Comments on: Latest DirecTV Receivers “Earn Their Stripes” But the Defect Doesn’t Win Any Awards

By: Knight256

Knight256 — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 15:07:08 +0000

I have Vizio 37′ HD TV that is about 3 yrs old. I got Directv installed and after a couple of days the TV started showing these black and gray lines vertically all the way across the screen. No picture just the lines. The tv worked fine up until then. I’ve got the damage claim number for directv but can I switch the display to 4:3 and fix the problem. Thanks for any info.

By: Bart Popeck

Bart Popeck — Sun, 15 Feb 2009 21:10:23 +0000

Have a Hitachi 42″ 1080 HD plasma, purchased 5/25/07. About a week ago, a thin, black line appeared that goes all the way across the screes (left to right). It is perfectly straight and a few mm in width.
Any thoughts?

By: Rich

Rich — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 22:12:57 +0000

Just had the Direct TV guy come and install my girlfriends Direct TV+DVR. (Not HD). After the setup was complete and as the installer was explaining the controller and features to me, I saw the gray and black lines next to the moving picture. I was concerned and asked about removing them. After having a 10 minute conversation with the installer and Him assuring me that there was nothing I could do to fix these bars – I sent Him on His way and did some tinkering myself. Having a Polaroid 27″ wide screen LCD these extra gray bars made the signal look that much smaller.

Anyways what I did to fix the issue of the gray/black bars being displayed was going into the “Menu > Setup > System Setup > HDTV > and switching it to “4:3″, rather than “16:9″ > then selecting “done”.

This solved the issue of the black/gray lines/bars displaying, and now it looks normal again.
This TV does not have a “Stetch” option, so this is all I could do, and it worked.

Im not sure how it would affect HD signals, and also not sure how it would affect Widescreen broadcasts. But hope it helps.

By: Cameron

Cameron — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 01:26:33 +0000

So I watched a few hours of a non-hd channel in stretch mode, and didn’t realize that it placed the Directv black lines on the top and left edges of the screen. The black lines appear to have burned in – is there anyway to fix this?

By: Nonya

Nonya — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 00:59:19 +0000

Um, Joel, not to make you look like a fool (but you will after you realize your mistake), you didnt read the article correctly. Its not about the bars that are evident in ALL HDTV sets when viewing 4:3, he is referring to the THIN black lines that are beside the NORMAL grey or black bars. With Directv it IS a problem.

Thats ok, we forgive you as many of us have jumped the gun and spouted off before.

By: Joel

Joel — Mon, 24 Mar 2008 14:41:36 +0000

“Avoid purchasing one of these units until DirecTV comes up with a fix”

There is no ‘fix’. You’re taking a square image and asking the receiver to display it in a rectangle space. You bought a TV that can’t be used in the way it was engineered to be used: display high definition. The entire article is about displaying standard definition content on a high definition screen. :0/

Articles like this make me sick because you’re misleading the rest of the public in to believing something that isn’t true or accurate. The receiver and the television are working exactly as they are designed to. The unfortunate part about this is that, yes, displaying standard definition content in this format will cause the bars to appear on the screen (as they should and are designed to do with the aspect ratio stated in the article, 4:3) and these bars can damage your television.

“The HD Guru called a DirecTV spokesman to inquire as to when and if DirecTV will remedy this flaw.”

There is no flaw! So much for being a Guru!

I know this article is old and I’m replying way late but I couldn’t help myself because as you many of you may have noticed, nothing about the aspect ratio or the formats the receivers display have changed since they were originally introduced. Why? Because there isn’t anything wrong with them to begin with!

–Joel

By: Ralph

Ralph — Fri, 14 Dec 2007 19:19:00 +0000

Any information on bandwidth limits on direct tv broadcasts giving a poor picture?

By: Matthew Metoyer

Matthew Metoyer — Mon, 24 Sep 2007 02:59:40 +0000

May I suggest an external scaler… DVDO products are my favorites. You can adjust overscan per source (eliminating the pillars you are mentioning) plus eliminate the overscan from the TV. I currently have a VP50 attached to my Sony KDS60-A2000 SXRD rear-pro and I love it! The biggest advantage is watching video formats as tthey are meant to be seen, not distorted. The biggest disadvantage is cost – $3000 at retail for their best model.

By: Pete

Pete — Sat, 08 Sep 2007 14:18:42 +0000

Dear HD GURU

My experience with the Direct TV HD20 receiver were terrible. The installer didn;t know what was supposed to be done and he did a terrible installation. It took Direct TV 8 service calls to correctly aim the dish to get a good signal. My previous HD receiver had no issues for 3 years.
After resolving the signal issues they had to come back and change some cable.

All in all it took 8 months of calling and fixing to get a decent picture. I am now considering Verizon Fios. It seems that Direct TV is supplying the signals for Fios.

By: Mike

Mike — Wed, 05 Sep 2007 20:40:29 +0000

Dear HD Guru,
Although the great majority of my DirecTV viewing is on HD channels, after just 4 month, my Pioneer Plasma began showing pillar box burn in. If I change them from black to gray will this eventually slow down/resolve my problem? Thanks in advance.

Mike