Why has my widescreen TV just made everyone look fat?
If you have a widescreen TV, you will only see the correct looking pictures if you set the digital decoder box to widescreen mode.
If you select to BBC NEWS 24, you can use this channel to check your picture. This channel always broadcasts in widescreen, and you can compare the location of the clock in the bottom-left and the press red in the top-left to these images.
If your picture looks like this:
Then follow these instructions to correct the problem.
If your picture looks like this:
Then follow these instructions to correct the problem.
If your picture looks like this:
Congratulations, your box is set up correctly.
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Your comments
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robbieFriday 19 October 2007 1:39AM
Its great though for making the misses feel and look wider than she is, NO dearest its my camera, its not W/S and the TV is set to Cinema/WS not Auto which would defy the reason of having one! not just because it uses more Watts I bought an LCD because it saved my sight!!!!!!
PS I love this site!THW CrockerFriday 23 January 2009 2:32PM
Plymouth Having looked through the list of conversion dates, I could not find the date for Caradon Hill in Cornwall - can you please advise?Lorraine NadenMonday 23 November 2009 8:55PM
Have a 2005 Philips Cineos digital tv which has always had a fantastic analogue picture on all channels. Being in the Granada region have searched and successfully picked up the currently available digital chanels which are of excellent quality but the remaining analogue chanels (not currently available as digital) are shocking. Have done an automatic analogue channel search and still the same. Have I done something wrong?Lorraine Naden: You've only got a week... does the set have a built-in Freeview, or are you using a box? Lorraine NadenWednesday 25 November 2009 7:33PM
Buxton It has built in Freeview. Will make do with poor quality analogue itv & channel 4 as will get them digitally next week.Lorraine Naden: And the analogue signals will no longer exist, so you won't have much choice. PeteTuesday 1 December 2009 9:17PM
I have a friend who had a Widescreen TV and I hadn't seen him for a few years as I'd been working overseas. During all this time he'd been watching his new TV in FAT mode since he'd bought it. As soon as I visited him after my stint abroad I put it right for him (for which he was most grateful, if not a tad embarrassed). Petesteve,bedworthSaturday 5 December 2009 11:29PM
My problem with my samsung 40 nch tv is that it has suddenly shown up a yellow shade in middle of screen, which looks bad when viewing black and white movies, anyone know why...steve,bedworth: Sounds nasty. What do you mean by "middle of the screen"? steve, bedworthTuesday 8 December 2009 1:49PM
Hi brian, in the centre of the screen appoximately 12 inches across and 12 up there is an oval shape which is tinged yellow.
more noticable on black and white, even if yo go onto normal tv and show up the untuned channels the black and white dots are tinged yellow.. it is still under guarantee and comet will be out on monday, but im curioussteve, bedworth: I don't get an "oval" problem on an LCD TV ... unless it's the backlight. steve, bedworthTuesday 8 December 2009 1:57PM
thats what I was thinking it may be, a backlight gone, whatever it is its there but I will let you know when engineer comes next weeksteve, bedworth: Well, it's a bulb, take about 30 seconds to sort out. steve, bedworthTuesday 8 December 2009 2:03PM
as its still covered they can check it for me...
i was not going to take out the extra £89 cover on it, but at 700quid maybe i had bettersteve, bedworth: For a £5 bulb? steve, bedworthTuesday 8 December 2009 5:16PM
it is covered by guarantee at the moment but what could go wrong in the future brian? I know they will send me an insurance document out to cover the tv after that so what else can go wrong with one of these tvs?
a £5.00 bulb is okay but what else can go wrong??steve, bedworth: Not much, really. If you drop an LCD it will break, but if you look after them they last for a very long time.
Also, your £700 TV will be replaceable for much less after a few years, they drop in price like a stone. steve,bedworthWednesday 16 December 2009 2:38AM
Bedworth hello brian, the engineer from comet came and looked at my tv. He said it is the actual screen at fault and has ordered one to fit next monday. apparently there were black blotches on my blue screen which showed it was faulty but I have had them since day one. So ho[pefully he will sort it outDorrieTuesday 20 April 2010 8:52PM
I wonder if anyone can help me? I have 2 remotes - one for LG TV and one for Virgin set-top box that's connected to it. After being sent a new 'smart card' to replace the old one, everything was fine last night, except that it had gone back into widescreen mode. In an effort to change this, I started fiddling with the buttons on both remotes, and now my Virgin remote won't work at all. If I use the LG remote, I can only get Freeview - none of the Virgin channels that I pay for. Can't find any advice on their website. I tried turning the whole lot off for a while, and then back on; changed the batteries ... The green light is on, but the channel is stuck at 105 and won't budge. If anyone has any advice, I'd be really grateful.Dorrie: Which model is the TV? lesleySaturday 29 May 2010 1:19PM
i have a 4yr old techwood 28 inch tv, which suddenley shows my pictures in yellow, then go's back to normal, it isn't intergrated freeview i have a set top box for my freeview, have changed set top & checked connections any idea as to why it is doing this?Lesley- Try turning RGB output of the box to off. Is the TV an LCD or CRT? Could also be faulty scart socket on the TV, (try the other socket if applicable). If the set is CRT, the set may be failing.
If your problem does not extent to the TV's tuner, then more than likely to be a scart/socket/box issue Rich BevanThursday 26 August 2010 7:33PM
We have a Techwood LCD tv. It has integrated freeview, although we use our own recordable digibox, which works fine. However if we use the integrated freeview, or any externals eg Wii, PS, DVD player, the picture is black and white. Any ideas anyone? Thanks. Rich Bevan: I would guess it is a fault, but the most common reason for having monochrome picture is having the S-Video input selected when only a standard composite signal is provided. J LodgeSaturday 6 August 2011 11:35AM
Am going to resite my tv aerial on the gable end of my Bungalow, but am concerned that it will be adjacent to the mains cable entry point. Could the flow of electricity affect reception?jb38Saturday 6 August 2011 3:27PM
J Lodge: Not really! unless you are in a weaker signal area and also intend to use an aerial amplifier in the vicinity, then you "may" have a problem now and again.
That said though, the main reason that its not always desirable to do as you intend is because there is always the danger of picking up mains borne interference, albeit this being very unlikely unless the aforementioned reception conditions applies.
In other words, "if" you normally receive a good signal then I would go ahead!
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