A question about SSN on Fox Sports

[skyvue]

Any Sooner programming I watch on the various Fox Sports College networks is weirdly formatted. It doesn't come close to filling the screen, giving me a really wide black letterbox effect all around the televised picture. I don't know if it's my provider (Time Warner), Fox or OU's fault, but man, is it annoying. I don't have a very big TV and when you reduce the image by 25 percent, it gets hard to see game action.

Anyone else having this problem?

 

[JBaker]

The problem is that none of the Fox College Sports channels (which most SSN programming gets relegated to on cable outside Oklahoma) are broadcast in HD. But they are all filmed in HD. So you're getting the letterboxing on the side because it's an SD picture, and you're getting the letterboxing on the top and bottom because SSN is only recording and broadcasting in 16:9.

Some providers, etc. might format it differently. You can turn on "stretch" in your TV picture format settings, or possibly 4:3 to see what that does, to fill up more space. But the quality will be pretty crappy and might distort some things.

 

[skyvue]

Thanks for the explanation, JB. It wouldn't be so bad if I had a giant TV, but alas.

 

[AdaSooner]

Sky, to answer your question, I have the same problem. It's very frustrating to actually lose sight of the ball when it goes into a blind spot on the floor. It's like the cameras covering the game are limited at best.

I plan to take JBaker's advice and give "stretching the picture" a try.

 

[skyvue]

I plan to take JBaker's advice and give "stretching the picture" a try.

I would too, but someone gave me this TV and I don't have a remote for it.

 

[coolm]

use ebay. you can get old remotes there. ive done it for a few TV's