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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.
JeffPaloAlto
New Poster
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2 Messages
6 years ago
Our problem is that my wife is Hispanic. Almost ALL the channels in the Spanish package are SD. We only WISH they were all HD, but they're not. So all these channels are messed up by this X1 bug. What's more, we just switched from DirecTV. The same TVs and the same SD Spanish channels DID NOT suffer from this bug on our DirecTV VTR. I've had the technician out and called customer service and they all act like "Gee I dunno." This is clearly a bug. Please fix it!!!
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MichiY
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1 Message
6 years ago
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Rustyben
Expert
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24.6K Messages
6 years ago
adding.. i have my zoom set to on for the X1 boxes and it only affects SD channels
settings (gear) >> device settings >> video Display >> zoom change to full
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JankyMcBlango
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1 Message
6 years ago
So stumbled across this thread after finding the same issue with SD channels displaying "postage-stamped" off of a new X1 4K-capable cable box. Tried to fix through the gear Setting of the cable box. Dismayed to see only 2 options, Full and Zoom (I think), which just stretched picture Horizontally. Unlike RickGr4, I find this an unacceptable aspect ratio to watch movies in.
This is absolutely a Comcast orgination issue, regardless of region is seems (Colorado here). I believe this comes down to an AFD issue that the X1 cable box, after the update slomobile1 has done very well in describing the results of, now does not recognize properly. There are basically 4 different AFD codes used, depending on the source (4:3, 16:9, 4:3 Letterbox, Anamorphic) This is data embedded from the Origination site (TBS, HBO, AMC, etc.), that your TV/AVR/CABLE BOX should AUTOMATICALLY sense and adjust for. That is the biggest fault here, that either Comcast has stripped the codes that the Orgination sites actually embedded (and believe me, they are embedding them), or have replaced them with incorrect ones that causes this "postage stamp" effect. This is years-old spec, so really dissapointed if Comcast is truly not treating SD signals properly.
I'll continue to look into this, if I do find a legitimate answer I'll be sure to post back here.
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Rustyben
Expert
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24.6K Messages
6 years ago
so far only local channels are using the AFD code (ex: MeTV, Movies! AntennaTV). There is a lot of formatting of the 'original' programming that is similar to pan and scan of the DVD days with SD. Once the P/S is complete then the AFD is entered so that the image is shown in 9:14 or 9:12 format if 4:3 original and the broadcaster honors the boundaries and puts their station logo and any popup advertising in the correct spot. for original 16:9 the AFD is easier as just the 'bounds' have to be put in the AFD descriptor stream so again the icons will be in the correct place from the broadcaster. I've not yet found one mention of a cable channel sending AFD on a program. have you noticed that TVgo TVland is in HD now?
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jbwiljr
Regular Visitor
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2 Messages
6 years ago
A friend of mine has a solution that worked for me on most of the channels that format to a postage stamp size. If you go to the guide and can restart the program by pushing the play button twice, the show will restart in full screen mode. I tried it on HBO and Showtime. If you can’t rewind to the beginning it doesn’t work.
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amacejka
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1 Message
6 years ago
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CCChe
Official Employee
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6.9K Messages
6 years ago
Hi @amacejka,
Thanks for reaching out, By chance, if you scroll to the post above yours and follow those steps, do you notice a change on your end?
Can you try the steps provided in the link by @RobertWy? Any change?
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