Pace Cable Boxes

My cable company is switching from Motorola to Pace cable boxes.

My old Motorola Box didn't have a native mode. It would convert HD signals
to 720P or 1080I based on user setup menu selection. I didn't like this
"feature" because my TVs do a good job scaling. The Moto box did, however,
put out a 16:9 picture.

My new Pace box doesn't convert - NBCHD is 1080I, ABCHD is 720P, etc, out of
the box which is fine. However I can't for the life of me get the box to put
out a 16:9 format picture. Its always 4:3, and I have to use the TVs
wide/full/native/ modes to get a 16:9 picture. I have the boxes "Display
Capability" set to 16:9 but it refuses to send out a 16:9 picture.

I'm using HDMI connectiors. The old Moto boxes would handshake with the TV
when the TV was turned on. The Pace manual says they do but I don't see any
visual evidence, blinking lights etc, of this happening.

Any comments or help will be appreciated.

Dick OKeefe

Richard O'Keefe wrote:
My cable company is switching from Motorola to Pace cable boxes.

My old Motorola Box didn't have a native mode. It would convert HD signals
to 720P or 1080I based on user setup menu selection. I didn't like this
"feature" because my TVs do a good job scaling. The Moto box did, however,
put out a 16:9 picture.

My new Pace box doesn't convert - NBCHD is 1080I, ABCHD is 720P, etc, out of
the box which is fine. However I can't for the life of me get the box to put
out a 16:9 format picture. Its always 4:3, and I have to use the TVs
wide/full/native/ modes to get a 16:9 picture. I have the boxes "Display
Capability" set to 16:9 but it refuses to send out a 16:9 picture.

I'm using HDMI connectiors. The old Moto boxes would handshake with the TV
when the TV was turned on. The Pace manual says they do but I don't see any
visual evidence, blinking lights etc, of this happening.

Any comments or help will be appreciated.

Dick OKeefe

Have you tried hooking up with component cables to see if the problem
is with the overall Pace hardware or in the HDMI handshaking? There may
be a flaky issue in the HDMI handshaking that causes the Pace to put out
a 4:3 picture. Even if it does work with component, you should swap
boxes in case you have a bad box.

Alan F

"Alan F" wrote in message
news:[email protected]
Richard O'Keefe wrote:
My cable company is switching from Motorola to Pace cable boxes.

My old Motorola Box didn't have a native mode. It would convert HD
signals to 720P or 1080I based on user setup menu selection. I didn't
like this "feature" because my TVs do a good job scaling. The Moto box
did, however, put out a 16:9 picture.

My new Pace box doesn't convert - NBCHD is 1080I, ABCHD is 720P, etc, out
of the box which is fine. However I can't for the life of me get the box
to put out a 16:9 format picture. Its always 4:3, and I have to use the
TVs wide/full/native/ modes to get a 16:9 picture. I have the boxes
"Display Capability" set to 16:9 but it refuses to send out a 16:9
picture.

I'm using HDMI connectiors. The old Moto boxes would handshake with the
TV when the TV was turned on. The Pace manual says they do but I don't
see any visual evidence, blinking lights etc, of this happening.

Any comments or help will be appreciated.

Dick OKeefe

Have you tried hooking up with component cables to see if the problem is
with the overall Pace hardware or in the HDMI handshaking? There may be a
flaky issue in the HDMI handshaking that causes the Pace to put out a 4:3
picture. Even if it does work with component, you should swap boxes in
case you have a bad box.

Alan F

There should be a line in the Pace setup menu where it asks if the TV is
normal or wide screen. If it is like the other boxes, you can't do this from
the remote. I keep the SA box mode in "NORMAL". This means 16 : 9 is wide
screen and 4:3 has sidebars. I use the TV view mode to select the actual 4:3
format (I use "smart view") because the TV has better options on this than
the SA box. So long as I use component cables, once set up I never have to
change the modes again. This does not work with HDMI on the Sharp, and I
ditched the HDMI cable.

Tam