HDTV Video Connections or why is everyone fat on My TV?

Part III
The Final Frontier
A few light years ago, we started to explain some of the small nuisances associated with HDTV, resolutions, scaling, connections, and a plethora of raw details that were fascinating and others plain boring. It is time to close this topic and move on to more interesting subjects, ie HDTV tuning and recording on your PC using Vista Media Center and Windows 7. You just can’t wait, neither can we, but let’s finish the business at hand.
Everyone is fat on your HDTV and disproportionately wide because you are not viewing a high definition program formatted properly. Your TV or set-top cable/satellite box is taking a standard definition 4:3 ratio signal and stretching it across your 16:9 ratio HDTV’s screen. This is distorting the picture content and one of the more heinous problems when viewing SDTV(Standard Definition) on a HDTV(High Definition) systems. Sounds like a bunch of perversion or STD’s(set-top diseases, got you!), it is. Some of you are paying for HDTV program and only viewing SDTV. How do your cure this without killing the HDTV? It is sometimes easy and some times impossible.
Let’s dive into our most recent example. Comcast Cable broadcast their HDTV channels in the 200-channel range. SDTV is below the 200 range and some are above 300. All my HDTV channels, when not broadcasting HDTV programs are proportional and correctly formatted to 4:3 with black side panels, as they should, since this is a digital HDTV signal. When tuned below the 200 channel all the pictures stretch to fit the screen. This is one of those aggravating big brother cable company problems, which you have to tolerate. The HDTV then actives the scaling that stretches a SDTV 4:3 picture to fit the 16:9 screen.

How do you fix this problem? On some set-top box, you can set the box to output 480i, 480p, 1080i or 720p. This sound like a good idea, but don’t. Setup the box to output the native channel resolution or pass-thru. The electronics in most new HDTV’s are far superior to the set-top box and does a better scaling job then any set-top box. If the picture has to stretch to fill, it will be a better stretch. ESPN, ABC and Fox HDTV broadcast fast action sports and use 720p, for better image performance. You will want these channels in the native 720p. How can you tell if your set-top is native? When you changing channels you will get a slight hesitation as the HDTV’s scaling adjust. You can also press display on your TV’s remote control to check the channels resolution. If any of your 720p channels are at a different resolution other than 720p, your set-top is scaling. Contact your HDTV provider and get them to set-up for pass-.thru.

One other thought on the situation, if you are not using a component video or HDMI connection from your set-top box or DVD player you can not get a high-definition picture. See our connection guide on all the types of video connection options available.

http://www.ramelectronics.net/howto-av.ep

Finally, with all the programming available online many are connecting their PC’s to the HDTV. This is simple if you have VGA or HDMI outputs from your computer and matching VGA or HDMI connections on your HDTV. A cable connection will be sufficient. However, if the outputs and inputs are different types or resolutions, there are a number of converter options available for matching the two, but we will save that for another discussion.

How to connect HDMI to VGA/Component Video?

(Q) I have a HDMI male cable but my projector has only a VGA female input.
So, what i need is an adapter for the HDMI male with a HDMI female which can then connect to a 15 point VGA female. The problem is that it is all wired and the basement is finished.


(A) The first question that needs answering in these scenarios is what will be connected at the other end? Is it a DVD player with HDMI, a set top box with HDMI or DVI, or is it a computer with DVI?
Virtually all components with HDMI output, and most devices (other than computers) with DVI output have copy protection scheme built-in called "HDCP". When connecting video source devices like DVD players or Cable/Satellite Set Top Boxes that have HDCP, you must use a display with a digital input (DVI or HDMI) that supports HDCP as well. If the source has HDCP and the display does not - you will not get a picture.
All right, but you don't want to connect a digital device, you just want to connect your analog display with Component Video or VGA. Why can't you do this? Well, first you would need to convert the Digital video to analog video, and this is possible, although these converters do cost several hundred dollars. If there was no HDCP involved this would do it. It is not legal to make devices that will take an HDCP encrypted digital signal in and output that signal as analog video. The "rules" are actually a good deal more complicated than this, and there have been devices made that broke the rules, but they are very hard to find and not cheap in any case.
So what are your options?
1) Use a Source device (DVD player/Computer) that does not have HDCP and then use a Digital video to analog video converter to convert the digital video to the VGA signal you need. Be careful when selecting a DVD player, since most with digital outputs have HDCP. A DVI/HDMI adapter is generally not going to cause any problems.

Some Digital to analog video converter examples:
Gefen converters
Calrad converter

2) Replace the Projector with one that has a HDMI or DVI input with HDCP.

3) Run a "temporary" cable until you can do #1 or #2.