are cases where pay-TV providers completely disregard AFD instructions and for instance, present a 4:3 picture with widescreen elements cut off to assuage user complaints about letterboxing, on standard 4:3 sets (for instance for a secondary-market station available only in standard definition on a provider on the claim that an HD signal exists for the provider's 'primary' station for a network), to the displeasure of broadcasters.
Without AFD, either a fixed letterbox or center-cut will be required on a station-by-station basis. A fixed letterbox will result in an undesirable windowbox (i.e., a combination of letterbox and pillarbox, also called "postage stamp") effect on SD originated programming. A fixed center-cut will result in loss of important picture content on certain HD content (e.g., an HD sports broadcast containing score graphics formatted for 16:9 display).
This is a guide for broadcasters and providers, how to fix the problem. https://www.nab.org/documents/resources/slidesMiller.pdf
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